Globalization has been one of the key factors for change in Canadian communities over the past 20 years, opening up some communities to new opportunities for economic development but hurting other regions, a new study suggests.
Statistics Canada released a report on Monday that looked at population and employment decline between 1981 and 2001.
It is among the first to look at how "vulnerable rural and urban communities in Canada are to population and employment declines, using demographic and economic characteristics."
The study is dubbed "An index of community vulnerability: Conceptual framework and application to population and employment changes."
It finds that one in every five Canadian communities is vulnerable to a loss of population and about one in 20 are vulnerable to a loss of jobs.
The communities that face the greatest risk are those in areas that have steady and constant population loss over the past 20 years, such as the Prairie provinces, northern Ontario, northern Quebec and the most remote regions of Atlantic Canada.
But these regions also contain communities with characteristics that show promise for maintaining population and employment levels -- running contrary to the trend of the wider region.
Communities with greater numbers of jobs in traditional sectors such as agriculture and forestry -- sectors that are especially exposed to foreign competition -- are more at risk of population and employment decline.
The study also found that high unemployment rates and low labour force participation rates are directly linked to population and employment decline.
Communities that contain some resources or assets -- such as a highly educated workforce or evenly dispersed employment across various sectors and proximity to large cities -- were less vulnerable.
