A 9-year push to increase P.E.I.'s population has radically changed the Island
CBC
More than 20,000 people have arrived from other countries, almost 30,000 have left for other provinces while even more arrived from other parts of Canada, and more than 10,000 are foreign nationals living on P.E.I. on temporary permits.
This motion of people has caused crises in housing, health care, and general pressure on provincial infrastructure of all kinds.
The mass migration to and from P.E.I. dates back to 2015, when Wade MacLauchlan became leader of the Liberal Party and premier at the same time.
MacLauchlan spoke about immigration, as well as keeping talented Islanders at home and attracting them back. He expressed concern about an aging population and the need to rejuvenate.
Accelerated population growth began almost immediately. Annual growth to July 1, 2015 was 0.4 per cent. The next year it leaped to 1.6 per cent.
An official five-year strategy was launched in 2017 with a goal of reaching a population of 160,000 by 2022. The province blew past that a year early, and by 2022 there were more than 167,000 Islanders.
Growth rates set new records in 2022 and 2023, approaching four per cent before dropping just below three per cent last year.
Statistics Canada, in a release this week, set the Island population at 178,550.
The years since 2015 left the Island transformed.
There are 23.4 per cent more Islanders now than there were in 2015, a rate of growth far faster than that of any other province. Coming in second is British Columbia, with a growth of 19.5 per cent.
To put P.E.I.'s number in perspective: leading up to 2015, population growth of 23 per cent took 40 years.
There is no doubting this rapid population growth has caused problems.
Whether the growth has addressed the core issue that concerned MacLauchlan, the aging population, is another question. Atlantic Economic Council senior policy analyst Fred Bergman finds that the picture is mixed.
"There's a lot of people moving to the Island. Some of them are younger," Bergman said.
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