By CARL CLUTCHEY
Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Thunder Bay‘s ongoing "transformation" from a traditional lunch-pail economy to a white-collar one appears to be confirmed by federal data.

Statistics Canada census numbers released Tuesday show the city lost 1,645 manufacturing jobs between 2001 and 2006, primarily in the forestry sector.

"That‘s quite a big loss, considering the size of your labour force," commented Ottawa-based StatsCan analyst Christel Le Petit.

But the census also showed that during the same period, the City of Thunder Bay gained 1,155 health-care jobs, plus 625 positions in the education sector.

"The bottom line is that we are seeing a fairly significant transformation in terms of the nature of our community," observed Lakehead University president Fred Gilbert.

Overall, economic growth in Thunder Bay over the five-year period of the census was well below the national average, but still gained at 0.8 per cent per year.

That could explain why some local analysts have previously said that the Lakehead hasn‘t been hit as hard by the forestry crisis as previously feared.

Le Petit said that while the slow growth reflects the city‘s stagnant population, a gain is better than what occurred during the previous census, which showed a decline in the number of jobs of 0.4 per cent.

"It‘s hard to create employment when you don‘t have the people," Le Petit said.

When the latest census was conducted in May 2006, 12,590 Thunder Bay residents over age 15 said they had a university degree or higher qualification.

Greater Sudbury, which has about 50,000 more people than Thunder Bay, showed 14,255 people with post-secondary degrees.

Gilbert said while the Thunder Bay figure is encouraging, the city is still slightly behind the national average in terms of the number of people who possess college diplomas or university degrees.

There‘s a clear connection, added Gilbert, between the rise of those in possession of post-secondary qualifications and the spike in health and education jobs in Thunder Bay.

About 15 per cent of Thunder Bay‘s workforce is over age 55, a bit less than the national average. In Toronto, the figure is 12 per cent.

"In that respect Thunder Bay is more representative of the country than Toronto," said Le Petit.

The census also noted the huge gains in Alberta-based jobs due to that province‘s oil-and-gas boom – often at the expense of less well-off regions of the country, like Northwestern Ontario.

"It‘s a bit depressing, but it confirms that this is not just our perception of what‘s been happening – it‘s reality," said Madge Richardson, a co-chairwoman of North Superior Training Board.

Richardson, who is also Schreiber‘s mayor, said the data should be used in ongoing lobbying to convince the provincial and federal governments that Northwestern Ontario is in dire need of economic assistance.