[URBAN NOTE] "Hamilton ready for post-Steeltown boom as loonie continues to sink"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Sunny Freeman describes an ongoing renaissance in Hamilton. I really do have to get there again, and soon.

Even as a U.S. recovery and low Canadian dollar breathe new life into the city’s manufacturing sector, Hamilton is focused on diversifying the local economy away from its former dependence on heavy manufacturing, the fate of which is largely determined by global cycles beyond its control.

The port city’s steel-driven manufacturing base — once the Canadian home to a who’s who of industrial leaders from Westinghouse to Procter and Gamble — has shed some 25,000 jobs since 1976, as major employers lost out to new cheap global competitors amid the rise of the Canadian dollar.

“We were in desperate need of diversifying the economy and growing the economic base,” said Neil Everson, City of Hamilton economic development director.

The realization came at an auspicious moment — just before the 2008-2009 recession battered the city’s manufacturing sector, sending output down 16 per cent in 2009.

City hall believes that this focus on diversification is one of the major reasons Hamilton weathered the recessionary storm as well as it did, and even managed to post lower unemployment rates than the provincial or Canadian averages.

Hamilton has been rated Canada’s most diverse city economy by the Conference Board of Canada, which expects it to make strides in economic growth, employment and personal income levels over the next three years.