Greater Sudbury residents pay more income tax on average than other Canadians

Morning North4:13Sudburians paying on average more income tax than other Ontarians

If you live in Sudbury, you might be paying slightly more income tax than other Ontarians. That's not a bad thing. It's mostly attributable to better paying jobs. We heard more about this from Charles Cirtwill of the Northern Policy institute.

The Northern Policy Institute says people in the Sudbury area pay a little more income tax than other Ontarians and even Canadians across the board.

On average it's about $6,000 a year, according to numbers from 2013. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, says the institute's president and CEO Charles Cirtwill — rather, it's a sign of a healthy economy.

The higher the salary, the more tax you pay, he said. Higher incomes also show the city came through a bit of a recession last year better than expected.

"Let's be happy about the fact — I can't believe I'm about to say this — that the folks of Greater Sudbury paid a little more tax on average than the rest of the country," he said.

"It means that things are going well economically."

Cirtwill said there has been a small surge in information technology jobs that is helping to even out the boom and bust cycle of resource-based industries.

"In the Greater Sudbury area, we're seeing a little bit of a spike in the IT sector. Not as much as I think we'd like, but a little bit."

The numbers show that Sudbury may not be as dependent on the mining industry as it used to be.

Today is the deadline for filing your income tax return.