Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in Canada fell 0.3 per cent in October. Saskatchewan saw a rise of about six per cent. It was third highest of the provinces on the positive side of the ledger. Compared to October a year ago though, Sales here were off 10.4 per cent. Nationally they were off 5.2 per cent. Total sales in Saskatchewan came in at about $1.2 billion dollars.

The Saskatoon metropolitan area saw sales increase 2.2 per cent in October. Sales were up 4.9 per cent compared to the same month a year ago. Of 12 cities surveyed only Regina outpaced us with a whopping rise of nearly 31 per cent month to month. Three communities beat us in the year to year category. Regina was not one of them with sales down nearly 35 per cent.