Well, traveling in winter is never much fun and this weekend I was in
Montreal for the Fraser Institute Student Seminar Series and my way back has
been affected by snow and freezing rain and assorted other things. Still, there is always time to blog so here
are the economic news stories that have caught my attention over the last
little while with respect to northern Ontario economic affairs.
Well, this makes a lot of sense.
I recall speaking on a Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce panel last spring
where I made a similar remark that it was time to plan for a new span across
the Kam River. I suppose Thunder Bay City
council is gambling that they can get something for nothing by getting CN to
maintain the bridge but it would be forward looking to plan and line up the
funding for a new modern bridge. Best
case scenario – they could end up with two bridges. How’s that for infrastructure!
This is a good news story not least of which is that 40 jobs from the
crew base are coming to Thunder Bay but because it bodes well for the
development of Porter’s air network.
With a crew base in Thunder Bay, Porter can use Thunder Bay as a mini
hub perhaps for an expansion west to Winnipeg or a link through Chicago as part
of it existing network. Porter is
innovative and service oriented and a great alternative to Pearson. They are
also adding a 7th daily flight out of Thunder Bay to Toronto. This weekend reminded me why I rarely fly out of Pearson.
In other transportation news, it would appear air travel is big in
northern Ontario. North Bay is also getting some aviation jobs. I guess 40 is a
magic number for airlines as it is expected that 40 jobs will be created here
also.
In other news…
Apparently, less than a fifth of businesses in northeastern Ontario are
confident in Ontario’s economic future according to this Chamber of Commerce
annual report. This was reinforced by regional data, as the Business Confidence
Survey reveals that nearly half of northeastern Ontario businesses expect their
organization’s revenue to stay the same over the next 12 months.
It could be that the Canadian economy is finally slowing down given the
recent numbers from Statistics Canada.
While Canada lost 88,000 jobs and Ontario and part time workers were
heavily affected, it is only one month’s data – January – and you would need
several months more before you could argue a trend was underway. However, Thunder Bay and Sudbury saw their
unemployment rates remain pretty much the same with Sudbury remaining at 6.8
percent and Thunder Bay dropping slightly from 6.1 to 5.8 percent. However, as I have noted previously, the
unemployment rate in northern Ontario is not the best indicator of job growth
given the shrinking labour force.
Indeed, even the
Sudbury Star noted that while Sudbury’s unemployment rate stayed at 6.8
percent, it nevertheless shed 800 jobs.
In Ring of Fire news, the saga continues.
Timmins is trying to boost tourism as is the Sault.
As so economic life goes on in northern Ontario. Have a great week!
