The North and Population Aging

The 2011 Census results for population age are out from Statistics Canada today and Canada is indeed a much older place than the last census in 2006.  The proportion of population aged 65 and over is now 14.8 percent, up from 13.7 percent in 2006.  The results for Northern Ontario suggest that the North is older than Canada as a whole.  A ranking of Canadian CMAs (Census Metropolitan areas) and Northern Ontario CMAs and CAs (Census agglomerations) show the Sault is the oldest major city in the North with 19.3 percent of its population aged 65 years and older.  Thunder Bay is next at 17.2 percent followed by North Bay at 17 percent.  Sudbury is next at 16.1 percent with Timmins the youngest at only 13.8 percent.  For Canada's CMAs as a whole, the oldest is Peterborough at 19.5 percent and the youngest is Calgary at 9.8 percent.  Indeed, Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon, out in the booming west with its influx of young migrants - are the three CMAs with the lowest share of population aged 65 and over.  Additional note, I've left Elliot Lake (a northern CA) off of this graph.  Its proportion of population aged 65 and over is 35.1 percent but then it has become a retirement community.

Northern Economist on Canadian Trade, Manufacturing & Health Transfers!

You might want to check out some of these recent contributions to public policy.  I did a piece on federal health transfers that appeared in iPolitics in late April arguing that the Canada Health Transfer should be broken up into two separate components - a per capita amount and a needs based amount that takes factors like demographic differences into account.  I've been busy blogging on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative and there has been a spirited debate on the decline of manufacturing, natural resource exports and Dutch disease going on there that was recently picked up on by Maclean's magazine.  Finally, the Winnipeg Free Press just ran a piece on the prospects and impact of the free trade agreement Canada is currently negotiating with the European Union. You can continue to follow my posts on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative in one centralized location at uFollow.