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Foreword by Craig Alexander
In many ways, Hamilton is an economic rock star among Canadian municipalities. I grew up in the region watching the transformation of the city from a steel town (“The Hammer”) to a more diversified advanced economy with heavy concentration in health care and education. This evolution was far from easy and smooth. Indeed, it transformed the local labour market, fundamentally altering the skills that employers required. This new, modern, advanced economy has done very well in recent years. The pace of overall economic growth has been solid, and better than many other regions. The success of the local residents has contributed to strong real estate markets over the past decade. Hamiltonians should feel good about their economic success. Yet, the favourable headline statistics mask unfortunate underlying trends. While the city’s economy is on a positive trajectory overall, the rising tide is not lifting all boats.
Consistent with national trends, women, visible minorities, disabled workers, youths, immigrants, and Indigenous Peoples often have less opportunities and lower incomes. A portion of the workforce that historically worked within the traditional manufacturing sector is struggling to find employment. Often those being left behind lack the skills that employers are looking for.
Overlaying these trends, residents of the Lower City neighbourhoods tend to be less educated, less employed, and more impoverished, especially relative to those in Ancaster, Dundas, and Flamborough. The Spectator’s “Code Red” revealed a shocking 23 year gap in life expectancy between the best and worst performing Hamilton neighbourhoods.
Through its “Economic Development Action Plan - 2016-2025”, the City of Hamilton declared an ambition to “be the best place to raise a child and age successfully.” 1 To ensure this goal is actualized across the whole city, the populations that are struggling will need better outcomes in education, skills development, labour force participation, and employment.
This is no small challenge. To improve education outcomes, the skills that are in demand must be identified, the population segments that are most in need must be engaged, and a platform for accessible educational opportunities must be provided. It was within this context that Deloitte was retained by the Mohawk College Foundation to conduct an economic analysis and ultimately produce this report –“Economic Impact Study of City School”. With a broad lens, this study explores the economic contributions of the City School program as it relates to students, businesses, and communities. City School is an initiative created out of Mohawk College’s belief in the importance of expanding access to postsecondary education. First launched in the fall semester of 2015, with for-credit courses first offered in the winter semester of 2016, the program delivers tuition-free courses and workshops to residents in Hamilton. Importantly, City School represents a demand-led educational initiative, an approach that centers on identifying employer needs and, thereafter, designing courses that align to employer needs. Through teaching skills that are in demand, City School aims to ensure that graduates achieve good employment opportunities after completing their course.
In our analysis, we find that City School is a bridge to education and employment opportunities and, by virtue of this, it generates a meaningful array of economic and social impacts: • City School reduces barriers to postsecondary education: Through offering tuition-free courses, in neighbourhood-based classroom locations, with an emphasis on low-income and underserved community needs, City School removes barriers to postsecondary opportunities. The barriers City School helps students overcome may be material (e.g., cost) or non-material (e.g., self-confidence). • City School mitigates the skills gap challenge: Hamilton, like many places in Canada, faces a skills gap challenge. Through connecting unemployed and underemployed individuals in the community with labour-market driven, employer informed programming, City School has mitigated the skills gap challenge for its students and Hamilton businesses. • City School creates stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities: By providing educational programs and workshops to underserved and marginalized populations, City School equitably promotes greater well-being and quality of life among its students and in turn stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities within Hamilton. This study was primarily informed through three key data sources: (1) the Graduate Survey, which collected data from former students, (2) the Business Survey, which collected data from Hamilton businesses that partnered with City School, and (3) Stakeholder Consultations, which refer to seven in-person interviews Deloitte conducted with Hamilton businesses, non-profit organizations, and government officials. For the purposes of confidentiality, the survey respondents and stakeholders have been anonymized. Unlike traditional economic impact assessments, this report does not illustrate the static GDP, labour income, employment, and government tax revenue impacts generated by City School. While the program generates quantifiable impacts (e.g., for the 2019/2020 academic year, Mohawk College and its partners invested approximately $1,200,000 in City School) it is still operating at an early-stage scale. To date, 496 unique students have graduated. Given the current size, it would be challenging and not very meaningful to estimate the program’s static economic contribution. In order to reveal the true impact of City School, this study looks beneath headline economic numbers, such as GDP, and explores the program’s impact on individual participants and businesses. Through this exercise the data is clear that City School helps to reduce barriers to education, mitigate the skills gap challenge, and create stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities. Based on our analysis, an expanded use of education programs aligned with the needs of employers and could help achieve more inclusive and sustainable economic growth to the benefit of living standards.
Craig Alexander
Chief Economist at Deloitte Canada
