People Will Move To Atlantic Canada. Full Stop.
David Campbell is a Moncton-based economic development consultant and co-host of the Huddle podcast, Insights. The following piece was originally published on his blog, It’s the Economy, Stupid!, on Substack.
One of the things that bugs me a bit about Atlantic Canada is the collective self-confidence problem. As long as I have been involved in economic development, I have heard things like “why would any company want to move here unless the government gives them a big subsidy?” or “why are we trying to attract people when we can’t even keep our own kids?” You all have heard versions of this story.
In 2015 I was told by a prominent public sector official that New Brunswick would not be able to grow its population in any significant way and we had better get used to 20 years of weak economic growth, workforce decline, and population stagnation. He said “yes, we might attract a few more immigrants but most won’t stay as they prefer the large urban centres.”
I disagreed. I was of the view that if you attracted newcomers into jobs (and entrepreneurial ventures) matched to their background, skills, and interests and you worked hard to support them (put down roots, as the Greater Moncton Immigration Strategy terms it) we could attract and retain immigrants.
Sure, some will leave – we lose a fairly large share of those born here – why is it unreasonable to think that a share of those moving here – with no roots – wouldn’t leave? But in the long run, the Atlantic Canada value proposition (highly livable cities and towns, short commutes, low crime, reasonable housing costs) should be attractive to lots of folks.
I don’t like to say I told you so but if you look at the recent immigrant population (and those living here as non-permanent residents, most of whom are in various stages of getting PR), many cities in the region stack up nicely thank you very much.
Moncton and Charlottetown, particularly, stand out with some of the highest immigrant attraction rates among all cities in Canada. Charlottetown had the highest immigrant attraction rate among all cities in Canada between 2016 and 2021, blowing past Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.
Moncton is not too bad either. It attracted more immigrants than the Waterloo Region, Winnipeg, and all the big cities in the west except Vancouver (where the immigration rate was only slightly higher).
The rest of the bigger cities in Atlantic Canada did fine – Halifax, Fredericton, even St. John’s and Saint John all had national-level or higher immigration rates.
How is your self-confidence now, Bluenosers, Herring-chokers, Spud-Islanders, and whatever we call folks from the Rock?
But, you say, little Jonny still moved to Toronto to find work in 2018. Woe is me.
Again, there are lots of little Jonnies. Lots of people move in and out of cities all the time for jobs, school, retirement, or just plain boredom. If you look at the data, a lot of little Jonnies moved in, too.
In 2021, there were 5,485 people living in the City of Moncton who had moved in between 2016 and 2021. Along with Fredericton, Halifax, and the capital of the Spud-Islanders, those cities had among the highest interprovincial migration rates in Canada (Whitehorse led the way).
Don’t compare the external migrant data with the immigration table above because to be in this table you had to be alive in 2016 (in order to be a migrant between 2016 and 2021).
There are lots of folks moving in. We have proved it can be done. Now we need to make sure we have the services and amenities to keep many of them here.
Huddle publishes commentaries from groups and individuals on important business issues facing the Maritimes. These commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Huddle. To submit a commentary for consideration, contact our editor, Trevor Nichols: [email protected].