OTTAWA – New numbers from Statistics Canada show the Canadian economy created another 40,000 full-time jobs in December, but not everyone is sharing in the boom.
“It’d be nice to see some of that come this way,” said Kim McKimm, while looking for a job at an employment centre in Smiths Falls, Ont., just an hour outside the nation’s capital.
Once a bustling, blue-collar town, the community of 9,000 lost 1,700 jobs since the global recession in 2008 as factories and facilities shuttered their doors.
Since then, only 100 jobs have returned and many people like McKimm are still looking for work in a competitive job market.
It’s an exception to the rosy picture painted by federal jobs numbers released on Friday that show the fourth increase in five months. The gains drove down the unemployment rate to 7.1 per cent, its lowest rate in four years.
While he warned against reading into a single number, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday the underlying numbers are even better. In all, the government says more than 800,000 net new jobs have been created since 2009.
“We have more Canadians working today than ever before and we are one of the very few advanced industrial economies that can say that,” Harper said.
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It’s a claim Smiths Falls can’t make.
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“When you compare previous employment to existing it’s 1,600 jobs which is a huge hit,” said Smiths Falls Mayor Dennis Staples.
The drain started in 2007 when the Hershey chocolate factory announced it was leaving town and taking over 500 jobs with it. Eighteen months later, the Rideau Regional Centre, a provincial health care facility for people with disabilities, said it would close and cut 800 jobs. Stanley Tools followed suit, meaning another 175 jobs lost.
A few other closures left a significant challenge for the town’s leadership.
“Our number one priority for the town of Smiths Falls is the creation and the replacement of the jobs we’ve lost,” Staples said.
City hall has tried to close the gap by taking advantage of provincial and federal stimulus infrastructure funds. It attracted $150 million to help build a new hospital, arena, train stations and a regional Ontario Provincial Police headquarters.
Staples hopes the new infrastructure will help attract businesses and encourage those who have stuck around to reinvest.
But others say the infrastructure boom hasn’t created the long-term jobs more employers would.
“I’m hoping we are very attractive to companies coming, but to this point it hasn’t translated into any companies opening their doors,” said Michelle Toop, who helps about 700 job seekers at the OnTrac Employment Resources Services.
About 100 jobs have been created, but many are part-time and few can compete with the wages and benefits offered by employers who left. Other job-searchers have moved, retired, started their own businesses or are commuting to larger cities like Ottawa or Kingston.
There are several bright spots on the horizon. Metroland Media Group moved into the old Stanley Tools factory and the Rideau Regional Centre is being redeveloped by a third-generation Smiths Falls businessman.
Joe Gallipeau’s plan for the former institution is to have it become a mixed-use retirement community.
“We’ve got a lot invested and hopefully our vision, if we have anything to do with it, will succeed,” he said.
Smiths Falls isn’t the only place where jobs are scarce. The Statscan numbers show that employment gains are distributed equally for all cities. The unemployment rate in Peterborough, Ont. and Saguenay, Que. rose by 1.5 per cent, where rates were 8.5 and 9.8 per cent respectively.
Cities among those with the lowest unemployment rates included Hamilton, Ont. (5.9 per cent), Quebec City (4.9 per cent), Regina (4.3 per cent), Saskatoon (5.5 per cent), Calgary (4.6 per cent) and Edmonton (4.3 per cent).
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