Added to this was the pain inflicted on manufacturers across advanced economies by the Great Recession that followed the financial crisis. Here in Canada, the crisis lowered the temperatures of both the energy and manufacturing tracks of our economy.
But due in part to the magnitude of the hit felt south of our border and to the severe impact felt by the U.S. sectors important to Canadian manufacturers – including its residential housing sector and auto production – the crisis was particularly hard on our manufacturing exporters. Many manufacturers and manufacturing jobs simply disappeared.