Canada's "Detroit" Finds Prosperous Life Beyond Cars
Oshawa, Ontario was one of five North American cities hit hard by GM shutdowns announced in November. On Friday, many of the 2,600 autoworkers slated to lose their jobs gathered to protest. It was big, it was loud, it was boisterous. But it was also futile. Not because GM’s senior managers are passing them over – but because the long-time Canadian auto capital of Oshawa has.
The iconic working class city about an hour east of Toronto has managed to reinvent itself, engineering a transformation from a city that made cars to a city that provides services – notably post-secondary education and health care. Like individuals, cities sometimes have second acts. Oshawa seems to be in the middle of one.
No question, GM’s announcement that it will shutter its Oshawa plant hit many in Oshawa hard. But predictions that this will be the end of the blue-collar town on Lake Ontario are – like rumours of Mark Twain’s death – greatly exaggerated. The number of auto jobs that Oshawa will forfeit directly is only about one-tenth as many as it has lost in the past 30 years, with the contraction of the North American auto workforce. Oshawa has already suffered a loss of an enormous number of jobs for a city its size. But it is not just surviving, it is thriving.
Unemployment rates are down. Population is up – by almost 50 percent over the past 25 years. Just since 2011, the city’s economy has generated a net gain of 30,000 jobs – a number that equals almost 20 percent of Oshawa’s total population. Oshawa has been able to grow dramatically not in spite of the virtual loss of the auto industry – with a constant stream of jobs to robotics and other efficiencies and the shift of jobs to lower-cost countries like Mexico and China – but largely because of it. The people of the city and the region are spending their time and energy performing jobs that are more productive and lucrative.
Some credit the weakening Canadian dollar, the city’s location on the Great Lakes, and solid U.S. consumer demand for Oshawa’s economic buoyancy. But many Canadian cities are falling victim to the decline of manufacturing as a job provider, despite sharing the same undervalued currency and proximity to robust U.S. import markets. And industrial ghost towns dot the Great Lakes, despite their prime location.
Many credit post-secondary education. It certainly is robust. A city that formerly housed 23,000 full-time auto jobs is now home to about that many full-time students – at a community college, university campus and the two campuses of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, which in the 15 years since it opened has emphasized the city’s industrial heritage, emphasizing manufacturing, technology and engineering. This growth of post-secondary education is more than matched by the surrounding Toronto region, which is home to three large universities and several colleges.
Health care has been another driver of Oshawa’s growth, as the city is home to one of Ontario’s largest community hospitals. The facility is also the base of a teaching hospital and a leading cancer center.Health care facilities in Oshawa employ about 5,000 people, or roughly twice as many as will lose their jobs at GM.
But while universities, colleges, and health care facilities help a city or region to build synergies and attract talent, they are not necessarily economic life savers. Many cities and regions across North America boast excellent schools of post-secondary education, and state-of-the-art hospitals, but that has not necessarily arrested their decline.
Determining what makes a city work and what doesn’t is not an easy process, and it is one that is very much open to debate. But one thing is certain: A city is the sum of its people – how entrepreneurial they are, how resourceful and talented, and the faith they place in education. Oshawa seems to have these characteristics, allowing it to revitalize itself.
The auto industry is not completely disappearing from the city. GM, anticipating a need for considerable technological advancement as they seek to pioneer electric and self-autonomous cars, is retaining an engineering division there that will generate high-paying jobs and continue Oshawa’s continued growth. Instead of Canada’s motor capital, it has become an opportunity capital, allowing it to leave in the dust the forecasts of its demise.
