Manufacturing sales in Saskatchewan fell 1.7 per cent October to November. Statistics Canada says we were one of eight provinces on the wrong side of the ledger. Five of them had larger drops than ours. The national average was a decline of 0.6 per cent. In total, Saskatchewan had about $1.3 billion in sales in November. Year to year, we were off 12.6 per cent. Six provinces were in negative territory but we experienced the largest decline. Nationally, the numbers were off 0.1 per cent.
In the Saskatoon census metropolitan area, sales fell four percent month-to-month with total sales at $288 million. Of 12 CMAs surveyed, 10 were in decline but, despite that, the national average was reportedly a rise of one percent. Compared to November a year before, the numbers were off here by a whopping 16.5 per cent. Seven centres were in decline but none as large as that. The national average was again a rise of one per cent.