How many will call northern Ontario home in 2058? Population predictions hinge on immigration, climate change

Ryi Hang Wang loves Sudbury in the summertime. She even likes the snow.

She came to Canada from China three years while her husband did his post-doctoral work.

Their daughter Emily was born in Sudbury a year ago.

But Wang isn't sure how long she'll live in her hometown. She says they are planning to go back to China in a few years.

Attracting and keeping immigrants has been one of the big challenges for northern Ontario and one of the big reasons the region's population is predicted, by some, to decline in the coming decades.

As part of our series The Next 40, imagining northern Ontario in 2058, we asked some experts to make some population predictions:

Northern Ontario Policy Institutepresident CharlesCirtwell: "We have to make the case that this is a place that benefits them to be, not a place where it benefits us to relocate. But a place where they can have a secure lifestyle, raise a family and build a life."

Demographer MichaelHaanon theagaingbaby boom: "In 40 years a lot of that will be behind us, so we're going to have a population that looks radically different than the one we have now."

Futurist Richard Worzel: "It's quite possible that we could, at least in theory, live forever or at least until our money holds out."

Futurist Jim Carroll:"The Internetmade geography go away. It permitted work to be done by anyone, from anywhere at anytime."

Hear the full episode by clicking here: