Moving government jobs out of Toronto would be like transferring state departments from Albany. (Ontario provincial government considering move)

Moving government jobs out of Toronto would be like transferring state departments from Albany

Toronto is Canada's economic hub, a magnet that attracts jobs from all over the country.

That's why officials in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, Ont., find themselves in a rare position. They expect to learn by yearend whether a major Toronto employer will transfer 1,800 jobs to their cities.

That employer is the Ontario provincial government, which is considering moving its Ministry of Transportation to St. Catharines and the Ministry of Tourism to Niagara Falls.

The proposed transfers are part of a decentralization plan that would shift 6,000 government jobs from the provincial capital to other cities in Ontario. It would be comparable to the New York …