Should the Ontario government specifically try to create growth in the manufacturing sector, or should it simply focus on creating the best possible environment for business, and be indifferent to which sectors grow?
This paper from Ontario 360 promotes the former, advocating that manufacturing matters greatly for Ontario, and the province should engage more through supportive policies and partnerships to ensure that Ontario remains Canada’s manufacturing hub.
It provides four reasons for this:
- Manufacturing is a source of growth and employment, particularly in mid-sized cities and smaller communities
- Manufacturing creates benefits, like jobs and investment, for the entire community
- Manufacturing makes us better prepared to face a crisis
- Manufacturing can create jobs making cleaner, less polluting technologies
Revitalizing the province’s manufacturing sector in a global economy will require thoughtful and meaningful partnership with industry and other economic actors, however. And while customizable, geographically sensitive, and locally specific policies are required, the authors write, some general recommendations are applicable in all scenarios.
- To aid the growth of manufacturing start-ups, the provincial government should create an investor tax credit to generate more support for start-ups and to help the sector attract more risk capital.
- To attract foreign direct investment and aid the scale-up of domestic companies, the provincial government should institute deep, targeted, time-limited, corporate tax cuts for manufacturing subsectors deemed to be of strategic importance.
- To strengthen Ontario’s manufacturing ecosystem as a whole, the provincial government should translate successful policies from both the Manufacturing USA Institute model and NextGeneration Innovation Supercluster into provincial policy.
