Coming together has never been more important
By Jeff Baker
Welcome to June, everyone! Now how did we get here already?!
There’s that saying, ‘time flies when you’re having fun,’ but I think we can all agree that time just flies, so we should try to find the fun while it’s in flight.
Take pride
As a country, as a region, and as an industry, there’s a heck of a lot for us to be proud of and celebrate. Whether you’re marking Pride Month, National Indigenous History Month, Filipino Heritage Month, Portuguese Heritage Month, or any other important time for your community, be proud of who you are, what you and your community are doing, and how we live in a country that not only allows for this multicultural mosaic, but empowers us to celebrate it and share it with everyone around us.
We live in a time when so much of the information that bombards us is filtered through algorithms that are actively trying to sway public sentiment in not innocuous ways. Whether it’s through click-bait headlines, TikToks that never get to the point, or misinformation disguised as ‘news,’ it feels like the lack of good news can take us to a very dark place.
It’s important to realize the world is not all doom and gloom, that people are generally coming from a place of good intention, that all is not lost, and that overt partisanship and politicking is not how to solve what really ails us. We need to come together as people – not parties or factions – to start making positive change in all parts of our world.
What’s old is new again
Celebrating their 153rd year in 2024, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) is marking the occasion by going into the archives and digging up some ‘golden oldies’ of structure from their organizational history (with different people, of course!).
In 1919, CME established a Prairies division to serve manufacturers in the three provinces, then, in 1962, the division was split into Alberta and Manitoba/Saskatchewan regions. For 25 years, that structure stayed in place, but then Saskatchewan and Manitoba parted ways. At some point, the Saskatchewan division rekindled the flame for Alberta, and both provinces shared a regional vice-president.
And now we’re in 2024… CME just re-formed its Prairies division under the leadership of a new-to-the-industry VP. It only took 105 years for the pendulum to make a full swing, so in geological terms that’s not bad! In a way, it’s recognition that the Prairie provinces – no matter how much some politicians protest – aren’t that different and face similar challenges that need some collective horsepower to overcome.
Size matters
The Prairies—like the rest of Canada—are beyond blessed with geography; there’s room to roam, room to create, and a cornucopia of resources. But while the region has the space, it’s relatively lacking in population. In the nearly 1.8 million km2 covered by Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the population is just over 7.5 million, and without immigration, the region could be facing a declining, aging population. The Prairies are a small market in a very big world, and that world is only getting bigger, faster, and more competitive.
This region accounts for less than one tenth of one per cent of the world’s population – 0.0926 per cent, to be exact. In 2018, there were nearly 50 metropolitan areas around the world with more people than the Prairies, some of which had more people than all of Canada. Small fish, big pond anyone?
Yes, the Prairies are hitting well above their weight in a variety of fields, and yes, there are tremendous home-grown success stories finding markets in every corner of the globe that we most definitely should be proud of. But let’s not think that we’re ready to compete with the best of the best in every arena, because we’re not.
It’s time to pull together
As the Bank of Canada recently said, productivity and innovation in Canadian industry is at crisis levels – it’s time to break the glass and sound the alarm bells. We’re under-employing such large swaths of our population – Indigenous people, new Canadians, women, people with disabilities – while still complaining we can’t find people to work. We’re not taking climate change nearly as seriously as it needs to be, while the rest of the world is starting to make dramatic leaps of improvement in carbon emissions performance. We’re spending too much legislative time and energy trying to fix problems that don’t exist or causing problems by ‘othering’ members of our own communities.
If there ever was a time when we needed to come together as a region, as a country, and as a world, it’s now. We need to stop the ‘othering,’ stop trying to sow seeds of distrust and hate that serve only to generate ‘clicks’ or ‘views,’ and stop thinking that we have nothing to improve. We need to start doing better as individuals, as communities, as governments, and as businesses by embracing our fellow humans, the challenges we all face, and the opportunities that we can create and employ to our collective advantage. That’s how the Prairies will thrive into the years and decades ahead.
What a downer!
Okay, I’ll admit that I’ve been a bit ‘doom and gloom’ here, but sometimes we need to remove ourselves from our happy little ruts, and really explore what we might be leaving on the table when we focus on things of little to no importance in the grand scheme of things.
There is still room for optimism, and in these pages we’re bringing some of it to you. From a conversation with a new regional industry champion and advocate, to the need for continuing education – at all levels from board to entry, and from the importance of nurturing a culture of safety for your people, to celebrating women who are finding success in manufacturing by doing things differently.
We can definitely be proud of everything that Prairie manufacturers have accomplished, as well as the positive impacts they have in our region and on our people. In fact, we should be proud. But let’s also be proud of the ability of this region and its manufacturers to embrace the ‘different,’ to make it work because of (not despite of) the challenges faced, and to see through the distractions trying to pull focus from what really matters. That’s the power of Prairie manufacturing.
I hope you enjoy the read.