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Industry looks to budget for help on supply chain problems, domestic production

Apr 1, 2022 | 9:47 AM

OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are being asked to muscle space in next week’s budget to help Canada become more productive, and lay investments to lure new companies as part of a push to simplify pandemic-strained supply chains.

For years, Canadian businesses have under-invested in technology and other measures that could help workers more easily reach the same output they do now.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, an association of manufacturers and exporters worries that the country will fall further behind competitors in peer nations without the right push now.

Thrown into the mix are supply chains that have been gummed up from the reopening of the global economy that has led a drive domestically and in the United States to expand continental manufacturing capacity.

Dennis Darby, president of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, says the confluence of circumstances is why his group and others are looking for investments and incentives to spur post-pandemic change and deal with current strains.

He says the country needs to attract the needed capital now and get companies to invest in Canada before they start looking elsewhere, including the United States, to plant their money.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2022.

The Canadian Press