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It’s been almost 15 years since one of Saskatoon’s largest metal fabricators stopped exporting significant quantities of cut and welded steel into the United States. The company’s president says that is unlikely to change because the barriers to entry keep getting higher.

The cost of doing business — including materials and facilities, wages and taxes — is higher in Canada, and the gap has widened over the last year amid heated rhetoric and the prospect of U.S. tax reform, said JNE Welding Limited Partnership’s Jim Nowakowski.

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“There’s a lot of the vessel manufacturers in the U.S. that are tapped out for capacity right now … there may very well be some opportunities for us even as things are right now, but quite frankly it is tough for us to compete,” Nowakowski said Wednesday.

He’s not the only one concerned about robust economic growth and increased competitiveness in the U.S. — Saskatoon’s two largest business advocacy groups say the 2018 federal budget doesn’t do enough to address the threat to Canadian firms.