{"id":53456,"date":"2018-09-27T15:31:53","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T19:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=53456"},"modified":"2019-04-22T11:38:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T15:38:43","slug":"niagaras-manufacturing-sector-still-going-strong-says-brock-nco-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/09\/niagaras-manufacturing-sector-still-going-strong-says-brock-nco-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Niagara\u2019s manufacturing sector still going strong, says Brock NCO research"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those in Niagara who continue to mourn the decline of the region\u2019s traditional manufacturing sector, Sean Calcott and Charles Conteh have some good news.<\/span><\/p>\n

True, the sector is very different than it was 20 or 30 years ago and it has seen some tough times, says Conteh, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brock University and Director of the Niagara Community Observatory (NCO). \u201cBut the general trend is that manufacturing has been very resilient, has stayed in the region and, in fact, has seen an upswing since 2012, so there\u2019s a bit of a wind in our sails,\u201d he says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conteh is co-author of the NCO\u2019s latest policy brief, \u201c<\/span>Shifting Gears: Examining the recent upswing of Niagara\u2019s manufacturing sector<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"NCO

Graduate student and policy brief co-author Sean Calcott joined panelists Mishka Balson, of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce, Dolores Fabiano, of the South Niagara Chamber of Commerce, and Blake Landry, of Niagara Region, at a release event for the Niagara Community Observatory\u2019s latest brief.<\/p><\/div>\n

In their brief, Conteh and co-author Calcott, a recent master\u2019s graduate in the Department of Political Science, examine Niagara\u2019s recent economic history with fresh eyes, avoiding comparisons to the region of long ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength of manufacturing in Niagara is not as visible to the naked eye as when large plants and factories were prominent in the sector,\u201d says Calcott. \u201cThere is a multitude of small firms making diverse products that account for the bulk of the job growth in this sector.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past six years, Niagara\u2019s manufacturing sector has continued to be a main driver of job growth and economic development, says the brief.<\/span><\/p>\n

It notes that, as of 2016, 243 manufacturing firms in Niagara exported goods totalling about $3.7 billion. Machinery, boilers, mechanical appliances, engines and parts accounted for about one-third of this total, with nickel, plastics, railway and tramway vehicles, parts and accessories also being significant exports.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Across the sector, manufacturing employment increased by 2,075 jobs between 2012 and 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

The largest increases are in plastics and rubber products manufacturing (70 per cent), beverage and tobacco product manufacturing (44 per cent), chemical manufacturing (40 per cent) and transportation equipment manufacturing (23 per cent).<\/span><\/p>\n

Niagara has moved away from the \u201clarge branch-plant model\u201d typical of the previous century, with manufacturing jobs being concentrated in small-to-medium size firms (SMEs) with fewer than 500 employees, says the brief.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSMEs present advantages over larger enterprises because their smaller footprint enables more risk-taking and innovation than firms which have invested greater resources into an established business model,\u201d says the brief, adding that they can \u201cadapt more quickly to changing market conditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The brief points out one dark lining in an otherwise silver cloud: wages today are generally lower than they were in the manufacturing sector of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe middle-tier of manufacturing jobs are being displaced by lower-paying positions, while higher-paying managerial and supervisory positions are stable,\u201d says the brief.<\/span><\/p>\n

To address this challenge, the brief recommends building upon the tremendous strides in education and skills training being offered in the region\u2019s post-secondary institutions that would see \u201cmore investment in specialized industrial skills in targeted labour-intensive manufacturing sectors.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The authors urge Niagara to align itself with the economies of Hamilton, the GTA and Buffalo. \u201cThis means building an integrated system of design and production nodes in a distributed network of interlocking supplier and customer firm relationships that spans the QEW industrial corridor and extends to the Buffalo market.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It also calls for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, university and college researchers, economic development officials and others to come together to identify Niagara\u2019s existing strengths and map out strategies to attract investment and build skills training.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conteh says the take-away message from the NCO\u2019s latest research is that Niagara\u2019s manufacturing sector still forms the bedrock of the economy despite earlier upheavals, and has a bright future.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He says that when they started the research, he already had an \u201cindication\u201d of something positive happening, \u201cbut the compelling data gave us evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt that Niagara is resilient and has the adaptive capacity to weather storms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those in Niagara who continue to mourn the decline of the region\u2019s traditional manufacturing sector, Sean Calcott and Charles Conteh have some good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":53461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3319,4052,1,4,5,38],"tags":[7830,7009,3095,4104,522,7008,7007,7005,295,63,7004,7006],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53459,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53456\/revisions\/53459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}