As we reflect on Raider Industries deciding to close their Moose Jaw operation, the question of what went wrong is being asked.

 

The announcement of Raider Industries closing has sent shock waves through the community as nearly 200 Moose Jaw residents will soon be out of work. The plant that makes truck caps will close its doors February 13th and the strong Canadian dollar is a major reason.

Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Brian Martynook says this will affect the local economy right from the top all the way down to the bottom.

The high Canadian dollar was a major factor in the announcement and Martynook says it’s just a fact of life. "With big industries like that, export industries, the dollar really affects these industries because they're exporting into the States and when you knock 10 to 20 cents off their product it really makes a difference."

Martynook says there's not much Moose Jaw or even the province could have done to prevent this from happening. He says its just something the export industry has to deal with.

Even though Moose Jaw Mayor Dale McBain doesn't like it, he agrees that there's not much we can do about this. "This is related to the Canadian dollar, the down swing of the US economy in terms of truck sales, and when Raider has a head office in the US and your main market is the US, I think we're sort of caught in that. Its not only Moose Jaw but the Canadian manufacturing industry in general is caught by that strong Canadian dollar."

McBain says he try to sit down with Raider and find a way to keep the operating running but doubts anything will happen, saying if there was something that could have been done he would think Raider would have asked by now.

According to Statistics Canada in 2001, 15,195 people worked in Moose Jaw. With the Moose Jaw Pork Packers closing earlier this year and now Raider Industries shutting down, an estimated 3 per cent of the jobs in Moose Jaw have been lost in the last year.