Posted by Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Bill Bradley
As city residents contemplate a mining downturn in 2009, just how diversified is this city?
Greater Sudbury is very diversified, said Greater Sudbury
Development Corporation chair Guy Labine at city council this
week.
With the economic situation not as rosy as it was six months ago, this may give residents some reason to be hopeful the city can weather the next six months, said Labine.
"In terms of economic diversity, on a scale where one is the highest diversification value, Greater Sudbury scores .71 according to data from Statistics Canada and the Conference Board of Canada," he reported.
"If you look at the key sectors like health, education, finance and banking and the supply services sector, we are very diversified. For example, we have 10,000 people who work in the supply and service sector. That is important, a huge strength."
But an economist with the Conference Board of Canada who developed the index cited by Labine in his presentation noted that when comparing cities, including their metropolitan areas, Greater Sudbury was less diverse than many other similar-sized cities.
In reality, the city has more in common with Windsor, a city struggling from auto industry layoffs, said Robin Wiebe. The city has an index of .72 and a population of 330,000 in its immediate area.
He noted that metropolitan Thunder Bay has a diversity index of .87.
"Thunder Bay has the port, forestry and mining nearby, plus tourism. Kingston, with 155,000 people, has an index of .81. They have agriculture, a port, the military, Queens University, call centres and some small manufacturers."
Wiebe said the data was collected mostly in September 2008 from 27 cities with populations of over 100,000 and a surrounding metropolitan area. A top value of one relates to the economic diversity of the country as a whole. A value closer to zero indicates a local economy not well diversified.
Sherbrooke Quebec (170,000) has an index of .88, while Saint John, New Brunswick (127,000) has a value of .88 derived from their port, forestry construction activity, oil refineries, potash and mining nearby.
Kitchener, including Waterloo and Cambridge (479,000), has a value of .85. Oshawa, which has a population of 350,000, and is dependent on the auto industry, still has an index of .87, said Wiebe.
Labine did cite statistics that showed the unemployment rate for Sudbury in December 2008 was 5.6 per cent, compared to 7.2 per cent for the province and 6.6 nationally. Hotel occupancy rate was 71.1 per cent in the city from January to July 2008 compared to 60.4 per cent for the province as a whole for the same period.
The downturn is definitely affecting businesses, but Labine said he hoped spending by senior levels of government would help.
When downturns happen, cities like Greater Sudbury need to have a plan developed with the involvement of stakeholders ensuring there is diversity occurring.
"We did that planning five years ago here. Having a long-term plan is key," said Labine.
Another help is having cities invest themselves in economic development activities.
"The city invests $55,000 per year in Music and Film in Motion, an arts promotion organization. Yet, that is returned back to taxpayers many fold because the work they do generated $928,000 in economic activity in the city in 2008," he said.
"In fact, since 2001 MFM has contributed directly and indirectly close to $38 million in economic benefits to the community. They use our money to leverage other money for their organization and they bring in arts related companies to the city," said Labine.
