IN THE NEWS

2010 | 2009

2010

• On the hunt for green jobs
  By Shawn Jeffords, The Observer, March 10, 2010
  
  Sarnia-Lambton officials are pulling out all the stops to lure multi-billion dollar green energy investment to the city.
  
  They're just not saying how.
  
  "It would be like the football coach on one Super Bowl team giving his playbook to the other team," Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said.
  
  Bradley, who is also chairperson of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, said the group is focused on landing some of the 1,440 green energy manufacturing jobs that were announced in late January in a provincial agreement with Samsung C&T Corporation and Korean Electric Power Corporation. The deal will see four solar and wind component manufacturing plants open in Ontario.
  
  Bradley said the group is marketing the area based on its strengths; green energy links to the UWO Research Park and Lambton College, space to build in the industrial park, and a talented workforce.
  
  "In some ways it's like trying to read the tea leaves," Bradley said. " . . . I don't think there's anything particularly revolutionary about our strategy. We're still trying to fully understand how to approach (Samsung)."
  
  The $7-billion deal made headlines after the McGuinty government predicted 16,000 direct and spin-off jobs in green energy sector. The investment would generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power, tripling Ontario's output of renewable energy.
  
  Warden Jim Burns said the county has a lot to offer the Korean company. A central location and a good climate won't hurt the local bid, he said.
  
  "Part of the reason we have the (First Solar) solar farm in Sarnia is because some of the best sunshine in the province is here," he said. "We have that going for us. It just makes sense that that development would happen here first."
  
  But Burns worries that the lack of available industrial building space will hurt Sarnia-Lambton's chances. Chatham-Kent has more space to offer without the prospect of having to build, he said.
  
  "It's going to be a difficult process because of that," Burns said. "Places that have that existing space will be able to rent it out a lot cheaper than we can build something new for industry to work in."
  
  Burns said he's not concerned the projects will be headed for Windsor-Essex because it's championed by MPPs Sandra Pupetello and Dwight Duncan, both powerful ministers from the Windsor region.
  
  "I don't buy into that kind of thing," he said. "I also think that if there are things that improve Windsor's economy there are going to be spin-off things for Sarnia-Lambton."
  
  Bradley said a recent article in the Financial Post which highlighted the city's green success also served another important purpose. It got Pupetello, who is also the Minister of Economic Development, to address concerns the work is headed to her riding. A charge she flatly denies.
  
  "It's one thing that's really important to have on the record," Bradley said.
  
  Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey said the area is poised to net some of this investment.
  
  "We're very well placed with our skilled workforce," Bailey said. "We could start on this tomorrow."
  
  Bailey said he hopes the deal works out as promised by the government but is skeptical. The opposition Tories have asked the province's auditor general to investigate the financial incentives offered to the company.
  
  "I'm not too confident that this has been well looked after from the get-go," he said. "But if there are jobs I think Sarnia-Lambton is well positioned."
   
• Opposition left blowing in the wind
  By Cathy Dobson, The Observer, March 10, 2010   
  
  Two years after hundreds of local residents and the township's council vehemently opposed a large wind farm, plans are moving forward to start construction.
  
  Officials with the Sydenham Wind Energy Centre say they will start building their $160-million farm in 2011 if Ontario Power Authority (OPA) approval comes through and once an environmental assessment is complete.
  
  The farm will have 29 to 37 wind turbines capable of producing about 70 MW, enough to power 20,000 households, says Sherra Zulerons, national manager for Mainstream Renewable Power LLC.
  
  Her company formed a partnership in November with IPC Energy, the corporation originally associated with the project.
  
  They are working with a group of 30 farmers in Dawn-Euphemia, Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood and Chatham-Kent who have signed lease agreements to allow turbines on their land.
  
  The OPA is expected to indicate whether the Sydenham project can connect to the grid by the end of March, Zulerons said. Work on the environmental assessment is about halfway complete.
  
  She estimates the wind farm will employ about 600 workers during the year-long construction period and provide the municipalities with significant new assessment.
  
  "This is the first project for Mainstream in Ontario. We really like the fact that local farmers have a dream like this," Zulerons said.
  
  But the Sydenham project isn't everybody's dream.
  
  Ann Towell heads up a group called Sydenham Wind Concerns, which is disturbed about the noise produced by wind turbines and its effect on human health.
  
  Sydenham Wind Concerns, Dawn-Euphemia Township and about 50 other rural municipalities and opposition groups in Ontario are lobbying the provincial government to commission an independent health study.
  
  So far, the government has not responded. However, it approved the new Green Energy Act, which allows wind farms like the Sydenham project to bypass the municipal planning process.
  
  The Act means no one can object to the farms based on rezoning, official plan or site plan issues.
  
  "It's very undemocratic," said Towell whose property is adjacent to the Sydenham project. "These aren't farms. They are industrial zones and I don't think the government cares."
  
  Dawn-Euphemia Mayor Bill Bilton is also critical of the province for "throwing its weight around.
  
  "It's frustrating," he said. "I've been involved in municipal politics for more than 25 years and I was always told that planning is a public process.
  
  "I guess on this issue, it isn't."
  
  He said there is little the municipality or the citizens' group can do to stop the project.
  
  "There's still opposition to it but our hands are tied," Bilton said. "Basically, we don't have any input any more."
  
  But Zulerons said Mainstream is "very interested" in what local residents have to say and has hired a world renowned noise analyst to study the Sydenham project area.
  
  The Green Energy Act states that wind turbines must be set back at least 550 metres from the nearest house. Zulerons said her company intends to exceed that guideline wherever possible.
  
  "We want to engage the neighbours and we look forward to hearing their concerns," she said. "I think they'll find we've done very in-depth studies and we know what we're doing."
  
  The proposed wind farm is planned for a large tract of land stretching north and south about 12 miles from Alvinston to Bothwell and east to west from Shetland Road to Limerick Road.
  
  The next step in the environmental assessment involves three public open houses scheduled for:
  
  • April 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre;
  
  • April 7 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Brunner Community Centre, Thamesville;
  
  • April 8 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Florence Community Centre.
   
• Jolt for declining towns
  Clean energy is giving new life to Ontario communities, but the fight for business is getting down and dirty
  By Karen Mazurkewich, Financial Post, Saturday, March 06, 2010
  
  Driving his signature red Ford Mustang with Bruce Springsteen blasting on the radio, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley is a politician who knows how to get ink. He writes his own humour column in the local newspaper and even scored a cameo in Michael Moore's documentary Bowling for Columbine. His easy manner has kept him in office for 22 years. That, and his ability to help create jobs.
  
  The unemployment rate in Sarnia is lower than most other cities in southern Ontario, but that was not always the case. In the mid-1990s, Sarnia, known as Chemical Valley, hit tough times. Between 1994 and 1996, there were about 7,000 layoffs in the city of 79,000 and the jobless rate hit 18%.
  
  "Every time the phone would ring I'd say, 'How many, and when,' " Mr. Bradley recalls. "Those were terrible times, but they taught the one-industry town a lesson: diversify, diversify, diversify."
  
  Sarnia has been slowly diversifying from Chemical Valley to hub for alternative energy. It boasts the largest solar farm in North America, Canada's biggest ethanol plant and a new research park. "We were in alternative energy before it was sexy," Mr. Bradley says.
  
  Despite Sarnia's head start, Mr. Bradley is angry his town might not get a piece of the biggest alternative energy deal announced in Ontario.
  
  Last month, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a $6.7-billion agreement with Samsung C&T Corp.'s Trading and Investment Group and Korea Electric Power Corp. to generate solar and wind power in the province. The consortium, which has promised to build four equipment manufacturing plants, gets priority access and a 4% premium for the power it supplies to the transmission grid. The deal, which snubbed local wind and solar manufacturers, set off a storm of controversy in business and political circles.
  
  It will be months before there are any spades in the ground on the clean-energy deal, but the fight for the business by mayors across southern Ontario is getting down and dirty. Little wonder. A report released last month by Navigant Consulting Inc. states that the renewable energy sector supports 196,000 jobs in the United States. Ontario's Samsung deal is expected to employ 16,000 people directly, with an expectation that tens of thousands of more indirect jobs will be created.
  
  "Oh, definitely, the elbows are up and there's nothing wrong with that," says Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade. "We haven't even dreamed of the kinds of jobs a green-energy market can [generate]."
  
  But Ms. Pupatello is adamant that her government isn't picking municipal favourites. "Samsung will go where it will work for them," she says.
  
  Let the marketing wars begin.
  
  "If it was a business decision, we'd stand a chance. But if it's a political decision, they will be built elsewhere," says Mr. Bradley, who is concerned that two powerful MPPs in Cabinet-- Ms. Pupatello and Dwight Duncan, Minister of Finance -- are both from the Windsor region, a city competing for the Samsung deal.
  
  So, Mr. Bradley is doing what he does best: Promoting his city to Samsung and the government as a good place to establish a plant because the city has embraced the renewable energy sector. Not only has it attracted a large solar farm, it has raised $40-million for a new University of Western Ontario Research Park, to open in May.
  
  After seeing two auto plants close in two years, St. Thomas, Ont., just south of London, is hoping to lure Samsung by promoting its skilled labourers and "brown fields," the hundreds of square feet of vacant buildings and industrial parks owned by the municipality that can be converted to new enterprises, according to Bob Wheeler, head of economic development for St. Thomas.
  
  Another front-runner in the economic sweepstakes is Chatham-Kent, Ont., a one-hour drive from Windsor-Detroit, which has an unemployment rate above 14%. Shortly after taking over as Mayor in 2006, Randy Hope travelled to South Korea on his own dime to woo manufacturers. He is now leveraging those contacts to secure a plant for his municipality, going so far as to take the local Samsung representative fishing.
  
  Mr. Hope is toting his municipality's ready labour force, water access through nearby Wallaceburg and its green energy-friendly policies. The municipality has already zoned 1,000 acres for solar farming and erected 40 wind turbines, with another 150 to go up, says Mr. Hope.
  
  The Chatham-Kent mayor is also cleverly playing to Korean "chaebol" corporate pride by publicly deriding other international conglomerates for not having made investments in the province. All the wind turbines erected in Chatham are by either General Electric Co. or Siemens AG. Says Mr. Hope: "I didn't see any initiatives by them to build here."
  
  He adds: "They are driving [shipped turbines]by people with an unemployment rate of 13.7%. It doesn't sit well with the general public."
  
  But the Mayor with the best odds in winning a plant is Eddie Francis of Windsor -- a city slow to diversify its manufacturing base. "We put all our eggs into the automotive basket," admits Mr. Francis.
  
  No one paid attention to the smoke signals that the big three automotive companies were sending out. "Back then, if you were to tell the shop owner he needed to diversify, that owner who was running three shifts a day, seven days a week on full payroll, would not have listened," says Mr. Francis.
  
  Now they are all ears. Plants such as Valiant Machine & Tool Inc. are retooling to service the aerospace and medical-device sectors. But with an unemployment rate still at 13%, the former car town is looking to green energy for economic salvation.
  
  "The Samsung announcement is critical to us," says Mr. Francis, who has met with company officials. His pitch is this: We have the most solar days in Ontario, a plan to invest $650-million in capital infrastructure projects and, most importantly, a skilled workforce.
  
  "I appreciate that other communities are trying to say they did this or that -- like creating a research park -- but we really build things here, that legacy is a skill set we have," he says.
  
  "It's reasonable to put wind or solar plants in towns with a rich history of manufacturing," says John Dybvig, economic development manager for Blue Green Alliance, an environmental/ labour coalition lobbying governments to increase investment in clean energy.
  
  Job creation has become a major argument for the renewable energy lobby. A wind turbine requires 8,000 separate parts, which need to be manufactured somewhere. "There's nothing unique or special to make parts in solar or wind turbines that isn't already being done [in the auto industry]," says Mr. Dybvig.
  
  In its 2007 report, the alliance calculated that the creation of a national renewable electricity standard that would require large utilities to generate a portion of their electricity through renewable sources, could create 850,000 jobs. Consider Newton, Iowa, which lost 1,800 jobs in 2007 after Maytag Corp. moved its plant to Mexico. Some of those jobs were recaptured when wind turbine manufacturer TPI Composities Inc. moved in.
  
  But Adam Fremeth, assistant professor of business, economics and public policy at University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business, warns that Ontario's local politicians should temper their optimism: "Ontario is new at this and we will have to compete with six or seven [renewable energy] clusters in the U.S., not to mention the fact that Samsung is a bit behind in entering into this [renewable energy]market."
  
  And not all green projects go according to plan. The town of Pipestone, Minn., got an economic shot in the arm in 2006 when Suzlon Energy Ltd. of India built a wind blade plant and created 320 jobs. By mid-2009, the company was forced to lay off half its workforce. Green power has proven susceptible to economic downturns.
  
  Such news doesn't dampen the enthusiasm of Sarnia's Mayor. Mr. Bradley won't divulge his strategic plan to lure Samsung, but figures he can top the fishing expedition in Chatham. "I will give the delegation a ride in Air Mustang down under the Bluewater Bridge for a banquet of the world-famous french fries made there," says the Mayor.
  
   
• Ontario stakes its recovery on education
  Throne Speech lays out McGuinty blueprint, including pledge to become global education player, develop skilled work force and exploit mining potential in Northern Ontario
  By Karen Howlett, The Globe and Mail, March 8, 2010
  
  Ontario's road to economic recovery leads through the classroom, with a new strategy to turn education into an export industry.
  
  The province plans to create another 20,000 spaces this year in its universities and colleges – and hopes to fill many of them by boosting enrolment of international students by 50 per cent over five years.
  
  The classroom is the centrepiece of Premier Dalton McGuinty's five-year plan to return Canada's one-time economic engine to prosperity, unveiled in Monday's Speech from the Throne.
  
  The global economic recession has left Ontario with a battered manufacturing heartland and a record deficit of $24.7-billion. Mr. McGuinty acknowledged that he is not sure when exactly the recession will “relax its grip” on the province.
  
  The Throne Speech all but ignores the province's more pressing fiscal challenges, preferring instead to present an optimistic vision of the future.
  
  It will be left to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan to handle the grim task of planning how to dig the province out of multiyear deficits when he presents the budget later this month.
  
  But Mr. McGuinty suggested the province will go slow: “We don't want to compromise our future by moving to balance the budget too quickly,” he told reporters after the speech.
  
  “We don't want to risk the recovery by not investing in infrastructure stimulus this year.”
  
  He said he sees a successful future, one that will be built on the backs of a new generation trained for the highly skilled jobs that will supplant those on assembly lines. “We will, in our turn, do whatever it takes to secure a bright future for our children,” he told reporters.
  
  The five-year plan called Open Ontario begins with providing funding in the budget for the 20,000 new postsecondary spaces this year. Ontario hopes to emulate Australia, where international education ranks as the third-largest industry, Mr. McGuinty said.
  
  At the same time, the province is launching a new Ontario Online Institute, which will allow students to take courses from a number of the province's colleges and universities without leaving home. It will be the first institution in Ontario that offers province-wide diplomas or degrees over the Internet.
  
  Not only do the nearly 38,000 international postsecondary students already in Ontario help the economy – they spend $1-billion a year on such things as rent, groceries and clothing – they also give Ontarians an opportunity to better understand different cultures and the global economy, Mr. McGuinty said.
  
  “Those international students who graduate can stay here and help us grow our economy, or go back [home] and work as a partner with us in the global economy,” he said.
  
  “Where others see a world that threatens,” said the Throne Speech read by Lieutenant-Governor David Onley, “Ontarians see opportunity that beckons.”
  
  Mr. McGuinty's job creation plans also call for exploiting the untapped potential of the province's natural resources in the north. His government is encouraging development in the Ring of Fire, a mining exploration area in the James Bay Lowlands in Northern Ontario that might contain the world's largest chromite deposits.
  
  The government is signalling that it is open to business just as pressure is growing to open up the northern wilderness. Fast-growing, emerging countries such as China and India are helping to drive up commodity prices, and that has led to unprecedented exploration in Ontario. The number of exploration claims in the Ring of Fire has more than doubled, to 8,200, over the past two years.
  
  The Throne Speech flicks at the need to rein in rising costs for health care, which it says could consume 70 cents of every dollar spent on government programs within 12 years. The government also promises in the speech to introduce legislation that would force hospitals to compete for cash and pay executives based on how well their institutions perform.
  
  Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak criticized the government for devoting just 24 words in the Throne Speech to the province's fiscal woes, which he says are “mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren.”
  
  “An out-of-gas and out-of-touch McGuinty is wedded to the same out-of-control spending,” he said.
  
  The Throne Speech says the government will not put the province's fragile economic recovery at risk by making deep cuts to program spending.
   
• Ontario increasing minimum wage to $10.25
  The London Free Press, March 5, 2010
  
  Workers in Ontario will see an increase in the minimum wage starting March 31, the provincial government said Friday.
  
  The increase, to $10.25, is part of a program to reduce the number of children living in poverty by 25% over five years, the McGuinty Liberals said.
  
  "Hard-working Ontarians deserve a decent standard of living and we are helping to maintain that. A fair minimum wage is good for workers,” Minister of Labour Peter Fonseca said in a statement.
  
  Since 2004, the general minimum wage in Ontario has gone from $6.85 to where it stands today.
   
• Goodwill to run job services
  By Cathy Dobson, The Observer, March 3, 2010
  
  Employment services used by hundreds of Sarnians have been contracted to Goodwill Industries in a bid to improve accessibility, says Ontario's Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.
  
  "We wanted to eliminate overlap, duplication and get rid of the patchwork quilt that we have now," John Milloy told The Observer. "It's been confusing to individuals looking for supports and assistance."
  
  A wide range of employment services currently offered through Lambton College, the YMCA of Sarnia-Lambton and Lambton County Human Resource Administrative Services at Bayside Mall, will be assumed July 31 by Goodwill Industries Essex Kent Lambton.
  
  Other employment ser-vices such as the Ontario Self- Employment Benefit program at the Sarnia-Lambton Business Development Corporation (BDC) are under review.
  
  The minister confirmed that at least two programs -- the BDC's self-employment program and the employment resource centre at the Sarnia and District Association of Community Living -will continue to operate at their current location.
  
  Funding for the BDC's program was suspended in November but will be restored in April with new guidelines and new criteria, the minister said.
  
  Milloy said his ministry has created a new model for employment services across Ontario and awarded one organization or agency in each region to deliver most of them.
  
  The ministry announced last month which new agency would be the main service provider in each community in Ontario.
  
  Goodwill Industries was chosen locally after a rigorous application process, Milloy said.
  
  "Goodwill is very active in employment supports already," he said. "In fact, Goodwill has been chosen in some other regions as well."
  
  Goodwill Industries has had an Employment Ontario contract for the past 11 years to provide employment training at Bayside Centre. CEO Kevin Smith said he's excited his organization will soon offer "one-stop shopping" for employment services.
  
  "We have a very strong track record of helping individuals with neurological and physical disabilities, but Goodwill also has a history of helping the unemployed and the underemployed," Smith said.
  
  It's not yet clear where Goodwill will provide the single-access to provincial employment programs.
  
  Smith said he is working on a business plan this month that should answer that question.
  
  "It's a very sensitive topic because many people have been working in some of these (existing) agencies for years.
  
  "I want them to know we will work in collaboration with them to ensure we have no gaps in employment services in Sarnia."
  
  Michelle Smith supervises two youth employment programs currently offered at the Esso YMCA Learning and Career Centre.
  
  She has been told the REACH and READY programs will lose their funding at the end of July.
  
  "My concern is that it takes a long time to understand the needs of youth and build up a rapport and a trust," she said. "I had hoped that youth services would be treated differently and we'd be allowed to carry on. But, she said, she has confidence in Goodwill Industries and hopes she'll have an opportunity to give input.
  
  Milloy said new providers in each city were selected after more than two years of consultation.
  
  "We do recognize the contribution some of the agencies make that won't be moving forward," he said. "And they may well continue to provide complimentary services."
  
  The bottom line is that the MTCU wants to help people find jobs, Milloy said.
  
  "We want to make sure we get rid of the confusion and duplication."
  
  He said it's likely the budget for Employment Ontar io Services will increase with the new model, despite the efficiency of combining numerous services under one roof.
   
• More chances at a Second Career for Ontarians
  Having ridden out highs and lows, the retraining program will survive the upcoming provincial budget, minister says
  By Denise Balkissoon, The Toronto Star, March 2, 2010
  
  Ontario’s Second Career retraining program will survive the upcoming budget, says John Milloy, the province’s minister of training, colleges and universities.
  
  The push to get unemployed Ontarians back into school will last its full three-year session, despite burning through its original budget and nearing the end of a second infusion of cash.
  
  Milloy said his Ministry has “eliminated the backlog” from last fall, when a torrent of 10,000 new applicants in August and September 2009 caused funds meant to last three years to be used up in 18 months.
  
  Among the applicants who fell through the cracks then was one laid-off autoworker who asked the Star only to use his middle name, Allan.
  
  “It’s been humiliating enough,” said the 39-year-old Toronto resident. A former parts worker at GM, Allan applied to Second Career in June 2009 through one of the 150 third-party agencies the province uses to process social service clients.
  
  His counsellor promised an approval or rejection within six weeks. Instead, it took six months, during which he missed two start dates for the truck driving program he had been accepted into at Humber College.
  
  In the meantime, Allan’s EI ran out. He turned to food banks and had to find a smaller apartment. “It was really tough,” Allan said. “My family gave me No Frills gift cards.”
  
  Humber gave him another start date, in February 2010, and Allan began hassling politicians both in and out of his High Park neighbourhood. Something gave, and Allan finally got his Second Career approval and started class last month. Trucking companies are already calling to see if he is licensed yet.
  
  One final insult: he is still waiting for the living expenses part of his grant. To pay for food and transportation this month, Allan had to get a welfare cheque.
  
  George Brown hospitality student Derek Baker waited from September to December to hear if he’d be approved for funding. Having paid $145 to hold his spot, Baker started classes this past January although he can’t afford the tuition.
  
  Last time he spoke to his career counsellor, she told him he’d have to drop out of school because Second Career isn’t available to those who are already students.
  
  “All I want to do is learn and contribute,” said Baker, 38, a bike mechanic who was laid off from Duke’s Cycle after the store burned down during the 2008 Queen St. fire. “You guys are telling me that in order to go to school I can’t go to school—are you crazy?”
  
  About 26,000 Ontarians have updated their education through Second Career, which was launched in June 2008. Originally aimed at laid-off auto and manufacturing workers, it had an initial budget of $355 million and a goal of training 20,000 people over three years.
  
  Early applications were low, so the province extended the eligibility criteria, allowing any Ontarian who had been on EI as far back as 2005 to apply for grants worth up to $28,000 over two years.
  
  Then, the recession caused a spike in hopeful students. “Quite frankly, it was beyond our expectations,” said Milloy.
  
  At George Brown, for example, there were 70 Second Career students enrolled in May 2009. That number rose to 450 for the September 2009 term.
  
  So last fall, eligibility criteria were re-tightened to “make sure it was accessible to those most in need.” Another $78 million was found for new spots, but intake was “very limited,” said Milloy, during the overhaul.
  
  There are success stories, like recent George Brown College grad Rodica Tessier. In 2006, Tessier was watching her high-tech entrepreneurial pursuits slip from her grasp, and was also splitting up with her husband.
  
  “The whole life I had known was lost within two years,” said Tessier, who had plenty of work experience but only a high school education. By 2008, she had lost her house in Brooklin and was living off her RSPs.
  
  Tessier heard about the Second Career program in September 2008 and was accepted and in school by January 2009. “I was never without money,” she says of her tuition and living stipends. “It was the smoothest thing I’ve ever seen.”
  
  Now 60, Tessier has a contract as a career counsellor in Durham and is confident she will find more work when it expires.
  
  Of the 8,000 new spots created by last fall’s extra funding, 6,000 have already been filled.
   
• Imperial Oil shutdown puts idled trades to work
  The scheduled turnaround will last several weeks
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, February 24, 2010
  
  The launch of a scheduled maintenance turnaround at Imperial Oil's Sarnia manufacturing site Wednesday is welcome news for the local construction industry. The turnaround comes at a time when 25% or more of the city's 5,000-member construction trades is without work, said Ray Curran, of the Sarnia Construction Association.
  
  "It's going to be a big help. It's been a little slow over the winter . . . so this is going to be a big plus for us for the next six weeks."
  
  Imperial Oil said Tuesday the maintenance turnaround is expected to last several weeks and will include inspection and general maintenance of its processing units.
  
  "This is a significant event with a significant amount of work," said company spokesperson Julie Ferguson.
  
  Maintenance shutdowns at Chemical Valley industries are a main source of work for the region's construction companies and trades.
  
  "Every shutdown is important," Curran said, adding, "Pretty well all the trades are working, to some degree, at that job."
  
  Imperial Oil issued a release Tuesday advising its neighbours to expect more traffic in and out of the plant, as well as increased flaring and darker than normal emissions during the shutdown.
  
  "The turnaround team has spent several months planning the work so it is completed safely and with minimal impact on the community and environment," said refinery manager Peter Vandenborne.
  
  The darker smoke leaving the plant, which is possible for the next several days, isn't expected to adversely impact the community, the company says.
  
  Flaring is "an environmentally sound measure to combust hydrocarbon material from processing units so people can safely work on the equipment," the release said.
  
  More contractors working at the site will also increase traffic on Christina and Vidal streets, particularly at the beginning and end of the work day. The company has a 24-hour phone line, 519-339-5666, to respond to calls from the public and monitor impacts on the community.
   
• Returning to school will cost jobless
  EI BENEFITS
  By Norman De Bono, The London Free Press,February 19, 2010
  
  Unemployed people seeking a high school upgrade while collecting employment insurance benefits also have to enroll in a job retraining program to keep getting cash, said Robert Collins, vice-president of workforce development with Goodwill Industries in London.
  
  If they're on EI and just want their Grade 12 -- a basic requirement for many jobs -- they will be cut off insurance benefits. Before rules changed Nov. 20, laid-off workers seeking their Grade 12 could stay on EI.
  
  "We are disappointed individuals in a variety of circumstances are not able to get assistance and others who applied a month earlier are succeeding," Collins said.
  
  The changes have angered local labour officials.
  
  "That is ridiculous," said Tim Carrie, president of Local 27, Canadian Auto Workers union. "A lot of our members in manufacturing were hired 20 years ago, they do not have Grade 12, but they picked up enormous skills on the job and those are transferable."
  
  Most employers require Grade 12, even for unskilled work, and employment insurance and the provincial Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities should make it easier to get those jobs, not more difficult, Carrie said.
  
  If a worker does go through the Second Career or Pathways job retraining programs, even the shortest courses last two to three months and that is after they get their Grade 12 upgrade. Workers can restart their EI claim after they get their Grade 12 upgrade, but lose the weeks of eligibility they were in school.
  
  A Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities spokesperson said the ministry's job is to give money to workers in job retraining and not pay for a Grade 12 upgrade, which is the jurisdiction of the federal Employment Insurance program.
  
  "We do not provide income support for academic upgrading, to get Grade 12. The only way we will do that is through specific programs such as Second Career," Emily Durst said. Calls to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada were met with an e-mail response, stating that under EI rules recipients must be able to work and those going back to school are not eligible, unless the training ministry has them enrolled in a job retraining program.
  
  "Under the Employment Insurance Act, an EI claimant must be 'capable of and available for work' to be eligible to receive EI benefits. A claimant who chooses to go back to school on their own is not considered 'available for work,' " states the release.
   
• Feds to help immigrants adapt to workforce
  By Elizabeth Thompson, London Free Press, February 18, 2010
  
  The Canadian Immigration Integration Project (CIIP), which began in 2007 as a pilot program, is getting $15 million over the next three years to expand its services in India, China and the Philippines, as well as to open a new office in London, England. The new office will serve prospective immigrants in Scandinavia, Britain and the Gulf States.
  
  The CIIP offers prospective immigrants a variety of services, from seminars on what the labour market is like in Canada and how to apply for a job to how to get their university credentials recognized.
  
  “We want newcomers to be able to use their skills as soon as possible in Canada,” Kenney said Thursday, pointing out that in the past immigrants arrived at the airport only to sink or swim. The service has helped 7,000 people so far, Kenney said, rattling off examples of recent immigrants who successfully got jobs in Canada after being helped by the CIIP.
  
  One problem, Kenney said, is only one third of immigrants know the service exists, sometimes because their immigration counsellor didn’t transmit the government advisory. New Democratic Party immigration critic Olivia Chow welcomed Kenney’s announcement but said it is a half measure that doesn’t go far enough. Chow said he should expand mentorship, bridging and internships programs for immigrants in Canada and expand opportunities for new immigrants in the federal government.
  
  Bloc Quebecois critic Thierry St-Cyr said it was a positive step but the federal government should ensure that immigrants know about Quebec’s differences.
   
• Doctor assistant new role in Ontario health care
  HEALTH: Local woman among Ontario's first
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, February 18, 2010
  
  Laura MacPherson set out from Mooretown a decade ago on the road to becoming a doctor. But after earning Bachelor and Master's degrees, she took a detour into Ontario's first physician assistant program at McMaster University.
  
  Physician assistants have worked for years in the U.S., Manitoba and the Canadian military, but MacPherson and her classmates are in the first wave of something relatively new for Ontario. Physician assistants work under the supervision of doctors, who remain responsible for the patients' care. Several are working around the province in a demonstration project set up by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, but how exactly they will fit into the health care system isn't clear yet.
  
  "It's very competitive to get into medical school," MacPherson said about why she took the physician assistant route instead.
  
  "I had first thought it would be a second best, but now I think it's the best of both worlds." She said she expects to have a more balanced lifestyle working a physician assistant's hours, than she would a doctor's.
  
  "It definitely fulfills what I want to do with my career but then also allows me to do everything else I want to do with the rest of my life."
  
  At the moment, MacPherson, her fellow students and the province's health care system are all waiting to hear from Ontario about how physician assistants will be funded.
  
  "I feel very hopeful there are going to be jobs in the end, and that I'm going to find the right place for me," MacPherson said.
  
  Dr. John Cunnington, director of the physician assistant program at McMaster, said his students are training for a position that is often described as "a physician extender -- someone who allows the physician to do more than just see one patient at a time. That's really the key to this idea."
  
  The 24-month, six-semester program is modelled on McMaster's medical school program and uses "the same curriculum," he said. It's also only eight months shorter than the program for physicians and students must have already completed at least four semesters of university to get in.
  
  MacPherson was among the 24 students accepted into its second class in the fall. The students spend the first 12 months learning the science of health care at McMaster and the second year in "clinical clerkships" in hospitals, doctor's offices and other health care facilities.
  
  Bluewater Health hosted a placement for a McMaster student this past year and MacPherson is set to do her family and internal medicine clerkships there next year.
  
  "At the moment, we don't have any physician assistants working in the hospital," said Alison Mahon, director of professional staff programs. "We're just participating in the training."
  
  Funding for the new role is one of the issues that still needs to be explored, she said. Cunnington said he believes physician assistants will eventually be working across Ontario in family practices, hospitals, emergency departments and long-term facilities.
  
  They're trained to conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventative health and assist in surgery, all under the supervision of a physician.
  
  "In practice, what would happen is the physician assistant would look after many of the routine things," Cunnington said. "The doctor would often look after the more complicated things, and provide supervision to the PA (physician assistant)."
  
  McMaster began its program in 2008 at the request of the ministry and the University of Toronto has just launched its own physician assistant program. Cunnington said he believes there's a great deal of interest among doctors who see the assistants as a way to reduce wait times. They could also allow doctors to add some of the one million Ontario residents currently without a family physician to their patient rosters, Cunnington said.
  
  "So, I think the future is rosy," he said. "The main uncertainty, to be honest, is what is the funding mechanism going to be for PAs?"
   
• New pipeline proposed for Sarnia
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, February 9, 2010
  
  Word that a pipeline could be built from Pennsylvania to NOVA Chemicals' Corunna plant is good news for Sarnia-Lambton, local officials say. The pipeline company Buckeye Partners L.P. and NOVA have signed a memorandum of understanding to evaluate and develop a mixed natural gas liquids pipeline from the Marcellus Basin in Pennsylvania to Corunna.
  
  "That is a very good piece of news," said Ray Curran of the Sarnia Construction Association. "Anything that helps NOVA helps the community."
  
  Natural gas liquids carried in the pipeline would be used principally as petrochemical feedstock. NOVA spokesperson Greg Wilkinson said the proposal is in its early stages "but we're certainly excited about the potential."
  
  The Union Pipeline Project is subject to final agreements and regulatory approvals. Buckeye would develop, build, own and operate the pipeline, and it's expected to seek out other potential customers in Sarnia-Lambton, a news release states.
  
  "It bodes well for the security of jobs we have currently with NOVA Chemicals, and others in the community that purchase products from NOVA," said St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold. "It's good news they're still looking at this as a prime area for investment and I'm really encouraged for our whole community."
  
  Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley, chairperson of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, called the pipeline proposal a positive step "because it gives strength to the local industrial base."
  
  Wilkinson said, "We think the project has significant potential benefits" for both companies, as well as the Sarnia region and natural gas producers in the Marcellus Basin.
  
  "It's the largest unconventional natural gas deposit in the world," Wilkinson said, adding it is "expected to significantly change the natural gas market in North America."
  
  The Chemical Valley's location makes it a natural market for the deposit's gas liquids, he said.
  
  "For our business in Sarnia, particularly our Corunna cracker, competitive feedstock is the key to our success," he said. "Finding an additional source of competitive feedstock, like this Marcellus shale, helps ensure the commercial sustainability of our Sarnia operations."
  
  Wilkinson said NOVA currently buys feedstock from Western Canada, the U.S., and offshore. The Corunna site is one of several plants NOVA operates in Sarnia-Lambton.
  
  Bradley said the economic partnership has been looking for ways that government can help petrochemical industries, particularly the refinery sector where there appears to be an overcapacity in North America.
  
  "Refineries are being shut in the U.S. and we just had one shut in Montreal," he said. "It's my view that the petrochemical industry is the Rodney Dangerfield of industries in Canada. There isn't respect shown by other levels of government to what a wealth creator it is."
  
  Bradley said the partnership is concerned about the impact changes in the international marketplace are having on local refineries and petrochemical plants. "We have competition we haven't had before. That why the announcement about the pipeline proposal is a "positive step forward" for the area."
  
  
• Biodiesel company prepares for start-up
  Posted By Tyler Kula, The Observer, February 5, 2010
  
  A biodiesel production company on the former Chinook Global site near Sombra could be up and running in the next month. Mississauga-based Methes Energies held an open house at the 22-acre Holt Line West facility earlier this week, and about 100 people came out to ask questions, said company president John Loewen said.
  
  "They're just concerned about whether the company that's coming in is going to be a little bit more responsible than the last company was, and they're concerned about the smell," he said.
  
  When it closed three years ago, Chinook was among Ontario's top water polluters and had been fined about $1 million for air and water discharges in 2004 and 2005. Methes produces biodiesel from animal fat and restaurant grease, purchased via a broker from the Chicago Board of Trade. The material comes from companies like Kraft, Campbell's, McCain, and Maple Leaf, and a Methes' soybean crushing facility in Windsor, Loewen said.
  
  It requires roughly one litre of animal fat or grease to produce one litre of biodiesel. Fifteen people will be hired within the next year at the Sombra site, which expects to produce 50 million litres of biodiesel annually.
  
  "We're looking forward to moving into the neighbourhood, getting to know all the neighbours and being a part of the community," Loewen said.
  
  Ministry of Environment approvals are still pending but Loewen hopes to be operating by March. He met with St. Clair Township council two months ago before meeting with community members this month.
  
  "They're really looking at starting this process from new," said mayor Steve Arnold. Though Chinook is gone, the new company will need monitoring, he said. "It is still a fairly hazardous process," he said, noting toxic, flammable an corrosive chemicals will be used.
  
  "As a municipality, you really have to look at these things just like it would be any other chemical plant being constructed," Arnold said.
  
  Methes operates a biodiesel plant in the middle of Mississauga without complaints of odour or noise, Loewen said. The Sombra site was selected because of its geographical location and rail infrastructure, he said.
  
  
• Highway corridor prime for industry
  CITY HALL: The city is urged to develop along 401, 402
  By Patrick Maloney, The London Free Press, February 5, 2010
  
  Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen The development of industrial land along the Highway 401-402 corridor is a key opportunity to attract new jobs to London, a city councillor says. Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen made the comments Thursday following a presentation focused on the city's industrial land options, by city manager Jeff Fielding to members of council.
  
  "That's an underutilized asset that we have," said Van Meerbergen, who works for a firm located along the 401. "It's the direction we need to go -- developing that land along the 401, 402 and creating more jobs.
  
  "We need to improve our ability to create wealth and that's the direction."
  
  For Fielding, the blueprint exists up and down the highway in Ontario -- and London is actually in a better position than such communities as Mississauga, he said following his presentation.
  
  "If you go upstream from us and see all the municipalities that are successful . . . all of (them) have frontage on the 401," he said. "London has frontage on both sides. "Clearly we've got an interest along the 401 because of the exposure that businesses get to the travelling public. (Some) industries depend on their brand having visibility."
  
  Fielding also points to the possibility of creating a 401 interchange at Wonderland Rd., which would offer advantages in terms of land and give people in west London another access point to the highway.
  
  "There's a triangle of land in the 401-402 corridor that would be strategically located for us to be able to do something special (in terms of) attracting some industry," Fielding said.
  
  Fielding on Thursday also touched on other elements of the city's economic picture, including: London's economy, having shrunk by about 4% last year, is expected to grow by 2.5% in 2010; the London region has lost 8,300 manufacturing jobs since 2006; approved stimulus funding for the city has created an estimated 1,185 jobs
  
  But those hoping for the arrival of major employers with hundreds of jobs may need to adjust their expectations as the city recovers from a recession, Fielding said.
  
  "Jobs will come back in 10s and 20s, rather than hundreds," he said. "And the investments will tend to be $7-$8 million as opposed to $70-$80 million."
  
  
• College program to keep students in Sarnia
  By Tyler Kula, The Observer, February 2, 2010
  
  Wannabe teachers can now get all the necessary schooling they need at Lambton College, with additional training to boot. Lambton and the University of Windsor officially announced a partnership Tuesday on a primary-junior Bachelor of Education and early childhood education (ECE) program.
  
  The two-year program will be offered exclusively onsite at Lambton College starting in September. Fifty spots are available and candidates will focus on the degree in the first and last terms, with ECE training in second and third terms.
  
  Combined with an existing three-year BA — offered between the two schools the past five years — students can conceivably earn their teaching degrees entirely in Sarnia, said Lambton College president Tony Hanlon.
  
  "Since I arrived here eight years ago, one of the first messages I got was, We need a university and we need degrees,'" he said. "We're not able to bring a university here, but we are able to bring university partnerships."
  
  The collaboration is the first of its kind in Ontario, he said, and will help prepare students for jobs opening at Ontario's all-day, every day kindergarten classrooms. That program is being rolled out over five years, beginning this fall, with teachers and early childhood educators working side-by-side in 26-student classrooms.
  
  Lambton students will have an advantage when they graduate, said Pat Rogers, Dean of Education at the University of Windsor
  
  "They will be the first teachers out there that can actually work as a teacher or as an early childhood educator," she said.
  
  Former student Heather Amaral said she wishes the program had been in existence when she attended Lambton. The 27-year-old Sarnia occasional teacher with the Catholic school board graduated from Lambton's ECE program in 2002 before studying for a Bachelor degree in London, then a Bachelor of Education in Australia.
  
  "It would have been so much easier had this been going on five, six, seven years ago," she said.
  
  Collaborations benefit the community, said Judy Morris, Lambton College VP academic. Lambton also has partnerships with the University of Western Ontario, Brock University and several U.S. institutions.
  
  "I think it adds to the breadth of offerings that we're able to give to our students," she said.
  
  
• More retraining students seek spots at Lambton College
  By Tyler Kula, The Observer, January 21, 2010
  
  Lambton College applicants shouldn't fret about not being accepted because of increased competition for spaces, says the college's marketing director.
  
  "High school students need not worry that they're not going to get in because of Second Careers," said Cindy Buchanan. "They're all marked in the same. It's not like we have so many spots set aside for Second Careers."
  
  Three programs at Lambton filled up on the first day of applications, but only 11 Second Careers students were accepted in those programs — social service worker, pre-fire technology and practical nursing, she said.
  
  Other programs including paramedic and child and youth worker filled up before the school year began. Educators and students in Sarnia seem unfazed by the increase in adults returning to school.
  
  "We haven't had any major concerns expressed to us," said Sean Keane, principal at Northern Collegiate. "There's been several articles in the media about it but we haven't heard anything specifically from students."
  
  Grade 12 SCITS student Cassy McLeay said the issue of fewer space never occurred to her when she applied to the University of Western Ontario. But the 17-year-old isn't thrilled about increased the competition.
  
  "I guess it's good that they're going back to school, but it's not fair to us who are wanting to get an education now, and we're not waiting until we're older," she said.
  
  Second Careers was introduced in 2008 as a $355-million, three-year program. Due to unforeseen demand, the funding was used up in 18 months, but the Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities provided an additional $78 million in October. Currently, there are about 23,000 students with Second Careers funding in Ontario, said a spokesperson with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
  
  Fall enrollment at Lambton College attracted 3,100 students, up 8% from 2008. Of the 1,900 first year students, 213 were funded through Second Careers. Students who aren't accepted can sometimes enrol in pre-programs to boost their marks, Buchanan said. Pre-programs cost the same as regular programs, but can be a replacement to the high school fifth year "victory lap," Buchanan said.
   

• Landing green jobs will be uphill struggle
  WIND POWER: Korean investment to create 1,440 jobs
  By Shawn Jeffords, The Observer, January 23, 2010
   
  Sarnia wants a piece of the green energy job pie, but two prominent Ontario cabinet ministers appear to be doing the cutting. So says George Mallay, general manager of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership.
  
  Some 1,440 green energy manufacturing jobs were announced Thursday in a provincial agreement with Samsung C&T Corporation and Korean Electric Power Corporation, which see four solar and wind component manufacturing plants open in Ontario.
  
  But it appears investment is headed for Windsor-Essex, Mallay said. The project is championed by MPPs Sandra Pupetello and Dwight Duncan, both powerful ministers from the Windsor region, Mallay said.
  
  "We're going to pursue this with vigor. But one of the things that Windsor has going for it is that it has two strong cabinet ministers."
  
  The $7-billion deal made headlines after the McGuinty government predicted 16,000 direct and spin-off jobs in green energy sector. The investment would generate 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power, tripling Ontario's output of renewable energy.
  
  Mallay said the Sarnia area has a lot to offer, including a strong commitment to renewable energy at the University of Western Ontario Research Park and Lambton College. The city's location on the St. Clair River and international border make it a good centre for manufacturers, he said.
  
  Mayor Mike Bradley said he suspects politics are at work.
  
  "What we're picking up from the media reports is that it's not just business decisions that appear to be driving where these (plant) locations go," he said. "It also appears to be political decisions."
  
  Bradley said Sarnia-Lambton will pursue the issue.
  
  "Governments of all stripes tend to look at where is the greatest impact economically and politically," he said. " ... Windsor, particularly, when you've got the Minister of Economic Development and Finance Minister, certainly has a voice."
  
  First Solar Canada spokesperson Peter Carrie said his firm and a number of green energy associations have "grave misgivings" about the project. Companies like First Solar have invested in the province without financial incentive from taxpayers, he said.
  
  "We will have invested well over $1 billion in the Ontario economy and created over 1,000 person years of employment," he said. "Those benefits stem without official deals or burdens on electricity costs or taxpayers." 

• Local job prospects brighter 
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, January 28, 2010
  
  The job market in Sarnia- Lambton is beginning to offer up a few hopeful signs.
  
  Cindy Dubois, manager of the Employment Resource Centre at Bayside Centre, said the number of local job listings has increased recently. "Not a lot, but they have gone up and people are starting to get jobs," she said.
  
  That compares to this time last year when the impact of the recession hit. "It was bad," Dubois said.Centre staff didn't even have fast food openings to offer those looking for work locally. "Now, at least those are starting to open up again."
  
  CareerAIM.comrecently reported that December was the only month in 2009 that the national rate of job advertisements in Canada was higher than in the previous year.In Ontario, the number of job notices went up 11.8% according to the job search company.
  
  The federal unemployment rate for the London region, which includes Sarnia, is 10.5 per cent, Dubois said.
  
  The Sarnia-Lambton Workforce Development Board hired a consultant to break out the local rate. It's most recent calculation is for October, when the local rate was 10.2 per cent.
  
  Dubois said the centre has recently seen notices for some job openings at refineries and related employers in the area.
  
  Banks and the financial sector have also been hiring more recently than they did in the last six months, she said. The job demand for the retail sector "is a little bit slow" at the moment but Dubois said she expects it will pick up when the calendar moves past Valentine's Day and people start shopping for Easter.
  
  "And, of course, the call centres, they've been hiring right along," she said, although not "as aggressively" as in the past. "I know in November the Marriott was looking to start two classes."
  
  The arrival of ships docking in Sarnia over the winter for repairs is also creating demand for a few seasonal welder and laborer positions there, she said. "Which helps a little bit."
  
  The centre is still seeing many people locally looking for work and one of the challenges has been finding openings that pay more than minimum wage. Dubois said she is expecting some of those opportunities will return when the weather improves and there is demand in sectors like construction, roofing and landscaping. "They're all a little higher paying."
  
  Those are the types of jobs that are often hard to find now because of downsizing and closings by manufacturers. Local residents without high levels of education could count on to provide them with a living, Dubois said. "We don't have those jobs now, but people still have families to support."
  
  She's hopeful the buyers of the former UBE factory in Sarnia will be able to restart operations later this year. Officials with the Chamber of Commerce and the Sarnia Construction Association recently told The Observer they see improvement on the job front this coming year, but aren't expecting a dramatic turnaround. About 20 per cent of the 5,000 local unionized construction workers experienced unemployment last year. 
  
   
• Demonstration project adds 60 jobs
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, January 16, 2010

  A Sarnia company has received federal funding to demonstrate a way to recycle plastics -- such as clamshell packages -- that currently end up in landfill sites.
  
  Keith Bechard, president of Entropex, said the demonstration project is expected to create 60 new jobs, doubling the workforce over the next 24 months at the company's plastic recycling facility in Sarnia.
  
  Entropex was one of 16 clean technology projects that shared $58 million announced by the federally-funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada. The funding is aimed at helping move innovative technologies to market.
  
  Bechard wouldn't say how much of the funding Entropex received.
  
  "The demonstration project is for the recovery of mixed rigid plastics," he said. "These are non-bottle, one through seven plastics that currently are not being recovered by Ontario municipalities' Blue Box program."
  
  The plastics will be sorted and blended to produce high-quality plastic resin that can be used again as consumer packaging, Bechard said.
  
  "This is a tremendous breakthrough in the ability to recover this particular material," Bechard said.
  
  "We believe it will increase the overall plastics recovering rate in Ontario from 23 per cent to 40 per cent. It's huge."
  
  The company, in operation since 1978, already recovers plastics from municipal Blue Boxes "for the purposes of processing that into high-quality products primarily for the automotive industry."
  
  Bechard said the company has been working on the demonstration project since June 2007.
  
  "The Sarnia Research Park has been instrumental in the development of this technology," he said.
  
  Entropex is the lead organization in a consortium involved in the project. It's other members are Procter and Gamble, Klockner- Pentaplast of Canada, Ideal Pipe Partnership, Stewardship Ontario, the City of Guelph and the University of Western Ontario.
  
  Bechard said work to start up the demonstration project began Jan. 1 in Sarnia.
  
  "We will have the first phase of this project up and running within six months."
  
  If the demonstration project is successful, the plan is for it to become a permanent facility, Bechard said.
  
  "Our demonstration process will provide the capacity for all Ontario municipalities to manage this persistent, highly visible waste stream."
  
  Bechard said they're projecting the process will also annually save 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas, enough energy to power 19,000 Ontario homes and the equivalent of 87,000 barrels of oil.He added it will also lead to the conservation of 108 million litres of water that would be used to manufacture virgin plastic, he said.
  
  "I think it's exciting for Sarnia."
   

• Wanted: empty buildings for manufacturers
  By Cathy Dobson, The Observer, January 14, 2010
  
  Sarnia faces a unique challenge in attracting new manufacturers because almost no vacant industrial buildings are available.
  
  Large employers are locating in surrounding communities where there is a surplus of large industrial space going cheap, says George Mallay, general manager of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership (SLEP).
  
  "It's hurting us," he said. "In our case, we have maybe one or two empty buildings but in London they've got about three million square feet of empty space."
  
  Other cities including Woodstock, Kitchener-Waterloo, Chatham and Wallaceburg also have a large surplus of industrial space. Developers elsewhere are so anxious to fill their buildings that they are offering bargain basement prices, Mallay said. "It makes it really tough to compete with other municipalities."
  
  Mallay said his office has recently talked to several potential manufacturers in the solar and wind energy sectors, but they lost interest in Sarnia when they learned about the lack of existing industrial space.
  
  "It is an interesting dilemma," Mallay said. "You generally don't want to have a lot of vacant space sitting around, but right now it's making it tough to attract new industry."
  
  Not only do surrounding Ontario cities have surplus buildings, Michigan also has millions of square feet available. Unlike other communities, most of Sarnia's vacated industrial space has been torn down rather than sold or remediated. That's because big industrial players like Dow and Royal Polymers don't want to hang on to empty buildings that will cost them in taxes or environmental issues.
  
  One of the few vacant industrial buildings to be redeveloped in recent years is the Vidal Street Industrial Park, owned by Ross McEachran and his son Jon McEachran, a city councillor. They purchased the former Fiberglas site in Chemical Valley in 2005 and sunk $1 million into refurbishing it. It took a few years longer than expected, but Jon McEachran said the entire complex was fully occupied by last year.
  
  Pipe manufacturer Ershigs Inc. located in a 54,000-square-foot building on the site and two, 26,000-square-foot buildings are being used by local plants for warehousing. McEachran said the number of inquiries prompted construction of a 10,000-square-foot addition.
   
• College faculty vote to strike
  EDUCATION: No immediate walkout planned
  By Tyler Kula, The Observer, January 14, 2010
  
  Lambton College staff voted strongly in favour of a strike Wednesday, but elsewhere faculty were less enthusiastic about job action. Local members of Ontario Public Service Employees Sector, local 125, voted 79% in favour of a strike, with 144 of 164 eligible members casting ballots.
  
  Provincewide, faculty at Ontario's 24 colleges voted in favour a strike by the narrow margin of 57%, the college's bargaining team chair said late Wednesday.
  
  "The union must work with colleges to reach a fair, affordable and practical agreement, Rachael Donovan said in a release. "A strike mandate hasn't made OPSEU's position any more affordable. It hasn't given the colleges any more money."
  
  The earliest possible date for job action is Jan. 18. But there are no plans to walk out for at least one month, Ted Montgomery, the union's provincial bargaining chair, told The Observer. Local union president Pat O'Connor said a strike vote forces the colleges to take notice.
  
  "I think they've already indicated if it was a strong mandate that they'd be back at the bargaining table," she said. "That was the purpose all along."
  
  The two sides last met in mid-December. About 9,000 college teachers, counsellors and librarians are under an imposed contract introduced by Ontario's 24 community colleges in November.
  
  The contract provides teachers a 7.5% wage increase over four years and moves the maximum faculty salary to $104,000. The colleges say that makes them the best paid in Canada. Teachers are asking for same increase but over three years.
   

2009

• New jobs coming to Wallaceburg
  Courier Press, December 4 2009
  
  After years of seeing manufacturing jobs flee, the tide may have changed in Wallaceburg. A new manufacturing facility will open up in the former Waltec building in the new year, initially bringing 50-75 jobs to Wallaceburg.
  
  Advanced Emissions Technologies Ltd., which is based in Sarnia, is moving into the former Waltec Engineering building on Mason Street. They will turn the building into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. The company estimates that they will create 50-75 highly skilled manufacturing jobs, with the potential for 50-150 more jobs in the long term.
  
  The company produces piping and pressure vessel testing tools. They have facilities across North American and in Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. Advanced Emissions was looking across Ontario and Michigan to open a new facility. Company spokesman Kent Wilkinson said the No. 1 reason why they choose Wallaceburg is because of the established workforce on hand and the skills they possess.
  
  "We anticipate from the hiring standpoint, things should go fairly smoothly. The learning curve is already there. A lot of the people already know what we do and have those skills," Wilkinson said, adding that the buildings in Wallaceburg suited their needs.
  
  "There were buildings set up for manufacturing already. They are in relatively good condition, so it isn't going to take a while to get them going."
  
  Wilkinson also credited the work of the Wallaceburg Community Task Force in promoting the community as a place to come to.
  
  "They really worked with us to get things up and running."
  
  "The company will start working on the Waltec building in the new year."
  
  Wilkinson said he anticipates hiring in the first four months of 2010. Wallaceburg Community Task Force chairman Dr. Bill Currier said he felt elated about the announcement.
  
  "We can now say that we have results" Currier said.
  
  The Task Force has been in place for the past three years with a mandate to improve the community of Wallaceburg, which has been hurt by a large amount of job losses in the past decade. The wooing of Advanced Emissions Technologies Ltd. was due in part to the actions of the provincial and municipal governments.
  
  The province provided a $1-million grant to the company through the Rural and Economic Development Program. Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP Maria VanBommel said Friday's announcement was "the beginning of great things."
  
  The provincial grant will help refurbish and retrofit the former Waltec building. VanBommel admits the grant played a role in getting the company to open up a facility in Wallaceburg.
  
  "We know that once they are here they find that this community has everything they need."
  
  VanBommel said that the million dollars was money well spent by the province.
  
  "This community has waited for a long time for a break and I think today was the beginning for the future for Wallaceburg."
  
  Once the company gets a foothold and gets their labour force established the company will only grow, VanBommel said. A decision by Chatham-Kent council in March to move back taxes at the Waltec building to an empty parcel of land, also helped spur the development. Chatham-Kent council agreed to a bold and unprecedented step of breaking the Wallaceburg industrial property that houses the three Waltec buildings into four parcels. The intent was to eliminate tax arrears on three of those parcels, by moving them to the one parcels, which was vacant land. That in turn would free up the three arrears-free properties for development. Currently, two of the three parcels are now filled after Friday's announcement.
  
  An Ontario numbered company owns the former Waltec buildings and recently leased out one of the buildings to Fabco. Municipal officials at Friday's press conference were hinting that more good news could come in January about the third parcel.
  
  When asked if he was confident all three buildings would be operating with businesses after being vacant since 2006 when Waltec closed, Currier smiled and said it was promising.
  
  VanBommel also said there was more announcements of good news to come in Wallaceburg.
   
• Two more solar farms proposed for Sarnia-Lambton
  By Shawn Jeffords, The Observer, December 14, 2009

  Sarnia-Lambton could soon be home to two more solar energy farms.
  
  First Solar, which is already building an 80-megawatt project in southeast Sarnia, confirmed Monday it's planning two more solar farms in St. Clair Township. With provincial approval, work on each of the 20-megawatt projects could begin in spring of 2011, said First Solar spokesperson Peter Carrie.
  
  And why is Sarnia-Lambton rapidly becoming the solar capital of Canada?
  
  "It's one of sunniest parts of Ontario," Carrie said. "It doesn't get as much lake-effect snow as other locations do (so) winter maintenance is simplified," he said.
  
  Sarnia-Lambton also has flat land, good power infrastructure and co-operative electrical utilities, Carrie added.
  
  "On the construction side it's positive as well. We have access to a great professional work force," he said.
  
  One of the proposed sites is adjacent Highway 40 at Rokeby Line, north of the Suncor ethanol plant, on land already zoned for industrial use. The second, currently farmland, lies east of Baseline Road, between Bentpath Line and the McKeough Floodway.
  
  Carrie said the projects would generate enough peak electricity to power 6,400 homes, and employ up to 600 workers at the height of construction. A public consultation process will begin Jan. 14 with an open house at the Royal Canadian Legion in Corunna, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Carrie said.
  
  Both sites are in keeping with Ontario's recent Green Energy Act, he added.
  
  "Solar farms are consistent with the zoning on both locations."
  
  But St. Clair Township CAO John Rodey said the solar farm proposed for Bentpath Line is not currently classified for solar use. The Ministry of Agriculture rates land according to soil quality to protect farmland. The rich, productive soils of Class One and Class Two agricultural lands can't be used for solar or wind projects. Class Three can be used in limited fashion, with Class Four and lower preferred under the Act.
  
  Rodey said the Bentpath site is Class Two farmland, but added that First Solar may have already worked out an exemption with the province. Because St. Clair has more Class Three and lower soil than other parts of the county it's a magnet for alternative energy projects, Rodey said.
  
  "The difficulty our council has is that they don't really have input into the system now," he said. "Because of the Green Energy Act, the province has taken responsibilities our council would have for zoning these types of facilities. It's no longer in our hands."
  
  "Even if there is an outcry, there isn't much our municipal council can do."
   

• Enbridge boosts Sarnia solar-power project
  Pipeline company expands push into green power by spending $300-million to quadruple capacity of Ontario facility
  Reuters, December 08, 2009
   
  Enbridge Inc. said on Tuesday it is quadrupling the size of its Sarnia, Ont., solar-power facility, spending $300-million to increase its capacity to 80 megawatts and expanding its push into green power.
  
  Enbridge, Canada's No. 2 pipeline company, said the investment would make the Sarnia site North America's largest solar plant, producing enough electricity to power 12,800 homes and saving 39,000 tonnes of carbon-dioxide emissions a year.
  
  In October, Enbridge bought the Sarnia project in Southern Ontario from developer First Solar Inc., one of the world's largest producers of the photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity. The first 20 megawatt phase of the project entered commercial service on Monday.
  
  Enbridge is best known as the operator of North America's largest crude oil pipeline network and ships the lion's share of Canada's oil exports to the United States on its lines. But the company has been making a push into the renewable energy business, operating four wind-power projects, with a fifth, 99-megawatt project slated to be completed next December. The solar expansion is also expected to be complete by December, 2010.
  
  “With this investment, we will have interests in more than 470 megawatts of green power capacity from our five wind energy projects, expanded solar facilities, four waste heat recovery facilities and the world's first commercial application of hybrid-fuel cell technology,” Pat Daniel, Enbridge's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
  
  First Solar will build and maintain the Sarnia project and Enbridge has a 20-year agreement to sell the power to the Ontario Power Authority.
   
• Young and jobless: The recession's toll
  Twentysomethings are bearing the brunt of a recession that could take a lasting toll on their careers
  By Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail, December 03, 2009
  
  Brendan Baines has spent day and night on fruitless job searches for the past three months. He has applied for about 50 jobs, been interviewed by fewer employers and received even fewer offers. None, in fact.
  
  It's not due to a lack of education. The 25-year-old has an international relations degree from the University of Calgary and a college diploma in international project management. He speaks Spanish, has worked in Guatemala and lived in Italy. He is smart and articulate.
  
  But now, he has moved back in with his parents in Richmond, B.C.
  
  Mr. Baines is the face of a generation that is being forced to make life adjustments after a recession that claimed hundreds of thousands of jobs, devastating a labour market now struggling to rebound.
  
  No group has been displaced more than our youth, whose jobless rate has spiked to a near 11-year high of 15.6 per cent. And as more young people move home, default on their debts and scuttle their career plans, the aftershocks will linger for years, economists warn. Nowhere has the youth jobless toll risen more, percentage-wise, than in British Columbia, where it rocketed 56.2 per cent to 60,000 this October from the same month last year.
  
  Economists hold out hope that when Statistics Canada releases its latest reading on the labour force Friday, some new jobs will have been created nationally. But even if the report shows some improvements among youth, that would be small comfort to the 438,000 young Canadians now looking for jobs. And many young people say that if the picture is brightening, they aren't seeing it.
  
  “If this economy doesn't pick up again, we're going to lose this generation,” says Nancy Schaefer, who runs Toronto-based Youth Employment Services (YES) , one of the largest youth jobless centres in the country. “They're going to lose hope.”
  
  The situation is particularly acute among recent university graduates, say youth employment counsellors. Caught between being overqualified and rejected for low-skilled jobs, and competing with out-of-work, more experienced older workers for higher-skilled positions, many are struggling with rising living costs and debt loads, they say.
  
  “This has definitely been a life adjustment,” Mr. Baines says.
  
  The number of people seeking help at Ms. Schaefer's centre has risen 40 per cent this year, and most of that surge is from recent grads. Where it used to take three to six weeks to find a young person a job, it's now taking six months or longer.
  
  Many young people are moving back in with their folks. But not everyone has that option. Those without safety nets are turning to homeless shelters, welfare, crime or transient work in the underground economy, she says.
  
  Much of the federal government's current funding is going towards job retraining for displaced older workers. Meantime, “there is no national strategy for youth,” she says.
  
  The challenge is hardly confined to Canada. In a sombre September statement, the OECD said it is “very concerned” about the rapid rise in youth unemployment in its member countries. “We are conscious that failure in the transition from school to work and in the early years in the labour market can leave long-lasting scars.”
  
  Philip Oreopoulos has studied those scars. The University of Toronto labour economist has examined what happened to Canadians who graduated in the past two recessions. He's found their earnings lag peers who graduate during good times for a full eight to 10 years. That wage gap is likely to happen in this recession too, he said. The good news is that that gap eventually closes – recession-era grads' wages usually catch up after a decade. The bad news is twofold: their lifetime earnings suffer, and those who graduate from less prestigious universities or programs never fully catch up.
  
  All because they just happened to graduate at the wrong time.
  
  “More and more labour economists are starting to realize that education and skills and ability play a big role – but luck and timing play a role as well,” he says.
  
  Elizabeth Adlam, 24, knows all about timing. She recently graduated with a fine arts degree, and had hoped for a career as a painter or photographer in Peterborough, Ont. She's volunteering at an art gallery, and sporadically helping a local photographer shoot weddings.
  
  But she's failed to find work in her field. She never goes out any more and has cut all extraneous expenses. Now, she's wrestling with whether to change careers – and pursue a masters' in graphic design – move, or settle for a lower-skilled job in the retail sector.
  
  “This isn't what I'd envisioned when I graduated,” she says. “I was hoping for something more.”
  
  Youth joblessness tends to surge in every recession. The difference now is the huge credit card and student loan debts young people were carrying as this downturn hit, says Laurie Campbell, executive director of Credit Canada, who has watched defaults rise.
  
  “We expect our young people to be the leaders of tomorrow. But they can't buy homes, can't buy cars, can't settle down. This prolongs their dependency.”
  
  The job market may be shrinking, but costs are swelling. Tuition costs have risen at twice the pace of overall inflation over the past five years, Statistics Canada calculations show. Textbook and school supply costs have also risen at a higher rate than general prices. As of 2005, half of graduates left school in debt.
  
  The other difference in this recession is that young people have much higher expectations, says Ms. Schaefer, who has worked in the youth and employment field for more than 20 years.
  
  “These young people probably have the highest expectations of any generations yet,” she says. “Especially those with a liberal arts education. They were expecting a starting salary of $50,000 or $60,000. Instead – they're not finding any jobs.”
  
  She worries about an epidemic of discouragement. “We need the creativity, the skills and the hope of our young people. If we're to stay a wealthy country, we cannot afford to lose them to unemployment.”
  
  
• More adults getting job training
  Statistics Canada says growth was highest among middle-aged Canadians in 2008
  By Jill Mahoney, The Globe and Mail, November 26, 2009
  
  More adults participated in job-related training or education last year, with strong growth among middle-aged and older people, according to a new Statistics Canada study.The survey data was collected before the full effects of the global recession took hold in Canada.
  
  In 2008, 36 per cent of adults aged 25 to 64 underwent job-related education or training, up from 30 per cent in 2002. The largest increase was among middle-aged people. For the first time, adults 35 to 44 had participation rates almost equal to those aged 25 to 34: 42 per cent compared with 43 per cent respectively. As well, nearly three in 10 adults aged 45 to 64 underwent training.
  
  One-third of Canadians said they wanted to further their skills but didn't, an increase from 26 per cent in 2002. The reasons for this also changed: Last year, people cited conflicts with their work schedules or family responsibilities, while they said money was a barrier in 2002.
  
  Job-related skills boosting increased in all provinces. The fastest growth was in PEI, where 41 per cent of adults underwent some form of training last year compared with 27 per cent in 2002.
  
  Canadians who participated in a formal education program spent about $2,500 during the year and were twice as likely to use non-repayable financing, such as bursaries or family contributions. Statistics Canada also found that more parents are saving for their children's future education.
  
  Among youngsters up to age 17 whose parents expected them to attend college or university, 68 per cent had education savings, up from 52 per cent in 2002 and 43 per cent in 1999. Of those with savings, 69 per cent had a Registered Education Savings Plan.
  
  Parents with post-secondary education were almost twice as likely to save for their children's schooling as parents who did not complete high school.
  
  
• Immigrants overqualified, earn less
  A new study finds a bleak jobs picture for new Canadians, though the picture improves for those who have been here longer
  By Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail, November 23, 2009
  
  Newcomers to Canada tend to see lower wages and higher rates of involuntary part-time work, temporary jobs and over-qualification, a new study suggests. But the bleak picture improves for people have been here longer. The jobs picture for immigrants who landed in the country more than a decade ago more closely resembles employment quality of Canadian-born workers, a Statistics Canada paper showed.
  
  The study comes as many immigrants have suffered job losses in this recession. Newcomers who arrived in Canada in the past five years saw employment plummet at more than five times the rate of Canadian-born workers, partly because many work in factories, Statscan said earlier this month. Those who landed more than 10 years ago, however, saw employment gains.
  
  The discrepancy in employment quality between immigrants and Canadian-born workers narrows as time passes. However, “various gaps still exist” even after a decade in the country, said the report's author, Statscan senior analyst Jason Gilmore.
  
  Monday's study is the first of its kind at Statscan and culls data on last year's labour market. It found newcomers tend to log longer hours, but they earn less – about $2.28 an hour less, on average, than Canadian-born workers. A wage gap existed “regardless of when the immigrants landed,” the paper said. It was widest, at $5.04, for immigrants who had landed within the previous five years.
  
  The wage gap persists, but narrows to $1.32 among immigrants who have spent more than a decade in Canada. Here are some other comparisons between the immigrant and Canadian-born labour force:
  
  Who are they?
  Employed immigrants aged 25 to 54, especially those who landed in Canada more recently, were younger, more likely to be male, had higher levels of post-secondary education, and were more likely to work for smaller firms, the study said.
  
  Over-qualification:
  About 42 per cent of immigrant workers had a higher level of education for their job than what was normally required last year, while 28 per cent of Canadian-born workers were similarly over-qualified. “Regardless of period of landing, immigrants had higher shares of over-qualification,” the study said.
  
  The share of immigrants with degrees who were over-qualified was 1.5 times higher than their Canadian-born counterparts.
  
  Over-qualification was most acute among university-educated immigrants who landed within five years from when the survey was taken. Two-thirds worked in occupations that usually required at most a college education or apprenticeship.
  
  Wages:
  Wage distribution suggests more immigrants work at minimum-wage jobs. The proportion of immigrants earning less than $10 an hour in 2008 was 1.8 times higher than for Canadian-born workers. At the other end of the spectrum, a lower share of immigrants earned $35 or more an hour than the Canadian born.
  
  The gap in wages was also particularly wide among those with university degrees. Immigrants aged 25 to 54 with a university degree earned $25.31 an hour on average last year – about $5 an hour less than their Canadian-born counterparts.
  
  Hours:
  Newcomers to Canada tend to work 38.3 hours a week while immigrants who landed more than 10 years ago log 38.6 hours – higher than the average 38.1 hours among Canadian-born workers. Immigrants are less likely to work overtime, paid or unpaid.
  
  Involuntary part-time work:
  Almost four in 10, or 38 per cent, of immigrants worked part time involuntarily, higher than the Canadian-born proportion of 30 per cent. The rate is even higher among immigrant workers who landed within five years, at 41 per cent.
  
  Temp jobs:
  Nearly one in 10, or 9.7 per cent of immigrants, worked in temporary positions, more than the 8.3 per cent of Canadian-born employees. The rate of temp workers soars to 16 per cent – double the Canadian average – among more recent immigrants, though the share falls below the average once people have been in the country longer than a decade.
  
  Union coverage:
  Immigrants tend to have less union coverage, regardless of when they landed. The share of Canadian-born employees with union coverage was nearly 1.5 times higher than for immigrants as a whole. About 11.1 per cent of Canadian workers are part of a union versus 7.4 per cent of immigrants.
  
  Occupations:
  Canadian-born people have a greater tendency to hold management jobs. They're also more likely than immigrants to work in the financial sector, along with trades and transport. Immigrants are more likely to work in manufacturing, natural and applied sciences, and sales.
  
  Similarities:
  The report highlighted many differences in employment between immigrants and Canadian-born workers. One similarity, however, is the proportion that are multiple-job holders, at about 5 per cent. Other similarities are the numbers that work part-time, get on-the-job training and have flexible work hours.
   
• Report urges transformation of Toronto's financial sector
  Says up to 40,000 jobs and $5-billion in annual gross domestic product could be added
  By Tara Perkins, November 18, 2009, The Globe and Mail
  
  One month after he released Ontario's 2008 budget, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan met with chief executives from the country's major banks, insurers and pension plans at the Toronto Club. He told them he was concerned about job losses in Ontario's manufacturing industry, and wanted to help offset the pain by strengthening Toronto's financial sector.
  
  The fruits of that discussion are being released Wednesday, at a time when Bay Street leaders say Canada has a brief window of opportunity to capitalize on its new reputation as a relative haven for banks and financial stability. The so-called Toronto Financial Services Working Group – which was struck after the meeting and is led by Janet Ecker, president of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, and Don Drummond, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank – had asked Boston Consulting Group (BGC) to come up with a strategy.
  
  The resulting report, to be made public Wednesday, makes a series of recommendations that BCG says could create up to 40,000 jobs and add $5-billion in annual gross domestic product over five years. The goal, the report says, is to transform Toronto into one of the two most important financial centres in North America and one of the top 10 globally by 2015. The city currently ranks 13th.
  
  “This is the time,” Ms. Ecker said in an interview. “We need good-quality jobs, and this is a good way to get them. Secondly, we have global attention.”
  
  The report focuses on four priorities: creating a global Toronto-based institute for risk management; entrenching Canada's position as the leading hub for mining, metals, and energy financing and trading; becoming a global leader in retirement finance; and building skilled financial services activity clusters.
  
  The working group is already seeking to dampen possible criticism that the recommendations are beneficial to banks and the country's most populous city at the expense of other sectors and regions.
  
  “This economic impact will be a net benefit to Canada – this is not about shifting jobs between provinces,” the report notes. Between 2003 and 2008, it says, manufacturing employment in the Toronto region fell 3.5 per cent a year, while financial services jobs grew 4.3 per cent. The sector now employs 220,000 people directly, and a total of 350,000 indirectly, making up more than 12 per cent of the jobs in the region.
  
  That growth generated a gain of $6.2-billion in GDP over five years, more than compensating for the $3.8-billion lost from manufacturing, the report says. Many of the factors that caused Ontario to become an industrial power have shifted away, Mr. Drummond noted. But Toronto is home to two of the top 10 global life insurers and three of the world's 25 biggest banks.
  
  A key recommendation of the report sees the establishment of a global risk management institute that would serve as a think tank and an educational centre, potentially offering academic degrees in risk management.
  
  Another would see Toronto beef up its position when it comes to financing the resources sector. About 7,000 Canadians, including investment bankers, research analysts and traders, are employed in this sector. The report sets a goal of grabbing 70 per cent of the world's market share when it comes to energy, mining and metals listings. Canada's stock exchanges currently have 43 per cent of energy listings and 55 per cent of mining listings.
   
• Rural U.S. towns struggle as big employers shut down
  The recession has caused a slow burn through hundreds of small municipalities
  By Nick Carey, November 17, 2009, The Globe and Mail/Reuters
  
  After more than an hour talking about how awful business has been of late, Pete Van Straten, 52, jerks a thumb at the telephone sitting on the desk behind his younger brother, George.
  
  “Have you heard that phone ring in the last hour?” he asks a visitor. “Two years ago that phone was ringing off the hook and we couldn't keep up with orders. Now, it's dead.”
  
  Based on the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula region, Van Straten Brothers Inc. has built everything from forklifts to bridges for the lumber and construction industries. Those industries have been hammered by the recession.
  
  “We're hunkering down. We've always been debt free, so we're hanging on. But we can't hold on forever. ”
  
  The biggest blow to the Van Stratens has come from their main customer, Terex Corp. – the world's No. 3 maker of earth-moving equipment and the biggest employer in Baraga County. Terex is closing its local factory by year's end. The brothers have cut down their staff to 12 from 60 and say they are in survival mode for the business their father started out of his garage in the 1960s.
  
  “We're hunkering down,” Pete said. “We've always been debt free, so we're hanging on. But we can't hold on forever.”
  
  What's going on in Baraga and the rest of the Upper Peninsula, or UP, mirrors the slow burn that the recession has made through hundreds of small rural U.S. towns. For such communities, the loss of a large local employer casts a long shadow. Tax revenue falls, hitting local services from schools and health care to police forces and firefighters. Spiralling unemployment also spawns hopelessness.
  
  Captain Brady Baker cleans fish onboard his fishing boat in Naubinway, Mich. Naubinway, an Upper Peninsula town, has been hit hard by the recession in the U.S. As the Terex plant winds down – it used to employ 259 people and is down to 90 – Baraga village manager Roy Kemppainen expects the local jobless rate to top 30 per cent.
  
  That is way above the national jobless rate, which hit a 26 1/2-year high of 10.2 per cent in October. High national unemployment, despite signs of recovery in the economy, prompted President Barack Obama to announce last Thursday that he would host a meeting on jobs next month of company chief executives, trade union leaders, small business owners and economic experts.
  
  Unemployment in rural communities is often related to a big local employer shedding jobs.
  
  “To big corporations a plant like that is just a line on their balance sheet they can cross out,” Mr. Kemmppainen said. “But it employs our people and supports our community. Things here are going to get tough.”
  
  “Some rural communities have been reliant on just one industry for many years,” said Orrin Bailey, CEO of Michigan Works!, The Job Force Board, which runs retraining programs for workers in the UP. “Diversification is the key to survival.”
  
  The UP is a wooded region of small towns, taking up almost a third of Michigan's land but with just 3 per cent of the state's population of 10 million. Tourism, logging, mining and fishing are all mainstays for jobs.
  
  “The mill closure has been devastating for this community. It seems every time we've turned around over the past year we get kicked.”
  
  As bad as job losses have been, the region is still faring better than the rest of Michigan, which has been devastated by slumping sales and turmoil at Detroit's Big Three car makers.
  
  But doing better is just relative.
  
  In September, cardboard box maker Smurfit Stone shut down its pulp mill in Ontonagon, a town 80 kilometres west of Baraga, for the second time in a year, leaving residents worried the county's biggest employer – some 200 people work there – may close for good. Smurfit-Stone spokesman Mike Mullin said the mill was experiencing “market-related downtime.”
  
  “The mill closure has been devastating for this community,” said Bill Chabot, clerk of Ontonagon township. “It seems every time we've turned around over the past year we get kicked.”
  
  Ontonagon also lost a nursing home that employed more than 70 people, due partly to reduced funding from the cash-strapped state, and may have to close an emergency ambulance service. Jerry Koski owns a business that sells custom-built log homes around the country. But like the Van Straten brothers, his phone is not ringing. He may have to cut his staff of four.
  
  “I can survive because I have my pension,” said Mr. Koski, 68, a retired surveyor. “But if I have to let them go where will my employees find jobs paying $25 an hour?” “You can't build a community on minimum wage,” he said.
  
  Local realtor Karen Lahti said Ontonagon's future may lie in providing services to newcomers the town tries to attract.
  
  “Retirees and people with holiday homes will form a large part of our economy in the future,” she said. In Naubinway, a small town in Mackinac County, many of the jobs are seasonal and poorly paid. Allen Frazier, 61, works a seasonal job cleaning fish and makes $400 a week. His wife has a state government job and works in the southern part of Michigan because there is no work for her here. The combination of rent down south and a mortgage in Naubinway has strained their finances.
  
  “At this rate I'm going to lose my house,” Mr. Frazier said.
  
• Corunna plant closing
  By Cathy Dobson, The Observer, November 3, 2009 
  
  The local economy took a hit Monday with news that Woodbridge Foam in Corunna will close in the spring, putting 75 people out of work.
  
  "We're in a business that's been on the decline for the last two years," said plant manager Brian Perry. "Our employees were disappointed when they found out but not surprised."
  
  Woodbridge opened in April 1999 and makes energy-absorbing foam products for the automobile industry. At one time, 250 employees worked at the plant but that number has dwindled to 75.
  
  The decision to shut down by May was driven by a rising Canadian dollar and higher operating costs, Perry said.
  
  Another factor is new products on the market that do the same job at less cost. More auto companies are using airbags or cheaper plastic products, said Perry. "We're been unable to attract replacement programs to the plant."
  
  This isn't the first time Woodbridge has announced it would close. Two years ago when 180 employees still worked there, the company said it would shut down. However, a new collective agreement in 2007 with the Canadian Auto Workers Union averted the closure.
  
  Perry said there's no chance of that happening this time. The decision is final, he said.
  
  St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold said he was upset to learn of the plant's fate.
  
  "We had hoped that an economic turnaround and an upturn in the auto industry would make a difference," he said. "The employees did what they could and then they were told late last week that it would close anyway."
  
  Jobs at Woodbridge pay about $18 an hour, and it's difficult to lose so many well-paying positions, Arnold said. "It's a devastating blow for us as a community. That's 75 people without work."
  
  Woodbridge joins a growing list, with Basell and Century Truss having closed in the past two years and two units at the Lambton Generating Station expected to shut down next year, displacing 100 to 150 people.
  
  "It adds up," Arnold said. The township offered to work with Woodbridge to explore every possibility that would keep the plant open, he said.
  
  "We exhausted every avenue. They said there's nothing that will postpone this any further."
  
  Perry said production will "phase down" between February and May. A meeting will be held with the union soon to put together a closure agreement and consider issues such as retraining.
  
  "I want to thank our employees for their dedication and contributions," he said. "I wish them well in their future endeavors."
  
  Woodbridge Foam is part of the Woodbridge Group, which operates 64 facilities in 20 countries.
   
• EI data don't count those who run out 
  Without statistics on the number of jobless Canadians whose employment insurance benefits have been exhausted, it's difficult to gauge how many are headed for welfare
  By Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail, Monday, October 26, 2009
  
  In a country that dutifully tallies everything from egg sales to steel wire production, one crucial piece of the economic puzzle is missing.
  
  When Statistics Canada releases its monthly report on employment insurance today, notable will be the lack of information on the number of unemployed who have exhausted their EI benefits. This is frustrating the efforts of economists and also complicating public policy, because how can governments and support agencies respond if the full extent of the problem is unknown?
  
  “We don't know whether people are departing for new employment, or if they are exhausting benefits and persisting in the unemployment pool – and that is problematic,” said Grant Bishop, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. “There could definitely be better disclosure on the character of EI.”
  
  Mr. Bishop noted that this “poor real-time gauge” of how many unemployed are without income has implications for how governments plan the rates and delivery of social assistance.
  
  Currently no federal body publishes timely statistics showing how often EI benefits run out or welfare rates across the country, which economists expect to rise. Analysts say without this data, the problems are multiple: For one, EI statistics will become less meaningful because they won't reflect the growing number of people who are running out of benefits.
  
  The longer-term concern is that if these people can't find work, a growing number will “strip” their assets in order to qualify for welfare. Without statistics on benefits being exhausted, it's difficult to gauge how many people may be headed toward welfare.
  
  As of July, almost 788,000 people were receiving regular jobless benefits, a 57-per-cent increase since the labour market peaked last October. The latest numbers, however, showed a 3.8-per-cent drop in the number of people receiving regular claims month over month in July. On the surface, that's welcome news as the labour market stabilizes. But Statistics Canada analysts attribute part of the drop to benefit expiration.
  
  This is the first recession since employment insurance and welfare programs were reduced in the mid-1990s, and that makes public record-keeping all the more important, said John Stapleton, innovation fellow at the Toronto-based Metcalf Foundation, who has advised governments on social assistance issues for the past 35 years.
  
  “This is the first time those cuts are being tested, and we don't know what the result is,” he said. Mr. Bishop, who examines social policy, expects welfare caseloads to climb this year and next, and warns of the danger of long-term unemployment. Once someone is on welfare for more than two years, studies show re-entering the labour market becomes increasingly difficult.
  
  That also poses a challenge for the provinces, which are grappling with widening deficits just as, in many jurisdictions, welfare caseloads are rising. In Ontario, where welfare statistics are reported, caseloads have hit a nine-year high.
  
  The duration of EI benefits varies, from as little as 19 weeks in Quebec City and Regina, to as long as 50 weeks in Windsor, Ont., and Charlottetown.
  
  The other knowledge gap is the number of people turning to welfare. The federal government used to regularly publish national welfare rates until 1996, when it stopped requiring the provinces to submit data. Now only four provinces publish monthly data on their websites, and many of the numbers aren't comparable because they are tallied differently, said Gilles Seguin, who worked on welfare program information for the federal government from 1975 to 2003.
  
  “There's no public national source that tells us how many people are on welfare right now,” he said.
  
  Caseloads are climbing, however, as hiring remains sluggish. In Ontario, the number of welfare cases reached 238,598 in August, the highest since March, 2000. In British Columbia, the number of two-parent families on provincial welfare assistance jumped 77 per cent in April from a year earlier.
  
  Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the department that oversees EI, was unable to say how many people have exhausted their benefits this year. Its most recent report is based on 2006 and 2007 data.
  
• Petrolia landfill to power 2,500 homes
  By David Pattenaude, Sun Media, The Observer, October 21, 2009
  
  PETROLIA — Methane captured from a landfill here will produce enough energy to power 2,500 homes by next summer, Waste Management said Wednesday.
  
  “This project will ensure that not even garbage goes to waste,” said Michael Hirlehey, the company’s Petrolia landfill manager.
  
  “By investing in landfill-gas-to-energy, we will be developing clean and renewable energy to power homes and also create a more sustainable community.”
  
  Methane gas generated by decomposing waste will be piped to generators producing up to 3.2 megawatts of electricity, which is more than enough to power all the homes in Petrolia. The power will be sold to the Ontario Power Authority for 11 cents per kilowatt hour, under a 20-year contract, and feed the provincial power grid. When the site is fully operational by next July it will be the largest landfill gas facility in southwestern Ontario.
  
  Bluewater Power partnered with Waste Management on the project, which is expected to create two full-time operator jobs.
  
  “Our goal is to provide value to local communities by providing innovative energy solutions, which is exactly what this green energy project is all about,” said Tim Vanderheide, Bluewater’s chief operating officer.
  
  The landfill, which is located in Enniskillen Township, is great news because unlike wind and solar power projects it won’t use up valuable agricultural land, said township councillor Kevin Marriott.
  
  Marriott said the site also reduces reliance on power from fossil fuels like coal and oil, thus reducing carbon emissions. Added Petrolia Mayor John McCharles, “Any ongoing project turning waste into energy is a great thing.”
  
  Hirlehey said the Petrolia landfill will continuing receiving waste for three to four more years and should produce usable gas for at least another 20 years.
  
  Waste Management owns or operates 117 similar landfill projects in North America producing energy to power more than one million homes. That saves 14 million barrels of oil annually, Hirlehey said.
  
  “In a world of diminishing natural resources, we can harness waste for alternative forms of energy.”
   
• To build tomorrow’s workforce, employer insight needed
  NEWS RELEASE
  
  SARNIA (October 21, 2009): While many businesses are focused on maintaining current productivity or winning new contracts as the economy turns around, one local organization wants owners and managers to also think hard about their talent and training needs.
  
  In a survey released last week, the Sarnia Lambton Workforce Development Board (SLWDB) is asking 600 targeted Sarnia Lambton employers about their current and anticipated hiring and training efforts.  The survey is part of a larger project aimed at better preparing the Sarnia Lambton community to meet its human resource needs over the next several years.
  
  “Employers are on the frontlines of the local labour market and their first-hand perspective is invaluable to an initiative such as this,” said Vicky Ducharme, Executive Director, SLWDB. “The insight gained through the survey and upcoming focus groups will help validate and influence the workforce development strategy we are working on for our community.”
  
  The research has potential spinoffs for the business community as well – not just policy makers and educators.
  
  “Employers can benefit from this type of research,” said George Mallay, General Manager, Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership. “A workforce with in-demand skills helps local firms and the local economy stay competitive.”
  
  The surveyed companies – all leaders in their respective fields – were selected from a group of industries expected to drive future occupational demand and Sarnia Lambton’s future economic development.
  
  “Up until now, Sarnia Lambton hasn’t had a workforce development strategy that is strongly tied to local economic development priorities,” said Vicky Ducharme. “We want to ensure its relevancy by focusing on those occupations and skill sets in our community’s key industries from traditional petro-chemical and healthcare to emerging industries like clean tech.”
  
  Funding for the project has been made available by Employment Ontario and in part by the Government of Canada. Focus groups are being booked for November 2009 and the final workforce development strategy is to be released by May 2010. 
   
• Job losses at Suncor Energy
  Observer Staff, The Observer, October 17, 2009
  
  The merger between Petro-Canada and Suncor Energy has resulted in local job losses. Suncor spokesperson Jason Vaillant confirmed that of the 1,000 employees affected across the company by the merger, 12 to 15 people are affected at the Sarnia site.
  
  "It has had its impact here," he said. "We're looking at about a five per cent reduction at the Sarnia refinery. It's unfortunate there had to be any job losses at all."
  
  Vaillant said not all the job losses resulted in layoffs, as some were assumed by retirement and other attrition measures.
  
  Earlier this year, Suncor's chief operating officer Steve Williams visited the Sarnia refinery as part of a blitz tour of all Suncor assets, which combined with Petro-Canada to create a $43.3 billion entity. It is now the largest energy firm in Canada and fifth largest in North America.
  
  The merger gives Suncor control over four refineries in North America, a lubricants business and an international and offshore conventional oil facility as well. In addition to Sarnia, refineries are located in Montreal, Edmonton and Denver, Colorado. The refineries are central to the energy giant's future plans, Williams said in August.
  
  He told The Observer the company has invested heavily in the local refinery and the St. Clair Ethanol plant and are committed to its local operations.
   
• A new approach to farming
  By Margaret Webb, The Toronto Star, October 14 2009
  
  One innovative experiment to inject youthful vitality into Canada's aging farm sector looks a bit like the cast of the TV sitcom Friends transported from Manhattan to an organic farm 45 minutes east of Montreal.
  
  In this case, the "friends" are Frédéric Thériault and couples Renée Primeau and Reid Allaway, and Emily Board and Dan Brisebois, ranging in age from 28 to 31. The five met while studying agriculture and environmental science at McGill University. Though all grew up in urban settings, they desperately wanted to farm according to what Thériault calls applied environmental science – organics.
  
  Daunted by the challenges of entering the high-risk agricultural sector, they joined forces, established a workers' cooperative and developed a unique business plan that has delivered what has largely eluded Canadian farmers over the past few decades: financial stability, creative fulfilment, companionship in an often lonely pursuit, and pride in producing healthy food.
  
  They represent the most optimistic future for food production in Canada. The other future? Not so bright.
  
  Between 1996 and 2006, Canadian farmers under the age of 35 stepped off a demographic cliff – nearly 50 per cent left agriculture. More than 40 per cent are now over the age of 54, and one-third of all farmers, controlling half of all Canadian farm assets, will retire in the next 15 years, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
  
  The reason is clear: Farmers have been caught in the middle of a corporate squeeze play that has all but destroyed independent diversified Canadian farms. Increasing consolidation of agribusinesses – seed, fertilizer and chemical companies – has resulted in soaring input costs. At harvest, farmers face the same consolidation among retailers and processors, forcing prices down, often below the cost of production. The top four retailers now control 71 per cent of the food market, according to CIBC World Markets Inc., and they have the power to source cheaper food globally. Just two companies, XL and Cargill, have a 95 per cent lock on Canadian finished cattle slaughter.
  
  The result? According to the National Farmers Union (NFU), while profits were flowing to massive agribusiness and food companies, realized net incomes for farmers plunged to zero for much of this decade. Without a strong strategy to revitalize farming, especially mid-size farms, the bleak scenario is a corporate takeover of the 50 per cent of farm assets coming available by larger corporate farms (farms of 3,500-plus acres grew at a rate of 50 per cent between 2001 and 2006), and even processors and retailers. Control of Canada's food supply could fall into even fewer hands.
  
  That's a scenario many Canadian policy-makers just don't want to contemplate, says food policy expert Rod MacRae. "The implications are too severe."
  
  Yet, in this crisis, there is a golden opportunity to shift Canadian farming into a more sustainable future. Young people, like "the friends," want into agriculture, but they're interested in ecological farming and producing food for local markets. To avoid high start-up costs, the five rented 12 acres from a 1,500-acre organic crop farm operated by three brothers, the Dewavrins.
  
  "They really wanted the example of young farmers on the land for their children," says Brisebois.
  
  The friends then secured a $40,000 new-farm establishment grant from Quebec's ministry of agriculture, perhaps the most innovative farm start-up program in Canada. With it, they bought the limited equipment and supplies required to set up their Tourne-Sol vegetable farm, powered largely by the sun and their own physical labour. For a stable source of income, they rely not on government programs but selling directly to customers through a Community Supported Agricultural program and two weekly farmers' markets. The prices are affordable – about retail prices for produce – yet return a viable living to the young farmers who estimate they feed more than 1,200 people a season.
  
  Families clearly love the connection to the people who grow their food, and the farm. Many visit weekly to pick up their veggie basket. The young farmers established a picking garden so that families can enjoy plucking and eating veggies right from the soil. "They say it's a highlight of their week," says Brisebois. "The kids just run wild through the garden, and they're eating and loving vegetables."
  
  The young farmers also take care to nurture their own joy in producing food. The co-op model affords them a lifestyle most farmers can only dream of. They contain their work to 50-hour weeks during the growing season, pay themselves salaries with benefits, take most weekends off as well as a summer vacation, and enjoy down time in the winter to pursue other interests or take part-time jobs off the farm. And while they share overall planning, they still get the rush of running an independent business that farmers crave. Each takes responsibility for an area of the farm and has turned individual passions into new ventures – cut flowers, organic seed production, and medicinal tea herbs.
  
  Says Brisebois: "We're able to run a profitable farm without breaking our backs. We live modest lives but we're not worried financially. We make our own decisions. We work outside. We eat really well. I love the diversity of tasks, the constant decision-making. Really, I love everything about farming."
  
  In Ontario, there is a growing clamour for food grown this way. Demand for organic food is soaring by about 20 per cent a year, while the number of organic farmers is increasing by only between one and five per cent a year.
  
  Switching to such labour-intensive, organic systems would require a massive influx of labour. But that employment and rejuvenated local food economy would be a major stimulus to stagnant rural economies. However, enticing these talented young innovators will require major intervention.
  
  Non-profits are stepping into the breach. In Ontario, organizations such as FarmStart and Everdale Farm's Farmers Growing Farmers offer training and business planning for people hoping to realize their farm dreams. That work is helping fuel a resurgence in small farms – those less than 70 acres grew by nearly 20 per cent from 2001 to 2006.
  
  One creative idea is the "condo farm" – several diversified farms and even processing ventures operating within one large farm. That model is one way new Canadian farmers might gain access to expensive land. FarmStart runs a "matchmaking" service that links up landowners who don't want to farm their land with new farmers looking for land.
  
  Established farmers Ineke Booy and Martin de Groot, who run Mapleton's Organic Dairy, near Mount Forest, discovered that their best marketing venture was offering free land to a new organic farmer, Caitlin Hall, who set up a market on the farm. "People come to the farmer's stall and they always come in for at least an ice cream," says de Groot.
  
  The Afri-Can FoodBasket, a non-profit food security movement, teaches leadership and farming skills to Toronto teens. Last summer, it established some 20 backyard gardens in the Lawrence Heights and Jamestown communities, and worked a two-acre plot on the McVean Incubator Farm, 50 acres set aside for agriculture by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
  
  Next year, executive director Anon Lololi said the group plans to grow specialty herbs and vegetables such as okra, callaloo and sorrel for ethnic restaurants in the Toronto area. Lololi sees tremendous potential for new Canadian farmers serving Toronto's multicultural communities – and many want to farm. "Ontario farmers are still sleeping. They haven't engaged the most multinational city in the world. Farmers say they don't know how to grow this stuff. Well, they can connect with people who do."
  
  For all the sparkles of ingenuity in the non-profit sector, governments show little appetite for sustaining independent farming in Canada. According to food policy expert MacRae, the Ontario government has focused its succession planning on encouraging children of farm families to enter the field – and few want to. Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said the Ontario government has committed to establishing a young farmer's program but, so far, there is no sign of it. "We'll be doing something, when the resources are available," she said.
  
  MacRae, a professor at York University, says governments lack urgency on the matter. "Agriculture never gets its due in terms of its importance unless there's a huge crisis. We're able to run a profitable farm without breaking our backs. Agriculture never gets its due in terms."
  
• Job market rebounding
  By Cathy Dobson, The Observer, September 2009
  
  Sarnia-Lambton's 8.3 per cent unemployment rate indicates the local economy has taken a serious hit but is faring far better than neighbouring communities.
  
  Unemployment figures rose nearly two per cent since June 2007 when there was 5.5 per cent unemployment in Sarnia- Lambton, according to new figures released this week.
  
  As the recession arrived, they spiked at 9.6 per cent in March 2009 but the unemployment picture has recovered dramatically since then, says Vicky Ducharme, executive director at the Sarnia-Lambton Workforce Development Board (SLWDB).
  
  "It's moving in the right direction," she said.
  
  Statistics Canada has not provided local unemployment figures for several years and, instead, lumps Sarnia-Lambton in with Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent when calculating the rate. As a region, Statistics Canada says the unemployment rate sits at 12.9 per cent, a figure that Sarnia-Lambton officials have never felt reflects the true situation here.
  
  Many have felt that the economic downturn has impacted Windsor-Essex and Chatham- Kent far more than Sarnia- Lambton, and now they have the numbers to back that up.
  
  Consultant Tom McCormack of the Centre for Spatial Economics in Milton was hired by the SLWDB to devise a way to break out the unemployment rate for the three county areas.
  
  According to his calculations, Sarnia-Lambton's unemployment rate of 8.3 per cent compares to Chatham-Kent's at 12.6 per cent, while Windsor-Essex tops the scales at 14.5 per cent.
  
  McCormack said he uses population projections, labour force data from monthly household surveys and unemployment insurance statistics to determine the local unemployment rates.
  
  "I believe its a reasonable representation of what's happening across the three counties," he said. "It no longer will be so frustrating for everyone who wants information specific to Sarnia- Lambton."
  
  Ducharme said the numbers were skewed by Windsor, so it's great to see Sarnia-Lambton is in a better position.
  
  "We needed this data to form an accurate picture of the local labour force."
  
  Sarnia-Lambton Chamber of Commerce president Garry McDonald described successfully tracking down a local figure as a coup.
  
  "We've wanted our own figure for a long time."
  
  While he is convinced Sarnia- Lambton's numbers are in fact healthier than Chatham or Windsor's, he believes all unemployment rates are likely higher than what McCormack is reporting.
  
  That's because many tradespeople aren't working and have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits, McDonald said.
  
  The new unemployment figures are very helpful, commented Mayor Mike Bradley.
  
  "I thought ours might be a bit lower, closer to six or seven per cent. But the fact that we're at the low end for the region shows that diversification is achieving its goal," he said.
  
• Layoffs coming at generating station
  By Cathy Dobson, The Observer, September 4, 2009 
  
  The closure of two coal-fired units at the Lambton Generating Station next year will mean layoffs for 100 to 150 workers and impact many other local families, says the mayor St. Clair Township.
  
  "They always said they were aiming to do it faster if they could, but it still comes as a shock and disappointment," Steve Arnold said. "I can't downplay that. It affects the lives of so many people."
  
  Besides Ontario Power Generation employees, numerous tradesmen who maintain the units will be impacted, he added.
  
  Energy Minister George Smitherman said Thursday Ontario will close four coal-fired power units by October of 2010, four years ahead of the 2014 schedule. Two are at the Nanticoke station near Simcoe and the other two at the Lambton plant, near Courtright. With the shutdown of Lakeview Generating Station in 2005, coupled with the closure of the four units, Ontario's in-service coal capacity will be reduced by 40 per cent since 2003, Smitherman said.
  
  He said the province is on track to be one of the first jurisdictions in the world to eliminate coal-fired electricity generation. New natural gas plants and wind energy farms are coming on stream to ensure a greener energy supply, the minister said.
  
  OPG officials pointed out that there's been a 51 per cent reduction in electricity produced in its coal-fired plants this year because of a drop in demand. But the province can't count on every summer being as cool, said Carol Chudy, of the Clean Affordable Energy Alliance. She predicted the move will have a devastating impact on reliability and contribute to skyrocketing prices.
  
  "This is distressing news," she said. "We have less power use this year and this was factored into this decision. What happens if we return to a normal, hot summer and our industrial base turns around? We'll be in trouble."
  
  She accused the government of making a politically-driven decision, rather than an environmental one.
  
  "They are thinking they can't go into a 2011 election with all coal units still in production."
  
  The McGuinty government originally pledged to close the Lambton Generating Station by 2007, but backtracked several times.
  
  Arnold believes Thursday's announcement could mean the remaining two units, which have cleaner scrubber technology, will remain in operation.
  
  "I understand that in 2014 they'll look at their options and consider either converting to biomass fuels, natural gas or cleaner coal technology," said Arnold who met Thursday with the LGS site manager.
  
  Chudy said her group hopes the two targetted units will be left so it's possible to restart them if necessary.
  
  But OPG spokesman Bob Osborne told The Observer that isn't an option.
  
  "The two units will be permanently shut down and will not be considered for any type of alternative fuel," he said. "We don't intend to bring these units back at all."
  
  He said by 2014 all coal-fired units in Ontario will be phased out although some will be considered for conversion. Meanwhile, most LGS staff have collective agreements that were written in anticipation of the closures, Osborne said.
  
  "Staff will be treated fairly."
  
• Local welfare rate soaring
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, August 27, 2009 
  
  If Sarnia-Lambton had an official misery index it might be set at 24 this summer.
  
  The local welfare caseload has grown 24 per cent since January and use of the food bank and soup kitchen at the Inn of the Good Shepherd is up by about the same figure.
  
  "This isn't something we've experienced in quite a number of years," said Margaret Roushorne, the county's general manager of social services and children's services.
  
  The current welfare caseload numbers are as bad as they've been locally since the tough economy experienced in the 1990s, she said. Adding in dependents, there were nearly 5,000 local residents relying on welfare in July. Before the start of the year, an average of 1,700 people used the Inn of the Good Shepherd's food bank each month, said executive director Myles Vanni.
  
  "We're up to over 2,200 a month now, which has just decimated the food stocks."
  
  At the same time that demand is growing donations to the food bank are dropping, leaving many shelves empty.
  
  "We're out of a lot of stuff," Vanni said. That has had an impact across the county since the Inn distributes food to five other food banks.
  
  "If Petrolia was short on something, they'd call us up and we'd get it over to them," Vanni said. "Well, it's a lot more difficult for us to do that now.
  
  Vanni said families who were donating food just a year ago are now showing up in need of help.
  
  The recession's impact can also been seen in the rent and utility bank program the Inn of the Good Shepherd administers. Demand there is up 40 per cent, Vanni said.
  
  "We're seeing more and more people with mortgages who aren't able to make the payments, because they've been laid off or had their hours reduced."
  
  The impact may also be felt when county officials sit down to work out next year's budget. Lambton only budgeted for five per cent growth in the caseload this year and current projections are the county could end up with a deficit of $500,000 or more by the year end.
  
  The province pays 80 per cent of social assistance costs, but the county covers for the remaining 20 per cent out of local property taxes. A look around the region shows things could actually be worse.
  
  "Some municipalities are experiencing higher caseload growth," Roushorne said.
  
  London and Windsor are among those, she added.
  
  "The southwest region seems to be particularly hard hit, as well as Ottawa."
  
  Roushorne said it's difficult to predict what will happen to the welfare caseload for the rest of the year.
  
  "We're very much dependent on what's happening in the economy."
  
  Improvements in employment and caseload numbers traditionally lag behind other signs of a recovering economy.
   
• Turbine industry could create more than 5,000 jobs in Ontario, speaker predicts
  By Norman De Bono, The London Free Press, August 26, 2009
  
  The burgeoning wind-turbine industry could see more than 5,000 jobs created in Ontario over the next five years, a conference in London heard this morning.
  
  All that's needed are the manufacturers to invest in turbine manufacturing, and government polices to support business.
  
  "Provided we get our act together and people take risks and educate themselves and chase contracts with major wind-turbine manufacturers," said Helge Wittholz, a consultant in the wind-turbine industry who was a speaker at the seminar. "It takes effort, it won't be easy."
  
  But it is worth it as the sector is growing at a rate of 25 per cent a year, as other manufacturing industries decline, he added.
  
  "It is growing so fast there is a shortage in manufacturing capacity. If you need an industry you have to create a market."
  
  He called on the Ontario and federal governments to step up the support for the sector and for manufacturers to do the work needed, he added.
  
  "There has been a lot of lip service, a lot of talk, but policies have to be implemented."
  
  Now, there are few manufacturers of wind-turbine parts in Ontario, none in the London area, and only two makers of turbines in Canada — both in Quebec. The meeting was held at the London Club following a survey of regional manufactures in London, Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent, Huron County, Canada’s Technology Triangle, and Guelph.
  
  Members from Ontario’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade also spoke at the conference.
  
  
• Working nine to five?
  It's all taking and no giving in this economy. Worker bees may be putting in hours of free overtime, but employers could face empty offices once the recession turns around
  By Dave McGinn, The Globe and Mail, August 25, 2009
  
  When Jeff Blanchard leaves the office some Friday nights, the sun has set and his work isn't nearly done. Before Monday morning he knows he's still going to have to put in a pile of hours, all for free. But for this 24-year-old Toronto designer, unpaid overtime isn't something to complain about – it's simply a fact of life.
  
  “Some weeks we get out of here on time, other weeks it's 20 hours on a weekend or you're staying at the office until 10 at night,” he says. “I understand I've got to pay the price and put in some time to make sure I get all the stuff done that I can.”
  
  Many Canadians are putting in free overtime these days, and as many as 90 per cent of Canadian organizations believe that unpaid overtime will be an issue for their organization in the next few years, according to a recent Conference Board of Canada report. Indeed, 12 per cent of Canadians put in extra hours at work for free, a figure the Board arrived at before the recession bottomed out. And while many people can't be happy about having to work more for less, most won't raise the issue at work for fear of being seen as trouble makers, experts say, something that will only create toxic work environments.
  
  “We're pushing [people] to do more in this recession and they just can't take it,” says Linda Duxbury, a professor of organizational health at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa. “Exhausted, grumpy, cranky people with no life are not creative or innovative, and they are certainly not loyal.”
  
  There's no doubt people are being asked to do more with less these days.
  
  “Employers right now are tending to say, ‘Well let me see if I can handle any upsurges in work with overtime rather than hiring,'” says Michael Bloom, vice-president of organizational effectiveness and learning at the Conference Board of Canada.
  
  Given the current economy, however, most people are likely to suffer unpaid overtime silently.
  
  “It's human nature in a recession to be concerned about your job, and there's people who would be more inclined to stay quiet when they're faced with overtime,” Mr. Bloom says.
  
  Corporate Canada has encouraged a culture of “donated time” for more than two decades, says Ms. Duxbury. But the number of organizations now concerned about overtime becoming an issue in the future is a foreshadowing of change on the horizon.
  
  “It does signal this is an issue that's moving from having been not that high a profile issue and is now pretty quickly moving much higher on the radar,” Mr. Bloom says.
  
  One key reason for this change, he says, is the growing number of class-action lawsuits being launched in Canada. Indeed, class-action lawsuits centring on unpaid overtime have been launched in recent years against CIBC, KPMG, Scotiabank and the Canadian National Railway Company.
  
  The Conference Board of Canada report found that 41 per cent of organizations are now taking steps to mitigate the legal risks associated with having employees put in overtime without compensation. Still, most people don't complain about having to work unpaid overtime, especially at smaller companies. One reason is that they do not know if they are entitled to overtime pay, says Aaron Rousseau, a labour and employment lawyer in Toronto. Another is that they fear being viewed as “a complainer who's not willing to go the extra mile.”
  
  Many people may also feel that it is easier to just do the work than find themselves in a legal battle that can go on for months or even years.
  
  “It can be quite lengthy,” says Trisha Gain, a labour and employment lawyer in Calgary. “It may be that the employer and the employee can work it out amongst themselves,” she adds. If not, they may wind up at a provincial employment standards tribunal. “Usually a panel of people or a neutral chair will look at the case and hear arguments from both sides much like they would in court. That tends to be a faster process, but it still could potentially take months.”
  
  Even if people aren't complaining, however, employers should still be worried about requiring staff to put in unpaid overtime. Not only can it hamper morale and create a disgruntled work force, employees will be reluctant to bring problems to managers' attention for fear it will only mean more work, says Jim Thomson, vice-president of human resource operations at Ceridian Canada, a human-resources consulting company. “It freezes the entire organization,” he says.
  
  Mr. Blanchard has no plans to complain about putting in extra time off the clock. He likes his job, and he's glad to have it. “As long as I don't have anything really important that I'm missing, it's something that I don't mind doing,” he says.
  
  Others are probably just biding their time until the economy recovers and there are more job options, and only then will employers realize how unhappy their workers have been, Ms. Druxbury says.
  
  “They're just going to walk,” she says. “As soon as they can, they're gone.”
  
  
• Sarnia backdrop for short film
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, August 18, 2009 
  
  Sami Khan is getting tired of hearing people bad-mouth his hometown.
  
  Sarnia is the setting of his short film "75 El Camino," which has been selected for screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. The story of a middle-aged Sarnia couple who lost their jobs, their home and most of their dreams was shot in and around Sarnia over several days this past winter.
  
  "The one thing they have left is this 1975, Tobasco-red El Camino," Khan said over the phone from his apartment in Brooklyn. The recent graduate of Columbia University is taking advantage of the time left on his student visa to stay a little longer in the New York area, working on films, making contacts and soaking in more of its culture life.
  
  Khan said he found it frightening, but exhilarating, to make a movie in his hometown.
  
  "It's making something really personal, real and concrete," he said, "taking memories and putting them on screen for everyone to see."
  
  Kahn said he felt a responsibility to be truthful to Sarnia, to the people he grew up with, his family and his friends who still live there. He still remembers the reaction of people he met at the summer camp he went off to in northern Ontario when he was young. Khan said they would scoff and laugh when he said he was from Sarnia.
  
  "Sarnia kids can grow up with a chip on their shoulder because of things like that", he said. "I grew up in Sarnia and I'm proud of it. I'm proud of what Sarnia represents.It's gritty. Sarnia has been through a lot, especially the last 30 or 40 years with the punches it has taken from the economic downturn. But, it's still standing."
  
  There are great things in Sarnia, like the water and beaches, but more than that, there are great people, Khan said. "I think people's ideas of what Sarnia is are completely wrong. It's just a wonderful place."
  
  This will be Khan's second trip to the festival as a filmmaker. His first short film "The Workout" was screened there last year. "It's pretty cool," he said. "I feel lucky to go back-to-back."
  
  Khan said he went to the festival before, as a fan of movies, and going as a filmmaker is even better. As well as taking advantage of his filmmaker's pass to see as many films as he can squeeze in, it's a chance to meet and talk with other filmmakers, Khan said. He shot "75 El Camino," a script he wrote, with Toronto-based actors Earl Pastko (The Sweet Hereafter) and Victoria Snow (Men With Brooms) in the roles as the couple down on their luck.
  
  "They have to weigh whether or not they're going to sell the car, which is the one last symbol of independence and achievement that they have in their lives," Khan said.
  
  Originally, the script called for a 1968 red El Camino and Kahn went on a widespread search for one, which included sending off an e-mail to the Sarnia Street Machines group. Brian Hertle of Sarnia got back to him, off ering up his 1975 model. Khan said he went with Hertle down into parking garage where the car was stored to take a look.
  
  "This is the car," Khan said he thought as soon as he saw it. "Brian was just really amazing. I was fortunate to be able to connect with him." A fan of 1960s and 1970s car chase movies, Khan said he has always loved the utilitarian and "a little strange-looking," half car, half truck El Camino.
  
  "To me, it symbolized this idea of where these two characters come from, this world in 1975 before they have lost their innocence, lost their jobs and lost their home." "It stood for this promise."
  
  Khan scraped together the money for the short film and his supportive family, including his parents Anne and Dr. Rauf Khan, provided food and places for the crew to sleep during the shoot. Khan said that filming in the Chemical Valley, Ontario Street and other places around the city got him thinking about using locations around the community for the first feature film he hopes to make in the next year or two.
  
  "My dream is to turn Sarnia into a little hub of moviemaking."
   
• Fuel firm eyes sites
  By Paul Morden, The Observer, August 12, 2009 
  
  A Toronto-based company that wants to turn garbage into fuel and chemical feedstocks is looking at a potential plant site in St. Clair Township.
  
  Michael Hepworth, vice-president of the Alternative Fuels Corporation, met with township council in a closed session Monday.
  
  "There is some land in St. Clair (Township) that is interesting," Hepworth said.
  
  Mayor Steve Arnold said after the meeting that council agreed to work with the company, if it decides to locate in the township.
  
  "I really think it's an exciting concept," Arnold said. "We'll see how they do." He added, "I'm hoping both the feds and the province will stand behind them and help them along."
  
  The company is looking for federal and provincial government funding for the venture, Arnold said. Hepworth said the building of the first phase of the proposed refinery is "probably two or three years away still."
  
  The first phase would be a plant capable of producing 700 barrels of diesel fuel, gasoline and chemicals a day, he said. That could be followed by a second phase that would boost production to 6,000 barrels a day, according to the proposal given to township council. In total, what the company is proposing would cost an estimated $350 million to build.
  
  Hepworth said the refinery would employ at least 200 workers, and possibly as many as 400.
  
  The company has also been looking at potential sites in Sarnia.
  
  "Everything that we require is here and everything that we sell can be sold in Sarnia," Hepworth said. "So, it makes a lot of sense for us to be in this area."
  
  Hepworth said the company is planning to use technology that has already been developed in various parts of the world.
  
  "No one has put all the pieces together but each piece of the puzzle is proven," he said. "This is a new company and it has been set up especially to do this."
  
  The proposed refinery would use high temperatures to turn waste into fuels, oils and waxes. Those products could then be sold to existing companies in Chemical Valley, Hepworth said. The process can use municipal waste, scrap tires, refinery sludge and even what's left when automobiles are scrapped. But, Hepworth said, the proposal would primarily use municipal garbage that has been sterilized, to stop its decomposition, and then turned into fuel pellets. The processing of the waste would likely happen elsewhere and the fuel pellets shipped to the proposed refinery. The pellets are odorless and the refinery would have "no emissions," Hepworth said. "We believe this technology can be exported all over the world."
  
• Merger to result in job losses
  By Tyler Kula, The Observer, August 6, 2009
  
  A merger between Petro- Canada and Suncor will result in some local job losses.
  
  Employees should know within six weeks how many positions will be eliminated in Sarnia, the Canadian petroleum company's chief operating officer said Wednesday.
  
  Steve Williams visited the Sarnia refinery as part of a blitz tour of all Suncor's assets, which combined with Petro-Canada over the weekend to create a roughly $43.3 billion entity. It is now the largest energy firm in Canada and fifth largest in North America.
  
  "Unfortunately, one of the consequences of the merger is there is going to be job losses," Williams said. "Most of those will be around the head offices in Calgary, but the businesses will not be completely unaff ected."
  
  The merger gives Suncor control over four refineries in North America, a lubricants business and an international and offshore conventional oil facility as well, Williams said.
  
  Refineries are in Sarnia, Mont real, Edmonton and Denver, Col. are central to the energy giant's future plans, Williams said.
  
  "We've invested recently in the refinery, we've invested in the ethanol plant as well," he said. "We're committed to the refinery. It's operated very well and we're very proud of the people and facilities that we have."
  
  Marc Mageau, vice president at the Sarnia refinery, said workers were excited about the merger and proud Suncor is now the "great Canadian energy company."
  
  "This facility has been part of the Suncor family for more than 50 years and I think is very confident of its place in the new Suncor," he said.
  
  The merger was necessary in order to compete with energy producers on the global stage more effectively in harsh economic times, Williams said. Suncor will continue to be the corporate level name, but PetroCanada's brand will still exist when selling refined products like gasoline and diesel. What happens to Sunoco has yet to be determined, Williams said. But the new entity's prime focus will be on the Alberta oil sands.
  
  "The centre of a lot of our activities will continue to be the continual steady growth of the oil sands," he said. Combining IT departments, human resources departments, supply chain departments and others will allow the new Canadian petroleum giant to weed out inefficiencies and leverage the very best in both companies, he said.
  
  The merger should reduce costs by $300 million and allow Suncor, the oldest and second-largest oilsands operator, to continue with capital projects even during economic lulls, he said. Recently Suncor posted a quarterly loss of $51 million or six cents per share, compared with a profit of $829 million or 89 cents per share one year earlier.
  
   
• Two-thirds of Canadian industries cut jobs in May 
  Most job losses occurred in Ontario, Quebec and B.C.; survey does not include self-employment or farming
  By Heather Scoffield, The Globe and Mail, July 30, 2009
  
  Two-thirds of the country's industries were still in layoff mode in May – an improvement from January, Statistics Canada says.
  
  The monthly survey of industry payrolls shows that 63 per cent of 305 sectors were cutting positions that month. That's down from 75 per cent in January, but about the same as in March and April. Layoffs were particularly harsh in the auto sector, at elementary and high schools, and in full-service restaurants, Statscan said.
  
  The widespread layoffs mean that 64,000 payroll jobs disappeared in May – a slight 0.4-per-cent decline from the losses in April. Since October, when Canada's labour market peaked, a total of 423,900 payroll positions have been eliminated.
  
  The survey of employment, earnings and hours looks at company payrolls to determine trends in the job market. Unlike the Labour Force Survey, it does not include self-employment or farming.
  
  The Labour Force Survey is larger and more up to date but relies on households rather than company books to give up details of their working lives. It showed little change in employment in June, after a decline of 42,000 positions in May.
  
  By region, the May payroll survey showed the largest job losses were in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, Statscan said. Average earnings, including overtime, were up 1.6 per cent from a year earlier. That's down considerably from the 3.0 per cent year-over-year increase marked in October, but was faster than the 1.1-per-cent change seen in April. The largest raises were being handed out in health care and social assistance, where earnings were up 8.6 per cent from a year ago. Factory workers, on the other hand, were earning 6.1 per cent less than a year ago, and teachers were making 1.9 per cent less.
  
  
• Feds to spend $40M on navy, Coast Guard
  By Peter Zimonjic, National Bureau , Sun Media, July 27, 2009
  
  The federal government will spend $40 billion over the next 30 years to build 50 new ships for the navy and the Coast Guard. The announcement was made in Hull, Que., yesterday where Defence Minister Peter MacKay is spending two days in closed-door meetings with defence contractors and shipbuilders to work out how to best replace Canada’s aging fleet.
  
  Billing it as an extension of the fed’s “Economic Action Plan,” MacKay spoke of “wrench-ready” projects that will put Canadians back to work.
  
  “It’s a win-win situation where the navy gets the vessels that they need, while sustainable, high-value jobs are created,” MacKay said.
  
  Industry Minister Tony Clement, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea, and Public Works Minister Christian Paradis were also on hand in a show of what Clement called “historic and unprecedented” commitment to renew Canada’s fleet.
  
  Aside from laying out how much the government intends to spend, the talks are intended to act as a springboard to renew Canada’s ability to build its own ships.
  
  Clement said there are currently 5,000 people working in Canada’s shipping industry, but as many as 10,000 new jobs could be created over the next 30 years. The navy, however, is facing a shortage of bodies to man any new ships, a situation that is being addressed, MacKay said.
  
  “I would call it a major recruiting drive,” said MacKay. “We are going to be doing more this fall … there are a lot of jobs in the Canadian Forces right now.” 
  
  
• Cops efficient, unhappy
  By Shawn Jefford, The Observer, July 25, 2009
  
  Sarnia is getting good bang for the buck from its municipal police service but the morale of its officers is low, according to a consultant's workload analysis done for Sarnia Police. Sarnia police is slightly under-staffed and answers more calls for service compared to forces of comparable size, the report found.
  
  But front-line officers resent colleagues who have been assigned to modified duty because of injuries, the Sarnia Police Services Board heard Thursday.
  
  "There are a quantity of HR (human resource) issues that need to be addressed," consultant Mike Mitchell said.
  
  The board asked Chief Phil Nelson to prepare a report by the end of summer on how to implement recommendations. A two-person team at MPM Consulting used reports, service data and interviews conducted with 41 staff members to compile the study.
  
  The police service is "modestly staffed" with 112 uniformed officers, Mitchell said. Sarnia has one officer for every 670 citizens. Sault Ste. Marie, of similar size, has a complement of 138 officers, a ratio of one to 554 citizens. A Sarnia officer answers about 190 calls per year, including occurrences such as minor collisions and break and enters. Many police services no longer respond to such calls, and if service levels were cut those things would be the first to go, Mitchell said.
  
  The study notes what some officers feel is "preferential treatment" of co-workers on accommodated duties. The report pins blame for the problem on the previous administration, which viewed "treatable medical conditions" in a similar light to injuries leading to disability, the report says.
  
  "The belief that abuses of sick leave provisions have been allowed to perpetuate is widespread throughout the organization."
  
  That's created resentment and low morale, requiring a human resources professional to help officers on modified duty return to the frontlines, Mitchell said. "As good as the service is, there are problems due to this preferential treatment some have received."
  
  The report also recommends the establishment of a collision reporting centre to lessen officer paperwork.
  
  Chief Phil Nelson said he's pleased with the study but acknowledged morale needs to be addressed.
  "I knew there were some weaknesses in the organization and it's good to have someone outside tell you what you could work on," he said.
  
  The city could be policed properly with the current complement of officers if they were all able to do frontline work, Nelson said. Ten officers and four civilian employees are currently on modified duty. Five others are on an inactive roster, including two who are suspended and three receiving workers compensation benefits.
  
  A professional human resources manager could help get people back to work, the report says.
  
  "Traditionally speaking, police officers are not trained as HR managers. The person in charge of administration has been overlooking all of these issues."
  
  Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the question will be how to pay for an HR expert in tough economic times. "There is no question having the right (HR) person in place could lead to considerable savings," Bradley said. "That's what we'll look at over the summer."
   
• Sarnia's UBE wheel plant sold
  By Shawn Jeffords, The Observer, July 23, 2009
  
  A new wheel plant will rise from the ashes of UBE Automotive and it could mean employment for hundreds of people.
  
  UBE officials confirmed Wednesday a deal has been reached to sell the troubled Sarnia wheel factory to a Canadian company. The buyer, which has not yet been identified at its request, plans to continue making automotive wheels. Japan-based UBE announced in January it would close the plant and lay off all its workers by the end of the year.
  
  "It looked pretty grim for a while there," said plant manager Rob McPherson. "But now there's a future. We're just going to have to give it some time to see what the company's plans and objectives are."
  
  McPherson said the new owner is expected to reveal its intentions for the 350,000 square foot factory on Highway 402 soon. Layoffs will continue at the six-year-old facility until only a six-member management team remains in place to coordinate the transition. McPherson said the workforce will be rebuilt slowly over a two-year period, with a round of hiring starting in the spring of 2010. Former UBE employees will be considered before other applicants, he said.
  
  "It's going to take from a year to three years to get the employment level back up to what it was at UBE's peak," he said. At one point, the plant had 255 full-time staff and operated at 100 per cent capacity, seven days a week.
  
  Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the news represents a remarkable turnaround for the plant. He lauded UBE for accepting an off er that might not have been the most lucrative one on the table, but which was best for Sarnia-Lambton.
  
  "I can't go into all the details but they were generous to the community in accepting this offer over some of the others," said Bradley, noting the deal has been in the works for months. UBE had considered demolishing the plant, which would have cost local government more than $400,000 a year in lost taxes. The city has no financial interest in the sale but will assist the new owner, which plans to apply for green energy grants to retrofit the plant, he said.
  
  UBE manufactured primarily aluminum wheels for upscale car models. The new owner is expected to diversify and use new technology to work with car companies that UBE didn't, the mayor said.
  
  "UBE and Honda have had disputes since the First World War so UBE could never get Honda business," he said. "This new company has already made approaches."
  
  George Mallay, general manager of Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, was upbeat.
  
  "It's a tough environment out there for business," he said. "We're optimistic about the future . . . The company is very impressed with the quality of the workforce and management at the plant."
  
  In 2005, UBE made 1.4 million aluminum wheels for automakers using robotic equipment imported from Japan. That same year the company closed its Mason, Ohio plant, the only other UBE manufacturing site in North America. Stiff competition in recent years from Chinese manufacturers had an impact, company representatives have said.
   
• Help desperately wanted
  By Dan Bortolotti, FP Magazine, July 10, 2009
  
  Here's a suggestion for people with a death wish. Stroll through Windsor, Ont., or a Newfoundland outport, and chat up the older residents about their employment prospects. After you've listened to their tales about massive layoffs in the automotive sector and dried-up opportunities in natural resources, tell them that Canada is facing a labour shortage. Then start running.
  
  Along with sticks and stones, your pursuers will hurl statistics at you. In May, the country hit its highest level of joblessness since 1998 - 8.4% - and staffing firm Manpower Canada reports that a mere 16% of companies are planning to hire new workers in the third quarter of 2009. Canada's GDP shrank by an annual rate of 5.4% in the first quarter of this year, its worst contraction since 1991. Those are dramatic numbers. But they're merely snapshots of the recent past, not a trailer for the feature film. What's coming soon to a city near you are workplaces that will be desperate for young, highly skilled workers. Unlikely as it sounds, Canada is actually in the midst of an ongoing labour shortage.
  
  It's a shortage that will have a substantial impact across wide sectors of the economy as we pull out of the recession, and will grow over the years to follow. According to predictions from the Conference Board of Canada, Ontario may face a shortfall of 190,000 workers by 2020, while Quebec may be short 363,000 workers by 2030. The think tank predicts that British Columbia may be in need of 160,000 employees by 2015, while Alberta may have 332,000 unfilled positions by 2025.
  
  The apparent contradiction between the unemployment rate, which is at an 11-year high, and a labour shortage can be explained by separating the current economic woes from the people in the workforce. The economy can turn around - for better or worse - in mere months, but overall skill levels and demographic patterns take years or decades to change, and it's these long-term trends that are behind the coming crunch. "Right now, with unemployment where it is, labour shortages are the furthest thing from people's minds," says Jim Milway, executive director of the Martin Prosperity Institute, a Toronto-based economic think tank. "But mark my words, this recession will end - whether in six, or nine, or 12 months - and those ‘Help Wanted' signs will be going back up."
  
  To understand why, it helps to point out that the current overall employment situation is not nearly as bleak as the headlines suggest. The numbers are highly skewed by the carnage in manufacturing and construction. Since the spring of 2008, Canada has shed more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs, a staggering decline of about 10%, and lost an additional 100,000 jobs in construction. "Manufacturing of both durable and non-durable goods is the weakest we have seen in our surveys since the first quarter of 1978," says Lori Rogers, vice-president of staffing services for Manpower Canada. It's a rotten time to be a middle-aged auto worker, but routine-oriented physical jobs have been in decline for decades. These occupations have unemployment rates approaching 13%, with little hope for improvement.
  
  The big picture looks quite different, however. Statistics Canada divides the Canadian workforce into two broad categories: the goods-producing sector (manufacturing, construction, agriculture, natural resources and utilities) and the service-producing sector, which lumps together everything else. This latter sector - which employs three and a half times more people than the goods-producing sector - has seen a net increase of 24,000 jobs in the last year. So while the demise of manufacturing jobs has meant hardship for thousands, the service economy is providing livelihoods for more than 13 million Canadians, and that number is growing.
  
  True, recent job gains in the service sector have been modest, well off the growth we saw from 2006 through 2008. But that was during an economic boom and was unsustainable: We had three straight years of unemployment under 7%, a streak we've not seen since the 1960s, before women entered the labour force in significant numbers. In fact, the average annual jobless rate over the past 33 years has been 8.5% - a tick higher than it was in May. We've merely come down from Mount Everest and settled at sea level.
  
  The current hiring freeze at many companies is not going to change the long-term trend. "The recession is actually masking a talent shortage, not only in Canada, but globally," says Manpower's Rogers. There's already a dearth of skilled workers in a wide variety of occupations. Many economists would classify a level of unemployment under 3% as an acute labour shortage, and creativity-oriented workers - a diverse group including scientists and technologists, managers and analysts, lawyers and accountants - now have a jobless rate of just 2.7%. "Unemployment among this creative class is up a bit because of the recession, but it's nothing compared with what you see among blue-collar workers," says Milway.
  
  For example, in high-tech fields such as IT, demand for highly skilled workers remains strong. "I don't think it's ever easy to find good people," says Sarah Weiss, manager of campus programs for IBM Canada. Another sector where worker demand is strong is public administration - local, provincial and federal government departments and agencies, as well as courts and correctional institutions. In nursing, meanwhile, unemployment levels are a minuscule 0.6%, far lower than in any other profession. "There is a well recognized global nursing shortage," says Dr. Sally Thorne, director of the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia.
  
  And despite the fact that many Canadians seem eager to run their investment advisers out of town, the labour market for business and finance professionals is also tight. A 2009 Manpower survey ranks financial jobs number eight among hard-to-fill positions. Statistics Canada confirms that unemployment in the sector is a mere 2.7% - up from 1.9% in 2008, but still very low. "When it comes to business and finance, contrary to the general perception, in Canada it seems there is still a shortage," says Roger Sauvé of People Patterns Consulting, which specializes in the labour market.
  
  It's worth stressing that creativity-oriented jobs like these are not a lone bright spot in an otherwise dark economic future. On the contrary, they are Canada's economic future, and will be the engine of growth in the years to come. As the number of creative jobs grows, Milway says, they create other opportunities in the service industries. More high-tech workers means more office cleaners to vacuum the cubicles; more accountants working overtime means more take-out restaurant visits on the way home. The Martin Prosperity Institute estimates that creativity-oriented jobs and the services they spawn will make up almost 90% of new positions by 2016. According to Milway, it will be difficult to fill all these new jobs, and while immigration will help, it won't be enough to prevent worker shortages.
  
  Another major factor driving the shortage is our aging population. According to Sauvé, the number of workers aged 55 to 64 has doubled since 1989, while the number over 65 has increased by an astonishing 129%. When the Baby Boomers finally retire, they will leave enormous career opportunities in their wake.
  
  The recession has merely slowed down this demographic inevitability. In many jobs, workers with seniority are the least likely to be laid off, and some workers have delayed retirement so they can rebuild their savings. All of which is creating obstacles for younger people getting jobs - but only temporarily.
  
  The labour shortage will create winners and losers. On one hand, a tight labour market can create big problems for businesses. As companies are forced to raise wages to compete for fewer skilled employees, their costs go up. At the same time, however, a backlog of unfilled positions leads to a drop in production levels. This double whammy of rising costs and lower production is what economists call "wage-push inflation." It can slow economic growth, contribute to a lower overall standard of living, and make the country less competitive in the global marketplace.
  
  The real casualties in Canada's evolving labour force will continue to be those who work in the goods-producing sector, especially manufacturing. Some will successfully complete retraining programs and find work in new fields. Many more, unfortunately, face years of hardship as they compete for a shrinking number of jobs in industries that continue their steady decline.
  
  The winners, of course, will be those with the schooling and skills suited to the new economy. As companies demand more creative, highly skilled workers - a trend already well underway - young, well-educated Canadians can look forward to a fertile job market in the months and years ahead. In the sectors with the greatest needs, the small number of qualified workers should be able to demand higher wages and better working conditions. When the economy improves and these young guns are in high demand, look for them to push back against their employers, lobbying for more flexible hours and family-friendly policies.
  
  The cloud of recession is still hovering above us, and there may be more rain in the coming months. But young Canadians and people in skilled fields can look forward to their day in the sun. "It sounds heartless to say this now," Milway says, "but high unemployment is not a long-term problem."
   
• Out of work and going public
  Recession drives Canadian youth to rethink their career choices and many are flocking to the perceived security of public-sector jobs
  By Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail, July 16, 2009
  
  Like thousands of young Canadians, Tanya Forrest is charting a new career path in this recession. The 31-year-old engineer has abandoned her chosen field – in extractive metallurgy with mining and steel companies – and hopes to find stable employment in nursing. That's why the Hamilton resident is heading back to school.
  
  “It was a big decision because I had already completed five years of university. And to face down the barrel of another four years … is quite depressing, financially,” she says of her decision, made after she was laid off at Stelco Inc.
  
  The worst labour market in a decade is causing young workers to radically revisit their career plans. In many cases, they're tilting to the perceived stability of the public sector, such as health care and community services, according to enrolment data compiled by community colleges and universities.
  
  “I have to look at long-term job security. And nursing absolutely has better job prospects,” Ms. Forrest explained, adding that in nursing, “you're really making a difference.”
  
  Her view exemplifies a sea change for a generation who grew up in the longest economic expansion on record – a group that hasn't exactly viewed “reliable” and “stable” as prized job attributes.
  
  Until last year, labour shortages meant people in their 20s and 30s could have their pick of jobs, wrangle higher salaries and hop from one position to another. Now, a deteriorating job market for young people is forcing a major rethink.
  
  Nursing, paramedics, police foundations training, early childhood education, social work and fish-and-wildlife conservation are seeing the biggest jump in applications for fall terms in Ontario schools, according to Ontario College Application Service data.
  
  “The public sector definitely seems stronger; people are seeing it as a growing area,” said John Curtis, registrar for Centennial College in Toronto. “We've got an aging population, so people are seeing it as a place to go.”
  
  Some of the training shift began just before the economy unravelled. For the 2007-08 school year, the biggest jump in university enrolment was in health, parks, recreation and fitness fields, Statistics Canada reported this week. Enrolment fell in mathematics, computer and information sciences, and communication technologies.
  
  Conversations with school registrars across the country suggest many young Canadians are targeting health care – specifically nursing – in the coming term. At the University of Manitoba, nursing applicants rose 15 per cent for this fall. At George Brown College in Toronto, it rose 10 per cent.
  
  It's little wonder that nursing is seen as a safe harbour: An aging population and retiring work force mean the profession faces a shortfall of 60,000 nurses by 2022, the Canadian Nurses Association predicts.
  
  The other hot area is community services. Centennial College has seen applications double this spring for personal support worker programs – people who want to provide care to the elderly, the disabled and to those with chronic illnesses. Other schools report heightened interest in early childhood education, social work, and housing and children's services.
  
  Several factors explain the widespread shift to the public sector, said Elizabeth Holland, managing partner at Career Council, a career advice firm that has recorded a 12-per-cent increase in young people moving into the public sector over the past year.
  
  “One is the economy. Two is the change in the attitude of young people. They're looking not just at money as their main focus – they want to give back to the community,” Ms. Holland said.
  
  “Young people have seen their parents laid off, their families go through change and stress, and whether they're conscious of that or not, they're looking for more security,” she said. “And that's often in the public sector.”
  
  For many young people, that means hitting the books. Others are moving into unexpected self-employment.
  
  Amit Bhalla, 29, is an MBA grad from Queen's University in Kingston, who saw opportunities for full-time work at banks and consulting companies evaporate last fall. Rather than endure a low-paying part-time summer job, he and two friends are starting a bio-pharmaceutical company aimed at developing cancer treatments.
  
  “It's easier to accept there's no cash flow when your friends don't have that either,” said Toronto-based Mr. Bhalla, who's logging 80-hour weeks and has just returned from China as part of the venture.
  
  Youth entrepreneurship is growing across Canada, according to statistics from the Toronto-based Canadian Youth Business Foundation. It has recorded a 42-per-cent surge in applications and startups this year.
  
  Elspeth Murray, director of the Queen's Centre for Business Venturing, lists several reasons why:
  
  “No paying jobs, more requirement to be socially responsible and – the hallmark of this generation – they're more aware and widely travelled, and they believe they can control things at a very young age.”
  
  Another burgeoning area, one that has been steadily growing for the past few years, is so-called green jobs. Lauren Friese, founder of Canadian online student job site TalentEgg.ca, reports a wave of interest in green technology and services, though she said there are still “more that want to work … than actual opportunities.”
  
  Nicole Smith is one would-be green worker. The 27-year-old spent the past five years in finance, recently on the equity desk of a Bay Street investment management firm, where she hoped to specialize in trading complex derivatives.
  
  With the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, and the ensuing financial crisis, she realized “this was not a cool area to be in any more.”
  
  Ms. Smith agonized about her job, her pay and her career choice. “And then, I just had a dawning realization – which a lot of people my age and in my position had – which is: Is this really what I want to be doing anyway?”
  
  She quit her job last month and is now searching for work in Toronto as a research analyst on the environmental side – in clean technology or food production. “The recession has given me a clearer view of what I want. I've always been interested in green issues, and I'm looking for reliable work in the future. And that means staying very far away from complex derivatives.”
  
  
• Accountants in Ontario get into a CA(t) fight
  Proposed law over credentials dismays foreign-trained accountants, but provincial chartered accountants support it
  By Janet McFarland
  The Globe and Mail, July 1, 2009
  
  When Mahes Wickramasinghe moved to Canada in 1989 to work for an accounting firm, he never considered concealing the credentials he had earned from Britain's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
  
  But Mr. Wickramasinghe and other foreign-accredited accountants are now facing a crackdown on using the designations they earned abroad, in a raging battle that could only happen in the notoriously fractious world of accounting regulation in Ontario.
  
  The bizarre dispute hinges on the use of a few letters. New legislation tabled in the province would prohibit accountants who have earned designations in foreign countries from displaying those letters after their names on business cards or letterhead if they include any portion of the initials CA (chartered accountant), CMA (certified management accountant) or CGA (certified general accountant).
  
  The proposed Bill 158 has dismayed two British-based accounting organizations – the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) – whose combined 3,500 members have long displayed their credentials when working in Canada. Mr. Wickramasinghe now works for a Barbados subsidiary of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He also represents North America and the Caribbean on CIMA's council in Britain, says many of his group's members see the legislation as yet another hurdle that is making it more difficult for immigrants to get a toehold in Canada.
  
  He said people feel a sense of betrayal when they have been chosen to come to Canada as skilled immigrants based on their qualifications, but then are told they can't use those credentials when they arrive.
  
  “Once you come here, you hear, ‘That qualification is not recognized, and, by legislation, you're even barred from using that,'” he said.
  
  Ontario does not require accountants to be approved or licensed provincially unless they are providing auditing services. That status will not change under Bill 158, and foreign-trained accountants will still be able to work in the same sorts of finance and accounting roles as they currently hold. But accountants say it is nonetheless a blow to be told they cannot even display designations they have earned elsewhere.
  
  Paul Costello, spokesman for the ACCA in Canada, said his members are especially concerned because the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario launched legal action in 2006 against an ACCA member, arguing he should not be able to use the ACCA designation “FCCA” after his name because it includes the letters “CA.” (FCCA denotes a “fellow” of the ACCA.)
  
  Although the accountant won his case at a second trial after a first decision was overturned on appeal, Mr. Costello said there is a clear risk that others could face the same sort of legal challenge for simply displaying their credentials.
  
  The proposed bill would have tighter wording about the use of initials behind names, as well as a new $10,000 penalty for breaches of the rule.
  
  “There has never been an issue where any of our members have been identified as breaching that section of the Act, or even confusing the public,” he added.
  
  The Ontario government says the new rules are intended to prevent misunderstandings by the public when people are dealing with accountants whose designations are similar to known Canadian designations.
  
  “The legislation is intended to protect potential consumers of accounting services from confusion about the qualifications of accountants,” said Brendan Crawley, spokesman for the Ministry of the Attorney-General, which is responsible for setting accounting standards.
  
  The province is, however, considering whether confusion could be avoided by indicating the country from which the credentials were earned when they are displayed, he said. That could mean, for example, that a British-certified accountant could put (UK) after his or her designation.
  
  However, the proposed compromise is not winning over the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, which is strongly opposed to the display of foreign designations using the “CA” letters, and has long fought to protect CA standards in the province.
  
  “It's important to protect the designation in the marketplace from confusion with any other designation,” said ICAO co-president Brian Leader. He said there are “very different standards” for other designations in other countries, and they are not equivalent to a CA standard.
  
  And he argues that people with foreign designations are not subject to any oversight or discipline in Ontario if they breach professional standards.
  
  “If they want to use an accounting designation in Ontario, they should get one of the three designations that are regulated in Ontario and overseen by the government and given the right to exist by the government through their Acts,” Mr. Leader said. “So there are those paths.”
   
• Skills camps start today
  By Tyler Kula
  The Observer, July 6, 2009
  
  Grade 7 and 8 students interested in checking out skilled trades can join two-week "Skills Work" camps at Lambton College, starting today. Camps have been held at the college through Skills Canada- Ontario and the Sarnia Lambton Workforce Development Board for the past eight years. They expose students to trade opportunities they may consider as careers. The camps are overseen by skilled-trades professionals in culinary, construction, horticulture and carpentry disciplines.
  
  "For the community, I think it's beneficial for everybody involved, especially for the economic climate we're in right now to have the students have access to local professionals," said Lee Brunton, project coordinator with the SLWDB.
  
  Campers take workshops and local industry tours to see firsthand what careers are available in the community.
  
  "It's a phenomenal summer camp," Brunton said. We're really happy to be able to be a part of it and to run it this year."
  
  Registration is $150 per student for the first week, which runs July 6 to 10 from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. The second week, July 13 to 17, is set aside for First Nations students. Their registration is paid in full by Imperial Oil.
  
  "We've sponsored a number of camps over the last two years and a lot of local organizations that support different camps and different programs," said Julie Ferguson, Imperial Oil spokesperson. "This is just kind of continuing with creating opportunities and awareness for First Nations."
  
  A total of 18 camps are held across the province.
   
• Building the Green Economy: Employment Effects of Green Energy
  Investments for Ontario
  By Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier
  Blue Green Canada, May 2009
  
  The authors assess the job creation potential of two green investment scenarios in Ontario.
  
  Under the first scenario, based on European countries that have laws similar to the Green Energy Act (GEA), a total investment of $47.1B over 10 years would result in 90,000 jobs/year. The jobs would ramp up over time as investments in conservation, renewable energy, recycling waste energy into electricity and smart grid upgrades increased.
  
  Under the second scenario, based on the green energy investments proposed in the Ontario Power Authority's plan for rebuilding the province's electricity system, investments totalling $18.6B over 10 years would result in 35,000 jobs/year. Both of these scenarios exceed the Government of Ontario's goal of creating 50,000 jobs within 3 years stemming from the GEA.
  
  The authors recommend that the Government of Ontario enhance the benefits of the GEA by increasing the proportion of total spending that is channelled to local businesses within the province. One way to do this is to focus spending as much as possible on activities that are location-specific, especially construction-related work.
  
  Read the full report »
   
• Closing Ontario coal units has been discussed: OPG
  By Cathy Dobson
  The Observer, May 25, 2009
  
  The recession is reducing the need for coal-generated electricity, which could impact the closure schedule of some production units, an official with Ontario Power Generation said Monday.
  
  Meetings are being held with employees at Ontario's four coal-fired plants, including one last week at the Lambton Generating Station near Courtright, said OPG spokesman Ted Gruetzner.
  
  He wouldn't provide details but said the economic downturn has produced "a new wrinkle" for OPG.
  
  "The possibility of not operating some units was discussed," Gruetzner said. "But there has been no decision yet on what we’re going to do."
  
  Despite a strong protest from the Sarnia-Lambton region, the Liberal government has vowed all coal-fired plants must close or convert to cleaner fuels by 2014. Legislation was passed last year to gradually reduce coal-fired generation. However a steady reduction in the use of fossil fuels during the economic downturn has prompted OPG to reassess its business plan, Gruetzner said.
  
  "I don’t think it's something we anticipated a year ago. And it's certainly a factor."
  
  LGS employees were told Friday that various options are being explored, which include the possible conversion to natural gas, biomass fuels or unit closures. No further details are being disclosed, Gruetzner added.
  
  "It’s premature to say anything more. We understand folks on the shop floor and the community are very interested in this and when we are in a position to disclose information, we will."
  
  About 400 employees work at the Lambton Generating Station. Ontario's other three coal plants are located at Nanticoke, Atikokan and Thunder Bay.
   
• Employers needed for poverty plan
  By Cathy Dobson
  The Observer, May 25, 2009
  
  Sarnia-Lambton employers can play a role in improving the economic picture for families in ways that go beyond the obvious, says the co-ordinator of a unique county-funded program to bust poverty.
  
  Gayle Montgomery runs Circles, which encourages all members of the community to serve as supports and resources to help individuals rise out of poverty.
  
  Employers can hire Circles participants and they can also become volunteers who assist with whatever hurdles come along, she said.
  
  "We're hoping business leaders will work with us and give these people a chance. We want them to understand the Circles' philosophy, that it takes an entire community to make it work," Montgomery said. "One of the biggest barriers for people in poverty is that they can't break intao the middle class connections that others take for granted."
  
  Circles takes a holistic approach to helping, she added. "It looks at all areas of their lives, whether their children are healthy, whether they have transportation to get to work, their emotional health and their ability to get day care. All those things have an impact on whether they will succeed in breaking out of poverty."
  
  Montgomery will explain the Circles strategy at a presentation at Lambton College on Wednesday, June 17. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. in room N105, business owners are encouraged to attend free-of-charge and learn how they can become involved in Circles. The presentation is part of the County of Lambton's Wellness Works program.
  
  "It's about building a healthier community and breaking down the barriers so people have a chance to succeed,” said Montgomery.
  
  Lambton County Council approved the Circles initiative in 2008 in the hope of reducing child poverty. Sarnia-Lambton is the first community in Canada to offer Circles.
   
• American brains are Canada's gain
  Cash-strapped families increasingly drawn to lower cost of studying north of the border - and this country's schools are cashing in
  By Elizabeth Church
  The Globe and Mail, May 18, 2009
  
  Libby MacCarthy had never been to Canada when she applied to Dalhousie University at the suggestion of a friend. After a campus visit during a cold snap in April, the Maine native was still undecided about the merits of a Canadian education. But when the offer from her top U.S. choice arrived without a promise of financial aid, the annual $25,000 (U.S.) difference in cost made up her mind.
  
  "Canadian universities are like hidden gems," said the 21-year-old, who starts her fourth year in Halifax in September. "A lot of them are Ivy League-quality schools and they are just a lot less expensive."
  
  At a time when many U.S families are finding they have fewer dollars than they expected to spend on higher education, the price of a Canadian undergraduate degree is looking attractive. That feeling is being fuelled by increased marketing from the Canadian government and more interest by Canadian schools, drawn to the American market as a way to maintain enrolment, attract more tuition dollars and give their campus a more international outlook. Signs of that push are showing up this spring. Many schools say their U.S. applications are up, and so is the number of students saying yes to offers.
  
  "The U.S. is one of our target areas, no question," said Asa Kachan, the registrar at Dalhousie, where applications from American students are up 14 per cent this year.
  
  In a province with 11 universities and a declining high-school population, Ms. Kachan says attracting foreign students is vital. The school does that by tapping into networks of U.S. guidance counsellors and sending staff to key high schools. Foreign students account for 8 per cent of enrolment, but Dalhousie wants to raise that to 10 or 12 per cent.
  
  Across the country, about 9,000 Americans studied at Canadian universities and colleges this year, up from 2,300 just 12 years ago, according to Canada's embassy in Washington. On the flipside, an estimated 29,000 Canadians headed south in 2007-2008 for undergraduate or graduate studies, a reflection of the size of the American system.
  
  At Montreal's McGill University, where there is a long tradition of U.S. recruiting, Americans accounted for 12 per cent of this year's freshman class. Application numbers this spring are even with previous years, but acceptance rates are up 4 per cent. McGill has seen a steady increase in American students, with numbers rising by 22 per cent in the past five years. Senior administrators say name recognition and recruiting efforts have contributed to that rise, but add cost is a factor.
  
  "When we recruit we do not talk about being cheap," said Morton Mendelson, the university's deputy provost of student life and learning. "We say come to McGill. It's a world-class education. But people who are buying the education can do the math."
  
  Foreign tuition fees range from triple to more than five times those paid by local students, depending on the province. Still, they are tens of thousands of dollars less than the cost of private U.S. schools and are on par with fees charged by state colleges to local students, depending on exchange rates. For a foreign student, for instance, Dalhousie estimates that tuition, books, housing and health insurance run $23,636 a year. At Boston University, a school that often competes for the same U.S. students, the equivalent annual cost comes to $61,794.
  
  At the University of Toronto, where applications from U.S. high-school students have tripled in the past seven years, student recruiting director Janet Hurd said economic and political factors as well as the value of the Canadian dollar have helped to drive that trend, but so have outreach efforts in cities such as Washington, Boston and New York.
  
  Ms. Hurd said when she tells American parents to expect to pay about $30,000 for tuition, books and housing, they often ask if that is for a term or the whole year. What seems like a bargain for U.S. parents can be an income opportunity for schools, although rules on fees vary among provinces. At the University of Waterloo, increasing foreign student numbers from 10 to 20 per cent is part of a strategy to diversify income.
  
  Waterloo president David Johnston says the school's first goal in attracting international students is to increase the quality of education, but he adds that the dollars this generates are attractive at a time when campuses are facing budget cuts. Canadian students pay roughly $6,000 in tuition at Waterloo, with the province contributing about $6,000. International students pay upwards of $20,000 in tuition. "The economics are attractive," he said.
  
  Other universities say the money argument is not that compelling, and point out that recruiting and supporting foreign students also costs more. Until this year in Quebec, extra fees from international students went to the province, although that policy is being phased out for some programs.
  
  Ms. MacCarthy said her time at Dalhousie has taught her a lot about Canada, and about how others see her country. At first, she said, it was difficult to hear others say negative things about Americans. "You get things said that are very hurtful, so you have to learn to deal with that."
  
  The election of a new president, she said, has made it easier to be an American on a Canadian campus. Her next hurdle is to decide where she will go after graduation. "I'm considering staying in Canada," she said.
   
• Waterloo's hot combo: Branding and brains
  By Norman De Bono
  London Free Press, May 16, 2008
  
  KITCHENER -- Kitchener Frame, a dormant auto parts plant, is a massive empty shell, about 15 km from the area's high-tech darling, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion. Like bookends in the Waterloo Region, an hour's drive from London, it's as if the two industries press the area's past and future between them.
  
  "Look out your window -- just look," snaps Len Carter, president of the Waterloo Regional Labour Council. "What do you see? Well, none of it was built by academics. It was built by workers, by tradesmen. And they are belittled, despite all they made."
  
  In a nutshell, that sums up the great Kitchener-Waterloo contrast: It's a region with its foundation in manufacturing but its future in technology. Workers fear the blue-collar base is being forgotten in the region's rush to market itself as a technology centre.
  
  "It's all a facade," Kitchener native Wayne Samuelson, Ontario Federation of Labour president, says of the area's technology image. He calls it the best community branding exercise he's ever seen.
  
  "There is a crisis in that city and it has been masked for some time," Samuelson said. Samuelson cites the area's high unemployment rate -- now 10.1% -- and a "dramatic increase" in part-time work and temporary job agencies as symptoms of larger problems.
  
  "In Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), people like to pound their chests and talk about how great things are. The politicians and industry leaders never say anything about these people who have lost their jobs. These people are silenced," he says.
  
  Kitchener Frame, formerly Budd Automotive, closed just weeks ago. In recent years, it employed more than 2,000. RIM, on the other hand, continues its urban sprawl. Not content to be in one large building, RIM is housed in many smaller ones, a perfect metaphor for the creeping growth of what's become a global technology giant with 15,000 workers and looking to add another 3,000 this year.
  
  The two companies are symbolic of the community's "transformative" history, and it's an area again in change, moving from its manufacturing foundation toward technology, says John Jung, chief executive of the area's economic development agency. The agency is called Canada's Technology Triangle Inc., the name a reminder of where its focus lies.
  
  "It has a resilience," Jung says of the area. "We have this history of repeatedly reinventing ourselves over 150 years as changes in the economy have occurred, and we have rolled with the punches." Carter agrees.
  
  He cites the history of the area, which once had expertise in shoe manufacturing, with Kaufman and Sorel, lost about 10 years ago; hockey equipment and Bauer, which goes back even further; textiles when Arrow and Tiger had plants; and tire makers Goodrich and Uniroyal -- all, lost manufacturing.
  
  "We are hurting here, no matter who says what. The fact of the matter is a lot of people who used to make $30 an hour are now making $15," Carter says.
  
  But Jung defends the area's transition, preferring to call it evolving, rather than abandoning manufacturing. He cites Electrohome, the area's first large technology employer, becoming Christie Digital, a global software firm manufacturing in Waterloo, as an example of how an old industry can become new.
  
  "We are not trying to get rid of our manufacturing here," he says, "we are trying to evolve with it into advanced manufacturing" -- that is, research and development in the traditional manufacturing sector. "We have lost jobs in manufacturing, but it is not as bad as they (organized labour) make it sound. There were a lot of small- to medium-sized businesses," Jung says.
  
  But Samuelson tires of how civic officials have "put all those technology companies on a pedestal and ignored what is going on in this community. "The manufacturing base has been destroyed and it provided work for thousands. We should not pat ourselves on the back. We are not OK."
  
  For proof of the area's blue-collar base, he says, look at its jobless rate -- Ontario's second-highest, a stark reminder it's an industrial area. Carter believes the area has lost more than 12,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year, but that the sector still accounts for 34% of goods made in the area. But it's an area in transition. There are more than 500 technology firms here, employing more than 28,000 people. Thousands more jobs have gone wanting.
  
  "We have a long way to go before we are the Bay (in California's Silicon Valley) or Boston areas, but it's a start," says Iain Klugman, chief executive of Communitech, representing area technology firms.
  
  London has about 8,000 people employed in technology. While its city and business officials are working to diversify more into that sector, it's not happening greatly now. Klugman preaches patience, balanced with urgency, as vital to technology growth, calling KW "a 50-year overnight success story."
  
  The key is not attracting business from elsewhere, but getting startup businesses and convincing them to stay. For London, he says, the key lies with the University of Western Ontario, just as the University of Waterloo (UW) was critical to local technology growth.
  
  "Communities get into trouble when they don't have a farm team, a development system," Klugman says of universities. "There is a wall around every university and you have to get over it and infect them with an idea and support the hell out of them."
  
  A technology support program includes ensuring post-secondary schools teach what it takes to translate work into business creation and entrepreneurship, create a residence dedicated to startups on campus and have entrepreneurs work with graduates.
  
  "You cannot engineer the outcome, only the inputs. You have to foster a culture of entrepreneurism and you have to hang on to talent," Klugman says. Klugman is unapologetic about KW branding itself as a technology community, saying that's also part of its success. It gives a sense of community to the industry itself -- and that helps to keep business there.
  
  "We want to make sure we are on the map as a technology cluster. It is important people see themselves belonging to something bigger. "If there are three people working in a basement, they feel they belong to something here, they know that if they need to, there is someone for them to call," Klugman says.
  
  Jung credits co-operative education programs at UW and the area's wealth of other post-secondary schools -- Wilfrid Laurier University, Conestoga College and the University of Guelph -- for his confidence the region will succeed in a new-economy transition.
  
  "The co-operatives have been a boom to industry here. There is a lot of math and engineering capability coming out of the schools. That was useful for the auto industry, but it has transferred into the technology community," Jung says.
  
  Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that RIM, Google and Open Text, to name a few major technology employers, are close to UW. In London, Western recently created WorldDiscoveries to try the same kind of innovation to commercialize research that Waterloo has done for years.
  
  "There is a history of collaboration between the school and the technology community. I have never seen this level of collaboration anywhere," Jung says of UW and technology businesses. RIM is the centrepiece of the Kitchener area's technology industry, employing about 5,000 in the area and looking to add 3,000 this year.
  
  "It is not unusual to see 50 people every Monday morning at orientation at RIM," Jung says. RIM's strength for the local economy isn't just the local research it does -- it also does manufacturing there. In total, 10% to 15% of the 26 million BlackBerrys made each year are produced in Waterloo. Christie Digital and Com Dev, a satellite manufacturer, also do local production.
  
  "I will not knock RIM, they do (some) manufacturing here," Carter says. "Still, you can make a lot of money there if you are a software programmer, but not so much if you clean floors. It is no replacement for auto jobs."
  
  Does London have potential to grow a similar high-tech sector?
  
  "London has huge potential. Buried deep in its core is a history of entrepreneurism, and you have to unearth that and make it current. You have this world-class (UWO) academic institution bringing talent there," says Klugman.
  
  UWO will have a new president in July, Amit Chakma, who comes from UW, raising hopes the London school will link more to the community and generate more business growth than before.
  
  "He is a great guy -- a doer, a bridge builder and, even more importantly, a community builder," Klugman says. It's helped Waterloo that RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have invested some of their profits into the community, helping to found the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. All give the city profile on global issues and a platform for cutting-edge research, which can only help future industry.
  
  "I keep telling myself how lucky I am to work in this place," says Jung. "There are such smart people, smart business practices. It is a terrific place and we are promoting it all over the world."
  
  Manufacturing and technology are integrated in the area. The BlackBerry ancestor's first commercial use was for managers to speak to each other, on the floor of GM Canada's Oshawa assembly plant. There's a place for the two to co-exist and aid each other.
  
  "RIM is our Apple. It is one in a million. It will change this community," Klugman says.
  ---
  WATERLOO REGION
  550+: Technology firms.
  $15B+: Annual revenue generated from that sector.
  28,000: Tech employment.
  20,000: Students learning about tech careers each year.
  631: Patents per million people (highest density in Canada).
  150: Research institutes 
   
• The high cost of dropouts
  By Kelly Pedro
  London Free Press, May 12, 2009
  
  The statistic is grim: nearly one in four Ontario teenagers will not finish high school.
  
  The cost is high: $12.8 billion in assistance, health care and lost tax revenues a year, according to the Canadian Council on Learning.
  
  Can the province, including the London region, which has an average dropout rate, afford it in the next economy?
  
  While we need our high school students to be smart - so they'll move on to college or university -we also need them to have skills, says one academic. "We should be looking at the education system, especially at the secondary level, in terms of providing more options for young people that can lead to economic activity or lead them to graduate with skills," said James Cote, a sociology professor at the Western, who co-authored the book Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis.
  
  "We have developed a primary and secondary school system which essentially graduates unskilled people. What we should be thinking of is what can we do to graduate skilled people."
  
  Students drop out of high school because they're not strong academically and they won't contribute much to an information-based economy, said Cote.
  
  Other countries - those with much lower dropout rates than ours - have streamed those students into vocational or apprenticeship programs. Cote says we need more of those programs so students can focus on something meaningful.
  
  The dropout rates in the province have been shrinking - 23% in 2008 compared to 32% in 2003-04.
  
  "We're reducing the dropout rate and there's a concern about not keeping up with the new economy. Well, where are the jobs in this new economy?" Cote said, adding we need to define what that new economy will be.
  
  The government should tell the education system which jobs are going unfilled so they can focus training people in those areas, he said.
  
  Providing a supply of educated workers doesn't produce jobs, Cote said. "Let's . . . develop an economic plan . . . and then see what we need to educate people for, as opposed to getting the cart before the horse and then assuming we just educate a bunch of people in ways we're not really sure of and then hope that it all works out."
  
  "We've been doing this for decades and it hasn't worked," Cote said.
  
  While the Education Ministry reported a 77% graduation rate for Ontario high schools in 2008, more and more students are taking an extra year to finish.
  
  London's dropout rate is about the provincial average.
  
  But more people are returning for new training, said Peter White, president of the London Economic Development Corp. (LEDC).
  
  "We know there will be talent gaps in certain areas," he said. "The more success we can have in continuing to encourage students to go through the education system, the better we are."
  
  The LEDC has taken a more active role in getting students interested in vocations sooner. For the first time, the corporation recently addressed students at high schools such as H.B. Beal about job opportunities in the region so they can tailor their diploma or degree to those areas.
  
   
• St. Clair mayor wants to build solar panels here
  By Chris Cooke
  First Monday, May 2009
  
  Steve Arnold is an advocate for green technology but wants the components manufactured locally. Arnold, the mayor of St. Clair Township told the Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland the loss of Lambton Generating Station at Courtright in 2014, will cost his municipality $2.3 million a year in tax revenue.
  
  And in order to make that up, the Township requires more than the two gas - fired generating stations that are coming on line.
  
  "The two stations have the capacity to replace Lambton Generating Station," says Arnold, "but the loss of tax revenue and jobs cannot be replaced."
  
  As a result, he hopes to attract manufacturers of windmills and solar panels saying, "the components need to be built here". Otherwise, the loss of tax revenue from Lambton Generating Station cannot be replaced.
  
  In a "best case" scenario, Arnold says the two gas - fired plants will pay $750,000.00 annually compared with millions of tax dollars from Lambton Generating Station. And the loss of jobs is even more significant.
  
  Lambton employs 400 people plus another 400 in construction. The gas - fired plants employ 10% of that.
  
  Arnold added that by the end of summer the Province could shut down Lambton without a major loss of electricity to the power grid. But he suggests the timing isn't right. He doubts the Province wants to eliminate 800 jobs in the midst of a recession. And alternative fuels, like biomass are being studied for use at Lambton Generating.
  
  Which brings Arnold back to manufacturing. The panels at Opti Solar, the now dormant solar farm on Blackwell Side road, were manufactured in California. The solar farm has been put on hold pending the issue of permits to its new owner, First Solar of Tempe, Arizona.
  
  Last month First Solar acquired all of Opti Solar's project development business in a stock swap worth $400 million. First Solar manufacturers solar panels at its facility in Perrysburg, Ohio.
  
  Arnold believes those panels should be built in Sarnia Lambton. "Manufacturing in green technology is big and we need to position ourselves to take advantage of it".
   
• Education pays: StatsCan
  By The Canadian Press
  The London Free Press, April 22, 2009
  
  OTTAWA - A new study suggests it pays to go to school.
  
  The Statistics Canada survey found that more than 80% of college and university students who graduated in 2005 and did not pursue further studies had found full-time employment by 2007, while earnings generally increased by level of study.
  
  A higher proportion of graduates with a master's degree were working full time than college graduates or those with a bachelor's degree or a doctorate.
  
  The pool of graduates with a master's was higher in 2005 than it was in 2000 for both men and women. However, the employment rate among master's graduates remained stable for men at 94%, while it rose for women, to 92% in 2007 from 89% in 2002.
  
  Findings also showed differences in earnings from one level of education to another, with the largest earnings gap existing between the bachelor's and master's levels. The agency says the earnings gap between a master's and doctorate suggests that the monetary gain from employment two years after graduation for doctorate students is marginal.
  
  About half the 2005 graduates who did not pursue further education financed their post-secondary studies without taking on any education-related loans. Nearly half (46%) of all 2005 bachelor's graduates completed their studies debt-free, as did 56% of doctorates, 55% of college grads and 54% of those with a master's.
  
  While relatively similar proportions of college, bachelor's, master's and doctorate graduates were able to find work two years after graduation, there were differences in terms of their earnings.
  
  The median annual earnings among those working full time in 2007 was lowest for college graduates at $35,000. This increased to $45,000 for bachelor's graduates, $60,000 for master's graduates and $65,000 for doctorate graduates.
   
• Moonlighting Farmers
  By Dan McCaffery 
  The Observer, March 18, 2009
  

  Nearly half of Canada's farmers hold down second jobs, according to a new survey. And in Lambton County, a farming expert says, the number is probably even higher. Statistics Canada says that between 1991 and 2006, the last year for which such data is available, the number of farmers who worked off the farm rose by nine per cent, reaching a total of 48 per cent. During the same time period, the number of Canadian farmers fell by 16 per cent.

  Don McGugan of the Lambton Federation of Agriculture, said Lambton's figure is likely closer to 60 per cent, at least partly because there are more job opportunities here. McGugan, who worked for a time at Dow Chemical, said, "The Chemical Valley and the supply and support industries (connected to it) have created a lot of opportunities. When I worked at Dow years ago I was the odd one because I had a job off the farm, but today it's pretty-near a must."

  The latest figures don't come as a surprise to Plympton- Wyoming Mayor Lonny Napper, who has many farmers among his ratepayers. "Farms are getting larger," he said. "They're anywhere from 600 acres to 1,000 acres now, so there are definitely a lot fewer of them. There are less farm dealers now, too. It's a sign of the times." Napper added, "It's hard for a young fellow to buy a farm without an off-farm job. Younger fellows have to supplement their incomes. And cash croppers have historically worked off the farm."

  For operators of both smaller and larger farms, human capital and the characteristics of farms are significant factors in whether an operator works elsewhere, Statistics Canada found. For example, the typical farmer with a university degree is far more likely to work off-farm, as are male operators compared to their female counterparts. For operators of smaller spreads, family characteristics as well as community and regional circumstances are important factors. For example, farmers who live in communities experiencing rapid growth in employment are more likely to be engaged in off-farm work. Other factors included the type of farm. Dairy operators are considerably less likely to work off the land. Off-farm work is most likely to occur for farmers of unincorporated farms, and for farms where there is more than one operator associated with the farm.
   

  Article ID# 1483544