Stimulus saves 70,000 Ontario jobs, says study

The billions of dollars that the federal and Ontario governments have pumped into infrastructure spending saved 70,000 jobs in Ontario last year, research by the Conference Board of Canada concludes.

The think tank estimates that the increase in infrastructure spending added 0.9 percentage points to real gross domestic product in 2009. The board forecasts a further 0.4 percentage point boost in 2010, along with the saving of another 40,000 jobs.

"This year Ontario's public infrastructure expenditures will be more than double their 2008 levels," said economist Pedro Antunes, the report's author. "This increase in spending has already provided a strong stimulus to the economy and will continue to do so."

Antunes estimates that the additional boost to infrastructure spending was worth $5 billion to Ontario's economy in 2009 and another $3.6 billion this year.

Almost half of the newly created jobs are expected to be in the services sector and a third are in construction, the report says. The manufacturing sector accounted for 12 per cent of the new jobs.

The latest unemployment figures from Statistics Canada shows Ontario's jobless rate was 9.2 per cent in January. The national average was 8.3 per cent.

The report was conducted on behalf of the Ontario government, but the conference board said it designed the study's content and method of research.