This text is taken from Courrier de l’ économique. Click here to subscribe.
Better training of the workforce would be an essential condition for catching up with Quebec in terms of productivity. And particularly that of managers.
It is often noted that Quebec and Canada in general lag behind in productivity compared to most other developed economies, that is to say that their companies and their workers produce less wealth per hour worked. The problem takes on added importance when we are faced with a labor shortage, as is the case in Quebec.
The Institut du Québec looked at the more specific case of the Quebec manufacturing sector in a study unveiled Wednesday and conducted in collaboration with Manufacturiers et exportateurs du Québec and Fondaction. Both France (+50%) as Germany (+50%), Sweden (+71%), the United States (+100%) and Denmark (+128%) did better than Quebec in in terms of productivity in 2018. This was also true for neighboring Ontario (+14%).
The gap with the latter was, however, reduced by more than half in 2022, reports the Institute, thanks to an improvement in the situation in Quebec and a deterioration in that of Ontario. This gap should once again be halved if we wanted to neutralize the differences attributable to the relative weight occupied by each of their different manufacturing subsectors, the transport sector (more present in Ontario) being, for example, more productive than that of the manufacturing of wood products (more present in Quebec).
More generally, a large part of Canada’s productivity gap compared to other developed countries is due to the greater place held by SMEs in its industrial fabric and the fact that, in the manufacturing sector, large companies are 80% more productive than the very small ones.
It is recognized that investment in machinery and technologies is the basis of productivity, recalls the study. However, the least productive Quebec manufacturing subsectors, such as machine manufacturing, food and metal products, are precisely among those which invest the least in this area.
This is bad, because they are also the ones who have the most difficulty finding the necessary labor. However, the companies that are usually able to offer the best salaries and the best working conditions are also those that are the most productive.
To stimulate investment in machinery and technology and help these particular companies escape this vicious circle, governments have mainly resorted to tax breaks, unfortunately without much success.
We would do well to pay more attention to improving the skills of workers so that they are better able to use new technologies and help with the green shift, concludes the study entitled Train to perform better. We should also start with their managers, because they are the ones who make the important decisions in this area.
There is also talk of the automation of lower-paid and harder-to-fill jobs as well as the reskilling of affected workers so that they can take care of the maintenance of new equipment.