It’s a common refrain in Canada: we shouldn’t be mere drawers of water or hewers of wood, but should support and even subsidize the creation of “value-added” manufacturing jobs. But primary resource industries like mining and oil and gas extraction actually produce far more added value than most manufacturing and processing sectors. The problem with value added, writes Trevor Tombe, is that most of its advocates chronically misrepresent the concept, which leads to bad policy decisions that cause more economic harm than good.