Great Lakes’ workers faring better on Canadian side of the border

By Produced by Eight Forty-Eight
Great Lakes’ workers faring better on Canadian side of the border
Brian Mann visited Kingston, Ontario, one city on the north side the Canada-U.S. border that is experiencing job growth. Photo courtesy of Brian Mann
Great Lakes’ workers faring better on Canadian side of the border
Brian Mann visited Kingston, Ontario, one city on the north side the Canada-U.S. border that is experiencing job growth. Photo courtesy of Brian Mann

Great Lakes’ workers faring better on Canadian side of the border

By Produced by Eight Forty-Eight
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Front and Center continues this week with a look across the Canada-U.S. border. One of the questions being asked is why communities on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes region seemed to be faring so much better economically than cities and workers on the U.S. side. Unemployment on the Canadian side of the lakes was around 8 percent in Ontario and 7.7 percent in Quebec; governors of U.S. states in the Great Lakes region would probably kill for those rates. In fact, Ontario and Quebec actually added jobs during the recession.

Furthermore, workers who did end up losing their positions could expect to be out of work for only half as long as their American counterparts.

Follow Brian Mann’s road trip:

Brian Mann is with North Country Public Radio in New York and he will join Eight Forty-Eight this week to talk about business on both sides of the border. He will be traveling from the St. Lawrence River in the east all the way to Detroit in the west. Brian was in Kingston, Ontario Monday and he was next headed to Toronto.