A manufacturer’s warning from the shopfloor

I have been a manufacturer in Ontario for more than thirty years. For most of that time, the prospects for our industry (and for my business) seemed stable, even hopeful. That has changed rapidly.

With the advent of tariffs, our business is now floundering. Sales to the United States are nearly nonexistent, and profitability within the Canadian marketplace is increasingly difficult to find. Many Canadian manufacturers, no longer able to compete in the U.S., are now chasing the same limited pool of domestic projects. The result is a race to the bottom.

Competition has become a form of economic limbo: quotes going lower and lower, with little regard for sustainability. Several of my competitors are pricing jobs at cost (or below cost) simply to keep their employees busy and generate short-term cash flow. I understand the desperation, but this is not a viable path forward.

We are currently bidding on a project with only a modest profit margin built in. Even so, we are not competitive. Our bid came in at $13,995. Two competitors submitted bids around $6,000, less than half our price. I spoke with both firms directly. They confirmed what the numbers already suggested: they knowingly priced the work below cost, prepared to take losses in exchange for immediate cash and continuity of work.

This approach will lead to disaster. Canadian manufacturing is a small, interconnected sector. We know each other. We rely on each other. When pricing collapses to this extent, it destabilizes the entire ecosystem.

As if this were not enough, American investors have begun approaching Canadian manufacturers with buyout offers. In several cases, these approaches have been informal, but deliberate. One firm I know (currently doing well) received an unsolicited visit from three investors. After a tour of the facility and a brief conversation, an offer was made. The plan was clear: retain a small staff in Canada and relocate the rest of the operation to Milwaukee.

Other firms are actively exploring relocation to the United States. They are scouting locations, assessing incentives, and recruiting skilled American workers in advance. If these moves proceed, Canadians will lose good-paying manufacturing jobs and face a difficult labour market with few comparable alternatives.

Canadian nationalism may sound admirable in theory, but when manufacturers are faced with losing their investments and, in many cases, their life savings, principle alone is not enough. Survival forces choices, and right now, there are alternatives in the United States that simply do not exist here.

As the new year approaches, I do not know what decision lies ahead for us. Do we continue to fight in Canada? Do we relocate? Or do we do what some of our colleagues have already done and close our doors entirely? Several manufacturers across Canada are reaching that point as 2025 draws to a close.

I am a fighter, as are my employees, but resilience has limits.

The federal and provincial governments (particularly in Ontario) have offered little meaningful support to manufacturers like us. Public investment and attention are focused on energy, mining, critical minerals, and electric vehicle technologies. These sectors matter, but they do not employ nearly as many workers as traditional manufacturing does. Still, manufacturing remains largely invisible in policy conversations.

Manufacturers are used to being ignored.

So, I ask this of Canadian citizens: keep your eyes open. If governments can overlook the sector that builds, fabricates, and employs at scale, what does that mean for you? When conditions change, will your needs be met by the same administrations that have left manufacturing behind?