[Cambridgite]

I found a neat little list that shows a bunch of different Canadian CMAs and their largest private/institutional employers, plus the number of people working in various sectors (municipal, provincial, federal) of government in each.

It is easy to highlight some interesting observations. You can easily tell which ones are the provincial capitals when you look under the government sector. You can see how some cities are highly dependent on a few large employers while others are more diversified. Looking at some cities, their employment base, and where said employers are located, it becomes clear why some have better skylines than others.

There are a couple major deficiencies with this list, however. For one, it is set in 2005...and while I'm not sure about all cities, I know there has been a lot of jockeying for new positions in Kitchener at least, with some seeing massive growth and others flat out disappearing. Also, the ranges are very wide and any employer over 10,000 people is just represented with "10,000+", so you don't get a good sense of scale for Toronto. And some pretty significant cities are just plain absent from the list, such as Ottawa.

Here is the link:

http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/companyinformationcanada/CanLargestEmployer.html

Feel free to post more up-to-date profiles of your metro area's largest employers, make comparisons, speculations and what not!

[mylesmalley]

Shouldn't be too big a stretch of the imagination for Ottawa to be dominated by federal government departments?

Neat list, but you're right, it's a bit old and misses quite a few cities.

[Cambridgite]

Shouldn't be too big a stretch of the imagination for Ottawa to be dominated by federal government departments?

A fair assumption, but I know they also have a sizeable high-tech sector as well, especially in Kanata. It is a metro area of 1.2 million people, and Canada's 4th largest, after all.

[digitboy]

There is an error on that list, Quebec City's the same as Montreal. Quebec City data is incorrect.

[dsim249]

There is an error on that list, Quebec City's the same as Montreal. Quebec City data is incorrect.

They thought they could fool you by putting it in French!

[Cambridgite]

There is an error on that list, Quebec City's the same as Montreal. Quebec City data is incorrect.

Of course, it should stand to reason that McGill is not Quebec City's largest employer. :haha:

There is an awful lot wrong with with that list. Whoever compiled it did a very sloppy job, which is why I encourage people to post more accurate and up-to-date lists for their respective cities.

[RTD]

There is an awful lot wrong with with that list. Whoever compiled it did a very sloppy job, which is why I encourage people to post more accurate and up-to-date lists for their respective cities.

It would be difficult to do that since the vast majority of lists posted here are inaccurate, with biased towards certain cities and negative slants towards others.

[O-Town Hockey]

Here are Ottawa's top 20 employers. Listed is their rank, number of employees, and the sector. Government workers of various kinds make up just under 50% of Ottawa's workforce. It's also no surprise that there are a lot of high tech companies, universities, and banks on the list

1 Government (Federal and Municipal)
92300
Public Service

2 Nortel Networks
11000
Technology

3 Canada Post Corporation
5500
Transportation

4 University of Ottawa
2850
Education

5 Bell Canada
2826
Technology

6 Newbridge Networks Corporation
2600
Technology

7 Compaq Canada
2400
Technology

8 OC Transpo
2200
Transportation

9 Carleton University
1733
Education

10 Mitel Corporation
1500
Technology

11 Clarica Life Assurance ( was Metropolitan)
1115
Financial

12 Algonquin College
1022
Education

13 National Capital Commission
1005
Financial

14 Bank of Nova Scotia
1000
Financial

15 Royal Bank of Canada
1000
Financial

16 Corel Corporation
950
Technology

17 Minto Developments Inc.
850
Construction

18 Simware Inc.
850
Technology

19 Loeb Inc.
770
Groceries

20 JDS Uniphase
700
Technology

The high tech sector made a big comeback in recent years, but over the last couple has remained stable with ~75000 employees in ~1800 companies.

http://www.ottawaregion.com/media_lib/Graphs/Number_of_Employees_2007.JPG

[graupner]

that list sucks. why did you post it here?

[Cambridgite]

that list sucks. why did you post it here?

To generate discussion. I realize the list sucks, but I couldn't easily find any other links that had so many cities covered at once.

[vid]

Calgary's largest employer is Safeway! :ack:

Thunder Bay used to publish this data but now I can't find it. Aside from the public sector and institutions, the largest private employers were Bowater, Bombardier, A&P, McDonald's and Zellers. It's probably changed now though. I think Bombardier is now the largest, and Bowater is probably down to 3 or 4.

[trueviking]

^here is a list for thunder bay...

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-95502258.html

1. City of Thunder Municipal Gov't 2,700
Bay
2. Thunder Ray RegionalHelath Care 2,000 +
Hospital
3. Lakehead Board of Education 1,900
Education
4. Government of Provincial Gov't 1,853
Ontario
5. Lakehead University Education 1,600
6. Bowater CanadianPulp and Paper1,569
Forest Products
7. Thunder Bay CatholicEducation 1,461
District School Board
8. Buchanan Group Forest Products 1,195

[Cambridgite]

This seems to be the most up to date list for the Region of Waterloo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Municipality_of_Waterloo

Research In Motion (RIM!) 8,000 employees
Waterloo Region District School Board 5,000 employees
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada 4,300 employees
University of Waterloo 3,500 employees
Manulife Financial 3,300 employees
SunLife/Clarica 3,300 employees
Grand River Hospital 2,200 employees
ATS Automation Tooling Systems 1,800 employees
City of Kitchener 1,700 employees

Slightly older list of top private employers, but much more extensive (includes all employers over 350):

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/c56e308f49bfeb7885256abc0071ec9a/d8870b03464400a185256b1400699983!OpenDocument

List of the main public sector employers

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/Region.nsf/c56e308f49bfeb7885256abc0071ec9a/cf8c3b539198564285256b1400698312!OpenDocument

[newflyer]

This is a great list. I have often wondered what the employer breakdown of various cities in Canada were.

I for one am very surprised there are so many gocery store jobs in Calgary. :haha:

Safeway, Superstore and the Calgary Coop.

[vid]

^here is a list for thunder bay...

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-95502258.html

1. City of Thunder Municipal Gov't 2,700
Bay
2. Thunder Ray RegionalHelath Care 2,000 +
Hospital
3. Lakehead Board of Education 1,900
Education
4. Government of Provincial Gov't 1,853
Ontario
5. Lakehead University Education 1,600
6. Bowater CanadianPulp and Paper1,569 Cut back to under 800 employees, though a few are going back on to machine 5 I think, bringing it up to about 850
Forest Products
7. Thunder Bay CatholicEducation 1,461
District School Board
8. Buchanan Group Forest Products 1,195 Parts of this company are bankrupt or in receivership, the amount of employees has been reduced drastically. The former board members are running for political parties now. That's how desperate they are. I doubt Buchanan employs more than 500 people in all of Northern Ontario at this point.

The article is eight years old.

The average grocery store hires around 80 people. Calgary must have at least 100 of them. Safeway is headquartered there, so aside from having at least 20 Safeway locations each hiring between 80 and 200 people, you've also got the headquarters for their entire Canada operations. That has to be at least another 500 people. Calgary Coop is also obviously based in Calgary and I would be Loblaws runs Superstore out of Calgary as well, since it is their western Canada brand. More head office jobs. Our Superstore employs almost 500 people, full and part time. Multiply that by at least 8 for Calgary. (I think Winnipeg has 6, so it wouldn't surprise me if Calgary as 10 to 12 of them.)

[Denscity]

Celgar pulp mill:400
Selkirk College :375

[SteelTown]

I betcha if the list was updated Wal-Mart would start peeking up on those list.

[Doug]

The Ottawa list is out of date. Nortel is no longer and its remanants employ only a few thousand.

[RTA]

Safeway is headquartered there, so aside from having at least 20 Safeway locations each hiring between 80 and 200 people, you've also got the headquarters for their entire Canada operations. That has to be at least another 500 people. Calgary Coop is also obviously based in Calgary and I would be Loblaws runs Superstore out of Calgary as well, since it is their western Canada brand. More head office jobs.

Bingo; these aren't (just) retail positions, these are offices and foodservice production as well.

[Doug]

If I had to guess for Calgary, I would suspect some of these to appear on the list:
Alberta Health (all hospital employees)
University of Calgary
Calgary Public Board of Education
Calgary Separate Board of Education
City of Calgary
Mount Royal University
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
Canadian Pacific Railway
WestJet
Canada Safeway
EnCana
Suncor Energy
Husky Energy
TransCanada Pipelines
Shell
worley Parsons
Shaw Communications
SMART Technologies
AMEC

[mersar]

The article is eight years old.

The average grocery store hires around 80 people. Calgary must have at least 100 of them. Safeway is headquartered there, so aside from having at least 20 Safeway locations each hiring between 80 and 200 people, you've also got the headquarters for their entire Canada operations. That has to be at least another 500 people. Calgary Coop is also obviously based in Calgary and I would be Loblaws runs Superstore out of Calgary as well, since it is their western Canada brand. More head office jobs. Our Superstore employs almost 500 people, full and part time. Multiply that by at least 8 for Calgary. (I think Winnipeg has 6, so it wouldn't surprise me if Calgary as 10 to 12 of them.)

Yep. There are 20 safeway stores in Calgary itself, 10 Superstores (including at least 3 of their 'supersized' stores), 21 Co-op stores, and 16 Sobeys stores, all of which probably average 100-150 employees minimum. Westfair Foods (the western arm of Loblaws) is up in the NE part of the city and whats left of Safeway Canada's offices is also up in the NE.

The City is by far the largest employer in the city from the latest data I'd seen (which I can't find right now but I believe that all government totalled something like 25,000+ people in the city). The U of C is definitely up there around 4000 I believe. SMART would be there as well, they've got around 1,100 people I believe.

[Dmajackson]

For the 'Fax (not sure about the order):

1. Armed Forces - Halifax Dockyards, Shearwater, Willow Park, ect
2. Capital Health - QEII (Adult Trauma), IWK (Children's Trauma), Dartmouth General, Cobequid Multi-Health Centre.
3. Government - Provincial, Federal, Municipal
4. Halterm - Two container terminals
5. Dalhousie University (?)

[someone123]

My problem with these lists is that they are biased towards industries that are more dominated by single companies and are therefore misleading. I would guess that for most of the cities, small businesses employ a large number of people.

[manny_santos]

Looking at the London list for private employers, the impact of the economic downturn becomes very apparent. Ford is #4 and the local plant is slated to close soon, and Sterling Trucks is #8, and they are already gone. The list is as follows:

London Health Sciences Centre (7500-10,000)
University of Western Ontario (5000-7500)
St. Joseph's Health Care London (2500-5000)
Ford (2500-5000)
TD Canada Trust (2500-5000)
London Life Insurance (1000-2500)
3M (1000-2500)
Sterling Trucks (1000-2500)
Fanshawe College (1000-2500)
Parkwood Hospital (1000-2500)
Lawson Health Research Institute (1000-2500)
Sifton Properties (1000-2500)
Solectron International (500-1000)

[Acajack]

Gatineau, Quebec:

Her majesty the Queen in right of Canada employs some 20,000 people.

Second, surprisingly enough is the Casino du Lac Leamy complex owned by Loto-Québec, which apparently employs around 5 or 6,000 in its casino, restaurants, hotel, theatre and associated stuff.

Since the region began with lumber, the pulp and paper sector comes in third when you group together Bowater, Kruger (Scott), Domtar, Papiers Masson, and a few others. Probably close to 3,000 jobs there.

Then you have the city, the Quebec provincial governments, school boards and health care sector like you have in any other city.

[niwell]

My problem with these lists is that they are biased towards industries that are more dominated by single companies and are therefore misleading. I would guess that for most of the cities, small businesses employ a large number of people.

I no longer have access to the data since I no longer work for the city, but IIRC over 50% of establishments in Toronto have less than 3 employees (including owners).

Along the lines of employment here are profiles of industrial employment districts in Toronto which list the largest employers. Districts are defined by economic development and exclude the commercial "centres" being Downtown, North York City Centre, Scarborough Town Centre and Etobicoke Centre.

http://www.toronto.ca/invest-in-toronto/real_estate_employment_districts.htm

Data is for 2007. I actually compiled some of the 2008 data but I guess it hasn't made it up yet.

[isaidso]

My problem with these lists is that they are biased towards industries that are more dominated by single companies and are therefore misleading. I would guess that for most of the cities, small businesses employ a large number of people.

How can a list of the largest employers possibly be confusing? It's not a list of which sector is most important. It clearly states what it is in the title. :koko:

[trueviking]

Winnipeg:

Leading Private Sector Employers:
1. Manitoba Telecom Services 4200
2. Great West Life 3000
3. Palliser Furniture 1500
4. Standard Aero 1500
5. Boeing 1300
6. New Flyer 1200
7. Investors Group 1100
8. Canad Inns 1100
9. Motor Coach Industries 1000
10. Kitchen Craft of Canada Ltd. 1000
11. Bison Transport 950
12. Maple Leaf Foods 800
13. The Northwest Company 750
14. Vansco Electronics 700
15. Aveos (formerly Air Canada Technical Services) 700
16. Bristol Aerospace: 700
17. Canwest Global 700
18. Wellington West Capital 600
19. Buhler Transport 600
20. Cangene Pharmacuticals 600

Leading Public Sector Employers:
1. The Province of Manitoba 14500
2. The federal Government 12500
3. The City of Winnipeg 8300
4. The University of Manitoba 5860
5. Health Sciences Centre 5000
6. Manitoba Hydro 4000

[Deepstar]

This is a great list. I have often wondered what the employer breakdown of various cities in Canada were.

I for one am very surprised there are so many gocery store jobs in Calgary. :haha:

Safeway, Superstore and the Calgary Coop.

Those three companies have head offices in Calgary. Calgary is home to Superstore's western Canada distribution centre.

[Deepstar]

Don't forget the 10,000 federal government employees.

Winnipeg:

Leading Public Sector Employers:
1. The Province of Manitoba 14500
2. The City of Winnipeg 8300
3. The University of Manitoba 5860
4. Health Sciences Centre 5000
5. Manitoba Hydro 4000

[vid]

The Federal government employs very few people here, and the province keeps cutting positions too. In the 1970s they built a bunch of office buildings for themselves and now they're mostly vacant. (Vacant enough to seem empty, not vacant enough to have enough space for a new, large tenant to prevent construction of more office buildings.)

[trueviking]

Don't forget the 10,000 federal government employees.

12000 actually....not sure why that was not included.

here's a list for every city if people are interested:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/051129/dq051129f-eng.htm#tab10ftnote1



Total employment Federal government (1000's)
Ottawa–Gatineau 113.8
Montréal 25.9
Toronto 22.2
Vancouver 16.7
Halifax 16.5
Winnipeg 12.5
Québec 12.4
Edmonton 9.2
Victoria 8.8
Calgary 6.6
St. John's 4.5
Kingston 4.1
Regina 3.7
Hamilton 2.8
Saskatoon 2.5
London 2.1
Sudbury 2.0
Windsor 1.8
Abbotsford 1.5
Saint John 1.2
Saguenay 1.2
St. Catharines 1.2
Kitchener 1.1
Sherbrooke 1.0
Thunder Bay 0.9
Trois–Rivières 0.3

[Bassic Lab]

For Lethbridge Alberta in 2006

1. Chinook Health Region: 1830
2. University of Lethbridge: 1825
3. City of Lethbridge: 1375
4. Alberta Government: 1012
5. Lethbridge College: 925
6. Lethbridge School District: 922
7. Convergys: 632
8. Catholic School Board: 505
9. Sun Life Financial: 500
10. Canada Safeway: 421

Source: http://www.chooselethbridge.ca/choosebusiness/workforce_6.jpg

With seven of the top ten employers in the public sector, the city really lives and dies on the whim of Alberta's government.

[vid]

For Lethbridge Alberta in 2006

1. Chinook Health Region: 1830
2. University of Lethbridge: 1825
3. City of Lethbridge: 1375
4. Alberta Government: 1012
5. Lethbridge College: 925
6. Lethbridge School District: 922
7. Convergys: 632
8. Catholic School Board: 505
9. Sun Life Financial: 500
10. Canada Safeway: 421

Source: http://www.chooselethbridge.ca/choosebusiness/workforce_6.jpg

With seven of the top ten employers in the public sector, the city really lives and dies on the whim of Alberta's government.

Not really. The public sector, especially the health and education parts of it, are among the most stable career fields. The people there will always need health care and education in some form, and municipal governments don't change too much. Even provincial and federal jobs are largely "necessary" things. Unless an entire division of the government is located there (Thunder Bay has Ontario's registrar general) and they decide to move, even those jobs are pretty secure.

[frinkprof]

Yep. There are 20 safeway stores in Calgary itself, 10 Superstores (including at least 3 of their 'supersized' stores), 21 Co-op stores, and 16 Sobeys stores, all of which probably average 100-150 employees minimum. Westfair Foods (the western arm of Loblaws) is up in the NE part of the city and whats left of Safeway Canada's offices is also up in the NE.

The City is by far the largest employer in the city from the latest data I'd seen (which I can't find right now but I believe that all government totalled something like 25,000+ people in the city). The U of C is definitely up there around 4000 I believe. SMART would be there as well, they've got around 1,100 people I believe.In addition, I would expect some other large retail chains to have big employment numbers in Calgary, not necessarily all due to their retail locations, but also their distribution centres. Calgary (and increasingly, the area surrounding Calgary) is home to a lot of companies' western distribution centres. Canadian Tire and Safeway have huge facilities in Calgary. Costco built a very large facility in Airdrie to the north, and Wal Mart is building a big facility just north of the city for their grocery goods in addition to their existing distribution centre in southeast Calgary.

[Bassic Lab]

Not really. The public sector, especially the health and education parts of it, are among the most stable career fields. The people there will always need health care and education in some form, and municipal governments don't change too much. Even provincial and federal jobs are largely "necessary" things. Unless an entire division of the government is located there (Thunder Bay has Ontario's registrar general) and they decide to move, even those jobs are pretty secure.

Try working in Alberta's public sector during the early nineties.

[vid]

It isn't the 90s anymore.

[mersar]

In addition, I would expect some other large retail chains to have big employment numbers in Calgary, not necessarily all due to their retail locations, but also their distribution centres. Calgary (and increasingly, the area surrounding Calgary) is home to a lot of companies' western distribution centres. Canadian Tire and Safeway have huge facilities in Calgary. Costco built a very large facility in Airdrie to the north, and Wal Mart is building a big facility just north of the city for their grocery goods in addition to their existing distribution centre in southeast Calgary.

The distribution centres usually wouldn't count for the company though, as in many cases (Canadian Tire and Walmart I know for sure) they are contracted out and run by a logistics company, Genco in the case of C.T. and Supply Chain Management for Walmart (and its northeast, not southeast). Westfair Foods does run their own, or at least they have their name on the building unlike Walmart's which has zero signage indicating who is there. C.T's distribution centre has no name on it, but the yard is full of hundreds of trailers with the C.T. branding on them. Safeway's distribution is handled through Macdonalds Consolidated, which I believe is partly owned by Safeway but is separate and supplies more then just Safeway.

[vid]

Macdonalds supplies a lot of independent grocers. Their Family Foods brand and the various Safeway store brands are common at most of our locally owned grocery stores.

[SteelTown]

Once the three Wal-Mart super stores is completed in Hamilton Wal-Mart will likely be top 10 or even top 5 employers in Hamilton. They intend to building two super stores along the QEW in Hamilton.

[Cambridgite]

The distribution centres usually wouldn't count for the company though, as in many cases (Canadian Tire and Walmart I know for sure) they are contracted out and run by a logistics company, Genco in the case of C.T. and Supply Chain Management for Walmart (and its northeast, not southeast). Westfair Foods does run their own, or at least they have their name on the building unlike Walmart's which has zero signage indicating who is there. C.T's distribution centre has no name on it, but the yard is full of hundreds of trailers with the C.T. branding on them. Safeway's distribution is handled through Macdonalds Consolidated, which I believe is partly owned by Safeway but is separate and supplies more then just Safeway.

It depends, and it has mostly to do with regional populations I'm sure. In Ontario, the Loblaws Group of Companies (includes Loblaws itself, Zehrs, Fortinos, Valu-mart, Independent, No Frills) warehouses its product in completely separate warehouses from anything else. I used to work at one of their warehouses in Cambridge and we serviced everything from the western half of the Greater Toronto Area all the way down to Windsor. Sobey's has a separate facility just up the highway in Milton.

But my cousin is now working for a grocery warehouse out in St. John's and it's the same thing you described, where multiple companies contract their warehousing out to a single logistics company. Put another 7 million people into that service area, and I'm sure it'd be a different story.

[Cambridgite]

Once the three Wal-Mart super stores is completed in Hamilton Wal-Mart will likely be top 10 or even top 5 employers in Hamilton. They intend to building two super stores along the QEW in Hamilton.

Sorry Steeltown, but :yuck: .

How many Wal-marts are in Hamilton right now and how many are super stores?

[SteelTown]

Since Hamilton is smack right in the centre of Toronto and Niagara we tend to get these mega types of stores.

Right now there's one super store under construction on the Mountain, demolished a traditional mall (Mountain Plaza) for hybrid big box format. One just finished construction from a regular Wal-Mart to a super store. Our first super store at Ancaster and now there are two more super stores to be built both along the QEW, probably three QEW exits away from each other. There's a Wal-Mart at Eastgate but it'll close and relocate to the one near the QEW. So 3 super store Wal-Marts and one regular Wal-Mart. Within 5 years there will be 5 Wal-Mart super stores.

There's also a rumour about a possible Wal-Mart just outside of downtown Hamilton (Ferguson and Barton, next to General Hospital).

[flar]

You forgot the one on Rymal Rd. It's not a supercentre, but there is a supercentre in Burlington. So in in Greater Hamilton there are 7 Walmarts, 4 of them supercentres, plus two more to be built.

Walmart is the job of the future!

[SteelTown]

^ "One just finished construction from a regular Wal-Mart to a super store" That's the Rymal one. It's now a Super Store since you moved to Ottawa.

[mylesmalley]

12000 actually....not sure why that was not included.

here's a list for every city if people are interested:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/051129/dq051129f-eng.htm#tab10ftnote1



Total employment Federal government (1000's)
Ottawa–Gatineau 113.8
Montréal 25.9
Toronto 22.2
Vancouver 16.7
Halifax 16.5
Winnipeg 12.5
Québec 12.4
Edmonton 9.2
Victoria 8.8
Calgary 6.6
St. John's 4.5
Kingston 4.1
Regina 3.7
Hamilton 2.8
Saskatoon 2.5
London 2.1
Sudbury 2.0
Windsor 1.8
Abbotsford 1.5
Saint John 1.2
Saguenay 1.2
St. Catharines 1.2
Kitchener 1.1
Sherbrooke 1.0
Thunder Bay 0.9
Trois–Rivières 0.3

Here's the list from 2009, which includes all CMAs, including the newly-created ones since 2006.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/091130/t091130d1-eng.htm

[trueviking]

wow...edmonton took a huge leap in federal government employees....in 4 years they added more than 5000 jobs...i wonder how that happened?


btw...."As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"....one of the funniest lines ever....loved that show.

[dsim249]

btw...."As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"....one of the funniest lines ever....loved that show.

I think I missed something... :uhh:

[mylesmalley]

I think I missed something... :uhh:

My signature line.

It's from Arthur Carlson. A character from the 70s-80s tv show WKRP in Cincinnati.


Here's a clip (sorry about the ads, but it's worth the wait)
http://www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoafYtDe.html

[O-Town Hockey]

wow...edmonton took a huge leap in federal government employees....in 4 years they added more than 5000 jobs...i wonder how that happened?

I'm gonna assume that's just a sarcastic comment regarding our pork barreling conservative government. It's ridiculous how many biases this government has towards its own ridings, especially those in Alberta. Enjoy for now guys as I think we're about due for a new eastern PM. Maybe Ignatieff, but hopefully we'll see another Trudeau in power someday.

[trueviking]

^ actually i didnt make that connection, but that is pretty funny now that you mention it....quebec city and edmonton both had huge leaps in federal government employees in the past 4 years....coincidentally under harper's rule....

[SHOFEAR]

might be something as simple as CFB Edmonton increasing staff as a result of all the afghanistan stuff...

Regardless, as the list shows Edmonton has a relatively small percent of workers working for the feds...It's rather pathetic for somebody to try to make it political...especially somebody from Ottawa.

[Acajack]

might be something as simple as CFB Edmonton increasing staff as a result of all the afghanistan stuff...



This would be a good hypothesis for Quebec City as well, since Valcartier is home to the largest CFB in Quebec and one of the largest in the country. Its troops are very active in Afghanistan as well.

[Tarsus]

^ actually i didnt make that connection, but that is pretty funny now that you mention it....quebec city and edmonton both had huge leaps in federal government employees in the past 4 years....coincidentally under harper's rule....

Considering Harper's riding is in Calgary that theory doesn't really hold true. Calgary is way down the list for the number of federal employees.

[Tarsus]

I'm gonna assume that's just a sarcastic comment regarding our pork barreling conservative government. It's ridiculous how many biases this government has towards its own ridings, especially those in Alberta. Enjoy for now guys as I think we're about due for a new eastern PM. Maybe Ignatieff, but hopefully we'll see another Trudeau in power someday.

WTF? I'm gonna assume your post is sarcastic. If there's bias towards Alberta, it certainly isn't happening in Calgary, which is Harper's own riding.

Let's look at Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa for a comparison. In the last four years of Harper being in power:

Ottawa went from 113,000 --> 132,000 for a net gain of 19,000 federal employees.
Edmonton went from 9,200 --> 14,400 for a gain of 5,200 federal employees. A fairly big gain, but nothing like Ottawa's gain.
Calgary went from 6,600 --> 4,600 for a net loss of 2,200 federal employees. Not even a gain, instead a loss!


If anyone's benefiting from the pork barreling it's Ottawa. Maybe you should think twice about who you vote for.

[O-Town Hockey]

I think there are much bigger reasons why the feds have been not growing and even pulling out of Alberta, MONEY. The cost to lease office space in Calgary is $52.80 per square foot compared to Ottawa's $38.45 (all USD). The cost of living in Calgary is another deterrant for federal government workers whose middle to upper-middle class salaries don't go nearly as far out West.

Just to plead my case a bit. An article from the Toronto Star said regarding federal stimulus money:

"The average Conservative riding got 13 times as much money as the average opposition riding in British Columbia, 2.7 times as much in Quebec. In Ontario, Conservative ridings got 11 per cent more than opposition ridings."

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/files/cartoon/oct2409.jpg?1256575039

I'm actually not all that political usually, but I really feel that the conservatives have quietly paid off all of those that voted for them to the tune of billions of dollars. Here in Ottawa we're pretty sheltered from the global financial crisis, but many communities in Ontario are suffering and are probably suffering more due to partisan politics.

[Habanero]

Welcome to the world of politics. I'm not surprised that conservative ridings would get more money; it's always been this way no matter who is in power. It's also worth noting that the article only presents some average numbers rather than cite specific cases of the pork barreling. It could be that one particular PC riding in BC received alot of money because it's related to an infrastructure project that affects multiple ridings?

Regarding why the numbers would go down in Calgary. I doubt it's because of the cost of living. The cost of living has gone up in Calgary in recent years, but cost of living has never been a deciding factor for the federal government. In previous years when the cost of living was more expensive in Ontario, it didn't stop the federal government from creating more jobs there.

The cost of office, or more likely the lack of office space I think could be a factor though. For the last few years the office vacancy rate in Calgary was around 0.1%, and it was possible the feds simply couldn't find any space for expansion.

I think there are much bigger reasons why the feds have been not growing and even pulling out of Alberta, MONEY. The cost to lease office space in Calgary is $52.80 per square foot compared to Ottawa's $38.45 (all USD). The cost of living in Calgary is another deterrant for federal government workers whose middle to upper-middle class salaries don't go nearly as far out West.

Just to plead my case a bit. An article from the Toronto Star said regarding federal stimulus money:

"The average Conservative riding got 13 times as much money as the average opposition riding in British Columbia, 2.7 times as much in Quebec. In Ontario, Conservative ridings got 11 per cent more than opposition ridings."

I'm actually not all that political usually, but I really feel that the conservatives have quietly paid off all of those that voted for them to the tune of billions of dollars. Here in Ottawa we're pretty sheltered from the global financial crisis, but many communities in Ontario are suffering and are probably suffering more due to partisan politics.

[shreddog]

Just to plead my case a bit. An article from the Toronto Star said regarding federal stimulus money:

"The average Conservative riding got 13 times as much money as the average opposition riding in British Columbia, 2.7 times as much in Quebec. In Ontario, Conservative ridings got 11 per cent more than opposition ridings."

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/files/cartoon/oct2409.jpg?1256575039
Don't mean to get into a pissing match here, but just as the Star was selective in their review of the spending, so is Canwest in their analysis showing that ridings that voted for the Libs and Dippers got more than their share of spending ... article (http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Tory+ridings+more+than+fair+share+money+analysis/2143819/story.html)

OTTAWA — Ridings represented by Liberal and NDP MPs are getting more than their fair share of a $2-billion federal infrastructure fund, suggests a new analysis by Canwest News Service.

Canwest’s analysis of 310 infrastructure projects receiving funds from the Knowledge Infrastructure Program follows separate analyses by other news organizations of other infrastructure programs published last week that showed ridings held by Conservative MPs were receiving a disproportionately higher share.
...

The Canwest News Service analysis of Knowledge Infrastructure Program grants suggests the evidence supporting claims of partisan spending is less clear.
...
FACTBOX

Knowledge Infrastructure Program

The federal government committed in the January budget to spend $2 billion over two years to improve infrastructure at Canada’s colleges and universities. In most cases, provincial governments match federal contributions on a dollar-for-dollar basis. So far, details on 310 projects have been announced, with a combined federal contribution of $1.75 billion.

Where is the money going?

• Conservatives won 46 per cent of ridings and those ridings are getting 38 per cent of Knowledge Infrastructure Program grants.

• Liberals won 25 per cent of ridings and those ridings are getting 29 per cent of Knowledge Infrastructure Program grants.

• The NDP won 12 per cent of ridings and those ridings are getting 25 per cent of Knowledge Infrastructure Program grants.


I'm actually not all that political usually, but I really feel that the conservatives have quietly paid off all of those that voted for them to the tune of billions of dollars. Here in Ottawa we're pretty sheltered from the global financial crisis, but many communities in Ontario are suffering and are probably suffering more due to partisan politics.
Without giving each taxpayer an individual cheque someone will always be able to do an analysis showing that one party is being more partisan than another. While there are many things the Cons have done that I don't like, in all honesty I think they did as good as job as possible on the stimulus spending allocation. Also, if they wanted to be partisan with the spending, wouldn'y they use it to buy new votes instead of rewarding previous votes??

[SteelTown]

I'm pretty sure Conservatives don't typically do well in ridings that have a higher proportion of post-secondary students. That probably explains why NDP and Liberal ridings are getting more from the Knowledge Infrastructure Program money pot.

[Deepstar]

I'm pretty sure Conservatives don't typically do well in ridings that have a higher proportion of post-secondary students. That probably explains why NDP and Liberal ridings are getting more from the Knowledge Infrastructure Program money pot.

Which ridings the PC and liberals do well in has nothing to do with the percentage of post secondary students. Calgary has one of the highest percentages of post secondary in its population (second to Ottawa if I'm not mistaken) Conversely there are rural ridings all over the country with low percentage of post secondary, that are Liberal and NDP ridings.

As a general rule you could say that that the urban areas are more liberal, and because urban areas generally have a more educated workforce, you could make the correlation.

[240glt]

^ Goes to show that a post secondary diploma doesn't necessarily make you a smarter person :haha:

[vid]

It isn't that ridings with more voters with post-secondary diplomas lean to the left, but that most people with post-secondary diplomas do, and therefore ridings with a lot of them tend to support the Liberals more. Looking at local statistics from the provincial election, the Liberals did the best in neighbourhoods with a lot of university or college students or graduates, while the NDP did best in poorer and working class neighbourhoods which are urban but less educated, and the Conservatives did well in the five or six (out of 500) voting districts populated by the rural poor (ie, hicks and hermits) or old folks homes (consistent three way ties where one party would have just one vote more than the other parties, but no party got more than 35% of the vote; in one case, a four way split resulted in a PC victory with only 24% of the vote!).

[mike474]

Calgary has one of the highest percentages of post secondary in its population (second to Ottawa if I'm not mistaken)

I'm just curious where you heard that? I've always though Montreal had the most with its four relatively large universities. I read somewhere that Montreal has the highest per capita population (can't remember if that's post-secondary or just university) in NA just edging out Boston (can't remember if that's city proper or metro either).

[mersar]

Slightly older stats, but I just found this on stats canada's web site (http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/educ/subprovs.cfm) from the 2001 census:

In the extended Golden Horseshoe, 28% of the population aged 25 to 64 had a university education. Immigrants of the 1990s accounted for 14% of the region’s university-educated. About 3% had moved in from another province during the last five years.

In Lower Mainland British Columbia, 28% of all the population aged 25 to 64 had a university education and, as in the Golden Horseshoe, 14% were recent immigrants to Canada. However, 6% of graduates in Lower Mainland British Columbia had moved from different provinces during the previous five years, double the proportion in the Golden Horseshoe.

In the Montreal region, 26% of the working-age population was university-educated. About 8% of university graduates were immigrants. About 2% of Montreal’s university graduates had moved in from other provinces during the past five years.

One-quarter of the 25-64 year old population in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor had a university qualification. This region was most dependent on other provinces for its university graduates: 12% of the region’s graduates had moved in during the past five years.

[Cambridgite]

I'm just curious where you heard that? I've always though Montreal had the most with its four relatively large universities. I read somewhere that Montreal has the highest per capita population (can't remember if that's post-secondary or just university) in NA just edging out Boston (can't remember if that's city proper or metro either).

Depending on how far down the CMA list we want to go, I would think the highest per capita figures would be one of the smaller cities, such as Guelph or Kingston.

[jeremy_haak]

I think that there is some confusion here between statistics measuring the number of individuals with a post-secondary education, and statistics measuring the number of individuals in post-secondary education. I don't believe Statistics Canada measures the latter, but I think Sackville, New Brunswick is the highest, if I recall correctly, with approximately half the population attending Mount Allison University.

I think there are far more college towns in the US, compared to Canada. A good example being State College, in Pennsylvania.

[trueviking]

winnipeg
24% of its population has a university degree
36% have some university education.
16% have a college certificate

http://winnipeg.ca/Census/2006/City%20of%20Winnipeg/City%20of%20Winnipeg/City%20of%20Winnipeg.pdf

[Tarsus]

Here's a quick rundown of the major cities across Canada and the percentage of population with a "University certificate, diploma or degree " as Statscan calls it, basically what they are considering a completed 'University' education. These stats are not for all post secondary such as college, diploma, etc..

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-591/index.cfm?Lang=E

Ottawa 23.1%
Toronto 21.5%
Vancouver 20.0%
Calgary 19.9%
Halifax 19.9%
Montreal 17.1%
Quebec 16.8%
Saskatoon 15.6%
Winnipeg 15.2%
Edmonton 14.8%
Kitchener 14.6%
Hamilton 14.1%