Paige Desmond
With each passing year, the populations of small towns like Fort Frances face a decline. In recent years, this decline has prompted statistical and analytical studies, and now is generally regarded by experts as a desperate situation.
Some of the decline is attributed to normal mortality rates, as in any community. But what is hitting these small towns so hard has little to do with the elderly and everything to do with young people.
With post-secondary opportunities limited and career options bleak, youth are forced to chase their livelihoods elsewhere. They are exported youth—moving to big cities or other provinces and taking their skills with them.
According to a study released in October, 2002 based on 1996 and 2001 census data, entitled “Youth Out-Migration in Northern Ontario,” the population decrease decimating Northern Ontario is no urban legend (out-migration refers to youths leaving their home communities, usually for the sake of education and/or employment).
The study found the following:
•the age structure in Northern Ontario in 2001 is different from the rest of Ontario;
•the difference in age structure increased substantially from 1996 to 2001;
•the 15- to 29-year-old age group had the largest decrease in size;
•the rate of youth out-migration from Northern Ontario is extremely high; and
•the rate of youth out-migration has increased substantially since 1996.
According to the report, prepared by the five existing Local Training and Adjustment Boards in Northern Ontario, the 15- to 19-year-old age group had the highest rate of out-migration. It also found youths in rural areas have higher out-migration than their urban counterparts.
The report identified two driving factors which affect the availability of “good” job opportunities for northern youth. The first is an over-dependence on natural resources and their exploitation.
And because of this dependence on natural resources here, Fort Frances is more vulnerable to things like resource depletion, changes in the Canadian exchange rate, and the boom-and-bust cycles of the resource industries.
The second contributing factor, because of resource dependency, is the effect and reliance on outside forces.
“The fact that most communities were developed by outside forces means that local entrepreneurship has been more limited than in other areas,” said the report, which went on to say this has been a hindrance on a culture of entrepreneurship.
Local resident Josh Cawston, who left Fort Frances for school in Toronto, disagrees with this point. In fact, he said the size of small towns can be an advantage in his experience.
“It’s not that there are no opportunities in Fort,” he remarked. “On the contrary, the fact that it is so small gives those who want to open their own business a huge advantage compared to Toronto.”
Locally, according to “The Changing Population of Northern Ontario,” prepared by Chris Southcott, a Ph.D. at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, for the Local Training and Adjustment Board #25, the statistics speak for themselves.
His report found the communities that faced the largest population decline were ones dependent on the forest industry, including Fort Frances, Atikokan, and Kenora.
Indeed, the number of 15- to 19-year-olds went from 1,745 in 1996 to 1,410 in 2001—a decrease of 19.2 percent.
Cawston, a business administration student, left town to attend post-secondary school at Seneca College in Toronto as well as to experience new things.
“The fact that Toronto is so much bigger then Fort Frances greatly influenced my career decision to leave, not that there aren’t good jobs in Fort, there are many. It just wasn’t necessarily what I was looking for,” he explained via e-mail.
He also noted youths do not always leave just for the sake of career goals.
“I think the main reason young people leave small towns for bigger cities, especially if they are as isolated like ours is, is to get out and see the world—to broaden their horizons and experience new cultures and new people.
“Fort has different cultures, but compared to Toronto it’s very small. Back home I have white friends and native friends, that’s it,” Cawston remarked. “Here I’ve learned about new cultures from my friends who are East Indian, from Barbados, and elsewhere.”
So the north, which makes up 89 percent of Ontario’s land mass but only accounts for 7.4 percent of the total population, is facing a dire situation.
Though dismal, however, the situation is not hopeless. And with the help of the provincial government, things may possibly improve.
The Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, for instance, started the Northern Ontario Youth Internship and Co-op program in 2005 as a way to keep youths in Ontario’s northern towns.
“The McGuinty government is helping the region’s young workforce remain in Northern Ontario to ensure the future prosperity of our northern communities,” stated a press release on the ministry’s website.
Under the program, private- and public-sector employers located in Northern Ontario can apply for funding to hire an intern or co-op student, with the exclusion of retail establishments and federal and provincial governments.
For co-op placements, employers would receive a conditional financial contribution to hire post-secondary students from Northern Ontario for work placements. For internship placements, employers would receive a similar financial contribution for payment of the intern’s wages.
For a proposed co-op placement to be eligible, it must be shown that the student will “gain practical work experience that fulfills the requirements of their co-operative education program,” states the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp.’s website.
In the case of intern positions, they must provide “first-time employment in a related field to recent university and college graduates from Northern Ontario.”
The goal of the program is to train and retain skilled workers from the north in the north.
As long as the student graduated from a high school in Northern Ontario (regardless of where they attended college or university), they are eligible to participate in the program. And students are not required to complete their placement in the same northern location they are from.
Jane Gillon, the Northern Development Officer with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines here, said the program has been extremely successful here so far. “On the whole it has been very successful. It encourages employers to take on youth,” she noted.
To date, 23 area projects have been funded by the NOHFC program—a total funding appliance of $356,000.
“It’s a real great opportunity for them to get full-time jobs in the north,” Gillon enthused.
She said this program is one attempt to address the case of exported youth in Northern Ontario. “It’s a direct response to youth out-migration,” she stressed.
Many recent grads, explained Gillon, may have a degree in their field but be lacking practical experience. She said this initiative is a good way to solve the problem. Describing an employment issue many grads face, Gillon said, “They might have the education but not the experience.”
The Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce is one organization to take advantage of the program, and manager Dawn Booth said it’s been a huge help.
“It’s working out wonderfully,” Booth said of the Chamber’s intern and involvement with NOHFC. “We wouldn’t be able to do the project itself [without an intern].”
She went on to say the program is great for the community because it keeps youths here.
But Cawston is skeptical as to whether youths will ever stop leaving—despite changes or new opportunities made available for them.
“I don’t think things will change really. You will always have the people like me who, from an early age, want to get out and be on their own away from home and not able to come home on the weekends.
“Those that really want the sense of independence will always leave home for a newer far away area,” he affirmed. “They don’t want the ability to get home-cooked meals on weekends, they want to start living their own lives on their own.”
