Here are the stories over the last little while that I feel are of economic importance to northern Ontario. Summer is on the way and there is a definite slowdown in defining economic news as everyone starts heading out to camp for the summer. Tourism is going to be a sector of continuing importance to northern Ontario and camp development should be part of tourism development and infrastructure. Making more camp/cottage lots available for development would certainly be one way of adding to tourism in northern Ontario.
Here is another piece of tourism infrastructure along the north shore of Lake Superior.
Lake Superior Water Trail connects explorers to northern Ontario. CBC News. Sudbury, June 9, 2017.
Of course, tourism development does not always have positive benefits for everyone as this historical example of northern Ontario tourism exploitation illustrates.
Speaking of infrastructure, there is a glitch in the US Soo locks rebuild. See here.
It was mining day in Thunder Bay recently and there was another mining show in Timmins. These events are good showcases for the sector. The Timmins mining exposition was a 3 day event with 400 exhibitors.
Mining Day in Thunder Bay. Northern Ontario Business. June 1, 2017.
Miners, investors flock to The Big Show. Northern Ontario Business, June 7, 2017.
In terms of developing the northern Ontario economy, another call for some type of tax incentive program from City Council in Sault Ste. Marie. There was also a harkening back to the Peterson government of the late 1980s with a call more more government office relocation. I suppose it would not be too tongue-in-cheek to suggest that the Ontario government simply sell all of its land in Toronto - at current sky high prices - use the proceeds to pay off its debt and then relocate the entire Ontario legislature and civil service somewhere in northern Ontario. Of course the competition among the big 5 northern Ontario cities would be cutthroat so Wawa might have to be the compromise location. Perhaps they could make the decision as part of a lottery or gaming experience run by OLG.
Of course, if all else fails there is the inevitable fallback to better marketing. North Bay seems to be going in this direction with its municipal government handing a million dollars to its arms-length municipal economic development agency.
In northern Ontario institutional news, there is a commission studying provincial ridings and representation in the far part of northern Ontario. Some think the commission is thinking of splitting the Timmins-James Bay riding in two to provide better representation to indigenous communities. Will be interesting to see what the commission reports back.
Well, that is it for now. Have a great weekend.
Northern Economist 2.0
Friday 9 June 2017
Tuesday 6 June 2017
Thunder Bay Community Foundation Awards Night 2017
The Thunder Bay Community Foundation held its 2017 Scholarship and Bursary Reception at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery this evening and it was an exciting and very well attended event.
I served on the Foundation Board from 2007 to 2010 and this evening was an opportunity to reconnect with the Foundation and its activities. The Foundation was established in 1971 with a gift from Prue Morton and has gone on to build a substantial endowment that funds a program of community grants including a set of scholarship and bursaries to students from Thunder Bay and tnorthwestern Ontario. This year, thanks to the generosity of many donors over the years, the Foundation was able to present $66,900 in scholarships and bursaries to students in Thunder Bay and the District of Thunder Bay.
Congratulations to all of this year's recipients and best wishes for an exciting future!
Sunday 4 June 2017
Comparing Homicide Rates: Why Thunder Bay Has a Problem
From a peak reached in the early 1990s, police reported
crimes rates in Canada have been on a downward trend. This is also the case for homicide rates, which have been on
a downward trend nationally since the early 1980s. There is of course variation from year to year in homicide
rates so some type of regression smoothing procedure is helpful in establishing
what the longer-term trends over time are. What quickly emerges from an examination of long-term trends
is that Thunder Bay followed national trends in homicide rates until the early
21st century but that since then there has been a substantial
divergence. It is not a “northern
Ontario” thing because the Greater Sudbury CMA tracks provincial and national
homicide rates quite closely.
Figure 1 presents LOWESS Smoothed homicide rates for Canada
and major regions from 1981 to 2015. LOWESS is a particularly useful smoothing tool because it
helps deal with “outliers” – that is extreme observations that can often distort
averages taken over time. The data source is from Statistics Canada (Table 2530004 - Homicide survey, number and rates (per
100,000 population) of homicide victims, by census metropolitan area (CMA),
annually). Canada as a whole has
seen a steady decline in homicide rates going from smoothed values of 2.74 per
100,000 in 1981 to 1.51 by 2015 – a drop of 45 percent. This decline is a feature of the West,
Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada though Atlantic Canada sees a sight upturn
after 2006. In terms of regional
rankings, homicide rates are now the highest in the West, followed by Atlantic
Canada, then Ontario and finally Quebec.
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