Volume 47, Number 2, 2024 Canada’s Economic Geography Guest-edited by Jesse Sutton

EN:

Canada experienced the strongest economic growth of all G7 countries in 2022. However, economic development is not evenly distributed across the nation. Unlike global cities, economically declining municipalities are often overlooked, contributing to social, cultural, and political repercussions. What are the geographies of regional economic change in Canada? And what demographic and spatial characteristics are associated with economic decline? This study examines the spatial distribution of economic change across Canadian cities and regions from 1981 to 2021, while accounting for municipal boundary adjustments between census periods. The findings of our spatial analyses reveal distinct, complex patterns of socio-economic change, influenced by peripherality at various spatial scales. For instance, cities further from the American border were often found to have experienced undesirable trends in educational attainment and average income, while also experiencing an improvement in unemployment rates. These observations were confirmed through statistical analyses, with stagnation in educational attainment and income trends occurring in rural, peripheral, and demographically shrinking municipalities. Conversely, there is a positive relationship between trends in unemployment rates and population size. The diversity of geographies of economic change demonstrates the need for targeted interventions to mitigate the unique manifestations of decline within communities.

EN:

The ongoing issue of plant closures is a significant concern for advanced economies. Consequently, there is a need to update our understanding of plant closures to align with present-day socioeconomic contexts. This paper examines the causes and impacts of plant closures across various contexts in Ontario, Canada, using a media analysis approach. Specifically, 1,157 news articles from 2000 to 2019 are analyzed to gain insights into plant closures in the province. Utilizing media coverage as a novel and robust data source, this study offers a regional perspective on the causes and impacts of plant closures. The identified causes of plant closures include market forces, corporate factors, endogenous factors, economic crises, and globalization. These causes have effects at multiple levels, ranging from the individual to regional.

EN:

This paper provides new estimates of Canada’s economic centre of gravity using self-contained labour market areas as the regional unit of analysis. We find that from 1986 to 2019, Canada’s economic centre of gravity shifted from east to west by a net distance of 173 km, or approximately 3.1% of the distance separating Canada’s most easterly point (Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador) and the Yukon-Alaska border in the northwest. Within this overall westward shift, we identify five distinct movement vectors where major directional changes have taken place driven in large part by fluctuating prices in resource- (particularly energy-) based commodity prices.

EN:

Since the beginning of the 21^st century, over 100 major landslides have been reported worldwide, which resulted in both human casualties and massive damages to property. While the academic and technical literature on landslide hazard risk assessment is quite abundant, relatively few studies address the issue of the impact of landslide exposure on property values. In this research, we look at the impact that public intervention aimed at compensating homeowners affected by landslide hazard constraint zones had on residential values in La Baie, an arrondissement of the City of Saguenay (formerly Chicoutimi), in the province of Quebec, Canada. The area was most affected by the Saguenay flood that hit the region on July 19 and 20, 1996 and which was followed by a series of landslides. A difference-in-differences (DiD) spatial hedonic price model is estimated using a representative sample of 813 single-family sales transacted in La Baie between 2009 and 2016. Findings suggest that, caeteris paribus, and nearly two decades after the 1996 events, the compensation scheme implemented at the local level in December 2012 did not manage to completely offset the disadvantages of building constraints on high-risk sites induced by the new regulations and translated into a statistically significant price discount of 3.4% for affected properties as opposed to unaffected ones. They also suggest that a panoramic view on the Saguenay fjord adds some 8.6% to a property’s value.

FR:

Depuis le début du 21^e siècle, on rapporte plus de 100 glissements de terrains d’importance dans le monde, dont certains ont causé des centaines, voire des milliers de pertes de vies humaines ainsi que des dommages matériels considérables. S’il existe une abondante littérature académique et technique sur l’évaluation des risques de glissements de terrain, on retrouve par contre peu d’études portant sur l’impact du risque d’exposition aux glissements de terrain sur la valeur des propriétés. Dans cette recherche, nous nous penchons sur l’impact qu’a exercé le programme municipal de compensation pour les propriétaires affectés par l’instauration de zones de contrainte relatives aux risques de glissements de terrain sur les valeurs résidentielles à La Baie, un arrondissement de la Ville de Saguenay (antérieurement Chicoutimi), située au Québec, Canada. Ce territoire a été particulièrement affecté par le déluge du Saguenay qui a frappé la région les 19 et 20 juillet 1996 et s’est soldée par une série de glissements de terrains. La démarche consiste à appliquer la méthode des doubles différences (DiD) intégrée à un modèle spatial de prix hédoniques à un échantillon de 813 propriétés unifamiliales ayant fait l’objet d’une transaction à La Baie entre 2009 et 2016. Les résultats suggèrent que, toutes choses égales par ailleurs, et près de deux décennies après les événements de 1996, le programme municipal de compensation des propriétaires les plus affectés mis en place par la municipalité en décembre 2012 n’a pas permis de totalement pallier les inconvénients découlant des contraintes de construction sur les sites à haut risque et s’est traduit par une diminution significative des prix de 3,4 % pour les propriétés affectées relativement aux propriétés non affectées. Les résultats suggèrent également qu’une vue panoramique sur le fjord du Saguenay se traduit par une prime de marché de l’ordre de 8,6 %.