Ontario seen lagging states in key industries
Globe and Mail
By Bruce Little
Ontario seen lagging states in key industries.
Ontario’s economy underperforms those of comparable U.S. states in key industries and the gap is especially large in the highest-wage sectors, a provincial government task force said yesterday in a study.
The shortfall is pronounced in “traded industries,” which—because they serve export markets—are most important to the province’s prosperity. In those, which account for 40 per cent of Ontario’s employment, average wages were 23 per cent lower in 2000 than they were in the 14 U.S. states with which they were compared. That difference affects all workers since higher wages in trade industries help drag up wages in industries that only serve local markets, the group said.
“We do not get the leverage that the United States does,” said Roger Martin, right, chairman of the Ontario task force on competitiveness, productivity and economic progress and dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. The main reason, he said at a presentation of the report, is that “they invest more in education and in machinery and equipment.”
Even among traded industries, there are wide differences in average wages between Ontario and its peers in the United States. Most notably, though, Ontario wages are higher or only slightly lower in many of the low-wage industries, but well below the U.S. figure in the highest-wage industries. In the top two, financial services and information technology, average wages in Ontario were lower by 37 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively.
The group said while Canada matches the United States in providing general support for industry—like infrastructure—it lags in specialized support, such as venture capital and collaboration between industry and university researchers.
