P.E.I. sees record growth, but Islanders are leaving at the highest rate in decades
CBC
The most recent population report from Statistics Canada shows a strangely paradoxical trend for P.E.I.
The province grew 4.3 per cent in 2022, adding more than 7,000 residents, bringing the total population to 173,954 as of Jan. 1. It is easily the fastest-growing province in Canada, at a time when the country itself is experiencing record growth.
But at the same time, people are leaving the Island at a pace not seen since 1981. Almost 4,200 people left the Island for other provinces in 2022, a 27 per cent increase over the average of the previous five years.
"A trend like that kind of makes sense," said Ryan MacRae of Cooper Institute, an education and community development group in Charlottetown.
"[There's] a really big focus on population growth while at the same time not looking at supports to sustain that population."
Out-migration from P.E.I. jumped in the middle of the first decade of this century, moving from about 2,500 a year to regularly more than 3,000.
This was partly due to increased immigration starting around 2008, and the province's inability to convince those new Canadians to stay. A large majority of immigrants who land in P.E.I. still tend to move on to other provinces within five years.
There is no breakdown yet for immigrant departures in 2022, but there are indications that departing immigrants are not the source of the increase in out-migration last year.
The provinces that saw the biggest increases as a destination for people leaving P.E.I. were Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These are not typical destinations for recent immigrants, representing fewer than 10 per cent of departures.
From 2015 to 2020, the biggest destinations for immigrants leaving P.E.I. were Ontario (56 per cent) and B.C. (30 per cent). In 2022, the number of Islanders who left for B.C. was actually below average, and the number leaving for Ontario was up only 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number leaving for other Maritime provinces was up 40 per cent, and the number leaving for Alberta was almost double the recent average.
It is not surprising that a broad spectrum of people should be leaving the province, said MacRae.
"There's a lack of housing, we're also seeing it's nearly impossible to see a doctor. You know, these aren't things that make people want to stay," he said.
"Unless we see these investments the government needs to make, it's going to be a lot more chaotic here. It's going to be harder to find homes for people, it's going to be harder to see a doctor."
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