Northern Economist 2.0
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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.
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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.
Wednesday 29 February 2012
Time for a Break
Well it has been a busy time for Northern Economist and getting busier all the time. March always marks the onset of my busiest time of the year and this year along with finishing up supervising two honour's theses, teaching my courses, and being Department Chair, I am also involved in an undergraduate program evaluation for the Department of Economics at Lakehead and helping to draft our new Department academic plan. I'm also on the university Promotion, Tenure and Renewal committee again in the spring. In addition, I'm also committed to conference papers to present my research in April, May, June, July and September so as much as I enjoy blogging about northern Ontario's economy, I'm out of time.
As my colleague Steve Gordon at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative has remarked, blogging is a lot like giving out free pizza. However, the pizza is free only for those who choose to consume the product - I still have to do the baking. We blog to contribute to debate and policy formation, to try and help make a difference, but in the end there is only so much time to go around. This break may last a while as I'm also heading into a sabbatical and for academics, sabbaticals are generally breaks from your usual routine and investment of your time in professional development. I will be spending mine on wealth research and analysis of health expenditure and health system sustainability along with some deepening on my econometric skills. Sorry, but baking lots of free pizza is not the way I was planning to spend my sabbatical.
For those of you who like my stuff on northern Ontario, you can continue to access the past posts I've done both here and at at my original Northern Economist 1.0 site where there is a wealth of material dealing with the region's economy from a descriptive and analytical perspective. Enjoy. You can also check in at this site from time to time just in case an important topic grabs my attention. As well, I will continue to post occasionally on more general economic topics as part of the team on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Canada's premier economics blog. You can access all of my posts on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative in a convenient listing at Ufollow.
All the best and cheers! Livio.
As my colleague Steve Gordon at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative has remarked, blogging is a lot like giving out free pizza. However, the pizza is free only for those who choose to consume the product - I still have to do the baking. We blog to contribute to debate and policy formation, to try and help make a difference, but in the end there is only so much time to go around. This break may last a while as I'm also heading into a sabbatical and for academics, sabbaticals are generally breaks from your usual routine and investment of your time in professional development. I will be spending mine on wealth research and analysis of health expenditure and health system sustainability along with some deepening on my econometric skills. Sorry, but baking lots of free pizza is not the way I was planning to spend my sabbatical.
For those of you who like my stuff on northern Ontario, you can continue to access the past posts I've done both here and at at my original Northern Economist 1.0 site where there is a wealth of material dealing with the region's economy from a descriptive and analytical perspective. Enjoy. You can also check in at this site from time to time just in case an important topic grabs my attention. As well, I will continue to post occasionally on more general economic topics as part of the team on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Canada's premier economics blog. You can access all of my posts on Worthwhile Canadian Initiative in a convenient listing at Ufollow.
All the best and cheers! Livio.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)