The president of the Northern Policy Institute had mixed news for those who are attending their conference in North Bay.

Charles Cirtwill says there are some positive highlights throughout Northern Ontario.

“Median income is higher. There are lots of jobs in the north in personal support workers, middle managers, transportation, trucking and warehousing,” he says.

He says education levels are up and that’s another positive and there’s positive signs in industrial diversity.

But Cirtwill says they have labour shortages now.

“And they’re going to get much worse and a lot quicker than they have. We’re going to need 5,000 to 7,500 people a year for the next 25 years,” Cirtwill says.

Cirtwill says in Greater Sudbury there’s more employment in post secondary education which means higher paying jobs.

“You look here in the Nipissing area and you see smaller institutions in health care, secondary and post secondary education. This means there are fewer people making those higher wages and you see a dip below the provincial average,” he says.

Filed under: Northern Policy Institute