Canadian automation firm Promation had used a weaker currency to assist in winning a new US contract, but slowing vaccinations in Canada could wipe that competitive edge, President Darryl Spector said.
Pandemic travel restrictions made travelling to service and repair facilities across the border harder for Promation technicians, which is disadvantageous when competing against an increasingly vaccinated US workforce.
“When the U.S. supply base is fully vaccinated, why buy from Canada if you can not access the work to support it?,” Spector said.
The U.S.-Canadian border has been closed for almost one year to crossings by all but essential workers and a few other exceptions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Manufacturers in Canada fear that the slower roll-out of vaccinations could delay reducing these constraints.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden told states that all adults should be vaccinated against coronavirus by May 1. Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau set a September goal for the vaccination of all Canadian adults.
Some manufacturing workers in the United States are already receiving inoculations, as in car plants in Detroit. In contrast, manufacturing workers like those of Spector’s Ontario company in Canada are not yet eligible.
Canadian firms, they said, are handicapped and may threaten the economic recovery of Canada in the coming months.
While the recovery has increased rapidly, on Wednesday the Bank of Canada warned that the virus will continue to pose a risk to the economy until the population is widely vaccinated.
While guidelines have been issued by the United States health authorities to exempt asymptomatic vaccinated workers from stringent COVID-19 protocols when exposed, Canada has not yet considered similar actions.
This increases the risk of losing hours of working or shutting down for COVID-19 testing and tracing contacts in the event that an employee tests positive.
“People can not work as easily together if they look over their shoulder for someone with COVID,” Spector said, who recently sent 8 workers home and covered the costs of their test results for an employee’s wife to test positively.
Matt Poirier, Canadian Manufacturers and Exports Trade Policy Director, said that his association called on provincial governments to prioritise vaccination of factory workers to reduce the impact of outbreaks on plants.
Canada had administered 7.20 COVID-19 doses per 100 individuals on 10 March, compared with 29.67 in the USA, according to the data from Oxford University.
The vaccination campaign in Canada was hindered by its dependency on imports, but in the second quarter, deliveries are expected to increase.
SUFFER INVESTMENTS
Uncertainty retains investment by Canadian companies with capital intentions of 2021, according to Statistics Canada, still 12% below pre-pandemic levels.
According to IBES data from Refinitiv, capital spending for S & P 500 enterprises is expected to increase by 11.8% in 2021 after dropping by 13.7% by 2020.
“Companies could choose to invest their capital faster,” said Trevin Stratton, chief economist at the Canadian Chamber of Trade. “The timeline of vaccination certainly affects that.”
In Quebec and Ontario, the provinces most affected by COVID-19, and home to much of Canada’s manufacturing sector, the number of lost business days increased respectively to 13.9 percent and 12.0 percent in 2020. Companies hope that higher vaccination rates can help to reverse this trend.
($1 = Canadian $1,2548)
