[URBAN NOTE] Three notes on the Toronto economy, and incidentally, Rob Ford

[rfmcdonald]

First comes CBC's announcement that Toronto has one of the highest rates of unemployment in Canada.

Toronto’s unemployment rate is one of the highest in the country, rising to 10.1 per cent, just as Mayor Rob Ford says the city is “booming.”

Unemployment in the city rose from 8.9 per cent in September 2013 to 10.1 per cent this past December, according to a recent Statistics Canada report.

The unemployment rate for Canada overall is 7.2 per cent.

But on Tuesday, Ford painted a much more optimistic picture of the city’s employment situation — especially during his time in office, taking credit for close to 60,000 jobs added to the local economy last year.

“Toronto is booming today. We're a global powerhouse,” he said.

“More people are employed in this city, more than three years ago….There are 58,000 more residents employed this year than last year, that’s also a fact that, you know, and we have experienced three consecutive years of positive growth.”

Next comes the Toronto Star analysis, by Dana Flavelle and Laura Kane, of these figures.

Despite the Toronto area’s relatively high unemployment rate, more residents found work, and at a higher than average pace, in 2013, according to Statistics Canada data.

Employment rose an impressive 3.8 per cent in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, which includes most of the GTA’s suburban regions, with the exception of Oshawa.

“You find a city that’s had more employment growth in 2013, on average,” Derek Burleton challenged. “Even Calgary had less employment growth,” said the deputy chief economist for TD Bank, referring to the city that’s been one of the country’s economic hot spots in recent years, thanks to the oil boom.

[. . .]

One of the explanations for Toronto’s rising rates of both employment and unemployment is simple population growth, says Peter Viducis, manager of economic research for the city of Toronto.

More people are coming here looking for work, he said, particularly young people, recent graduates and new immigrants. Some have more success than others.

[. . .]

Another factor in Toronto’s growing labour market is the way Statistics Canada gathers data, Viducis speculated.

The labour force survey is based on where people live, not where they work. Thus, a person living in Toronto is counted as part of Toronto’s workforce, regardless of whether they’re employed in Toronto or Mississauga or Pickering.

As more people move into the city, reversing a decades-long flight to the suburbs, they’re counted as part of Toronto’s labour force, Viducis noted.

The third, another Toronto Star article by Jane Gerster, focusing on issues in Ford's home community.

Shoppers taking cover from a wet Sunday morning inside south Etobicoke’s busy Sherway Gardens mall criticized a lack of communication from public officials, particularly on power outages, wires dangerously entwined in tree branches and other aspects of the ice storm cleanup.

[. . .]

Half a dozen residents named emergency planning and cleanup as their top priority, while another six listed lower taxes as their priority. Many who picked emergency cleanup over lower taxes listed lower taxes as their second priority, and vice versa.

[. . . Boisie] Tehackoor, who works in shipping and receiving, is convinced the city is bungling the ice storm cleanup and believes it also mishandled the summer storm.

Fixing downed power lines, picking up fallen branches and fixing the roads is taking too long, he said, and city employees aren’t working hard enough.

“If I go to my job, then for eight hours I have to work very, very hard to earn my money,’ Tehackoor said. “But they can sit on their butts and get money?”

[. . .]

In the smaller and quieter Albion Centre, near Albion Rd. and Kipling Ave., Raham Najum said lower taxes is his priority because he no longer trusts the government to use his money for something “worthwhile.”

[. . .]

His friend and fellow student and sales associate, Ehtisham Waqar, agreed, saying that, since he’s skeptical his taxes are being used properly, he wants them lowered.

“It’s always the same issue,” he said. “Quality of life needs to increase and I think the only way to do that is to decrease taxes.”