Wishblade
Dec 5, 2007, 2:24 PM
Our leaking population
By AMY SMITH and KRISTEN LIPSCOMBE Staff Reporters
Wed. Dec 5 - 6:31 AM
MORE THAN 20,000 people packed their bags and left Nova Scotia for other provinces in 2005-06, according to new census figures.
Statistics Canada also said Tuesday that just over 15,000 moved to the province during that period, for a net loss of 5,215 people.
In the five years leading up to the 2006 census, Nova Scotia lost 8,005 people to other parts of Canada.
"It’s definitely a concern," Premier Rodney MacDonald said at Province House on Tuesday.
RELATED
Census snapshot
The premier said the province is taking steps to stem that outmigration, mainly by growing the economy, especially in the financial and information technology sectors.
"We’re seeing thousands of jobs being created as a result of that focus," Mr. MacDonald told reporters.
He said the province is zeroing in on ways to get expatriates to come home. For instance, the government recently put up billboards in Toronto reminding Nova Scotians living there of family, beaches and donairs back home.
But the province is making more substantial efforts, the premier said, including trade missions to encourage exports of its products, not its people.
Opposition Leader Darrell Dexter said the province is seeing a lot of 18- to 25-year-olds going elsewhere for work.
"If we are really serious about keeping young people here, then we have to find ways to make it worthwhile for them to stay," Mr. Dexter said at Province House. "They have to see a future for themselves."
The NDP leader said immigration has a role and immigration policy should offer more to help new residents put down roots by recognizing their cultural needs, offering help with language skills and providing community support.
"If you don’t do it, what’s going to happen is immigrants are simply going to pick up and go to where there are significant-sized communities where they can feel at home," he said.
But Alex Atiol, a 43-year-old from Sudan who now lives in Halifax, said his family truly does feel at home in Nova Scotia. He fled the war-torn African country in 1993 and his wife and four children followed three years later.
At one point, Mr. Atiol travelled to big-city Toronto but he decided to live in Nova Scotia and hasn’t looked back since.
"We are Nova Scotians, we love Nova Scotia — it’s like home," said Mr. Atiol, who has been a Canadian citizen since 1999 and watched his loved ones become citizens Tuesday morning during a ceremony at Pier 21 in Halifax.
"People are nice, normally, they smile to you and they say hi to you when you wave at them."
His wife, Agnes Fatna Atiol, 42, wholeheartedly agreed that the Halifax area is a great place to raise a family. But some of their children begged to differ.
Daughter Vicky Natiki Atiol, 13, called Nova Scotia "too small." She said she hopes to check out cities in Alberta one day. Son Jimmy Loboi Atiol, 19, said he’d like to live in Toronto, while daughter Hellen Nauren Atiol, 20, said she’d prefer Ottawa.
They said there are many more family members and much more diversity in the Ontario cities.
"There’s a lot more mix," Hellen said.
Vicky, Jimmy and Hellen, along with their mother and sister Christine Namwa Atiol, 17, were among 64 new citizens sworn in Tuesday. Their brother, Patrick Loki Atiol, 9, was born in Canada.
Although Mr. Atiol and his family settled in Nova Scotia, many other immigrants are indeed attracted to western provinces.
Ontario was the big draw from 2001 to ’06 with 19,450 moving there. Alberta was second with 12,625 Nova Scotians moving there, followed by New Brunswick at 6,290.
"It’s clearly an outmigration," Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said. "There has been no plan by this government to retain the thousands of university graduates we’ve had over that period of time. There’s no plan to invigorate the rural economy to keep the young people here in rural Nova Scotia. It’s not surprising that this is happening."
( klipscombe@herald.ca)
A breakdown by the numbers:
N.S. UPS & DOWNS:
Antigonish
–518
Cape Breton Regional Municipality
–3,718
Halifax
+13,675
Inverness
–155
Kentville
+205
Lunenburg
–251
New Glasgow
+23
Port Hawkesbury
–184
Truro
+308
Windsor
–69
Yarmouth
–399
By AMY SMITH and KRISTEN LIPSCOMBE Staff Reporters
Wed. Dec 5 - 6:31 AM
MORE THAN 20,000 people packed their bags and left Nova Scotia for other provinces in 2005-06, according to new census figures.
Statistics Canada also said Tuesday that just over 15,000 moved to the province during that period, for a net loss of 5,215 people.
In the five years leading up to the 2006 census, Nova Scotia lost 8,005 people to other parts of Canada.
"It’s definitely a concern," Premier Rodney MacDonald said at Province House on Tuesday.
RELATED
Census snapshot
The premier said the province is taking steps to stem that outmigration, mainly by growing the economy, especially in the financial and information technology sectors.
"We’re seeing thousands of jobs being created as a result of that focus," Mr. MacDonald told reporters.
He said the province is zeroing in on ways to get expatriates to come home. For instance, the government recently put up billboards in Toronto reminding Nova Scotians living there of family, beaches and donairs back home.
But the province is making more substantial efforts, the premier said, including trade missions to encourage exports of its products, not its people.
Opposition Leader Darrell Dexter said the province is seeing a lot of 18- to 25-year-olds going elsewhere for work.
"If we are really serious about keeping young people here, then we have to find ways to make it worthwhile for them to stay," Mr. Dexter said at Province House. "They have to see a future for themselves."
The NDP leader said immigration has a role and immigration policy should offer more to help new residents put down roots by recognizing their cultural needs, offering help with language skills and providing community support.
"If you don’t do it, what’s going to happen is immigrants are simply going to pick up and go to where there are significant-sized communities where they can feel at home," he said.
But Alex Atiol, a 43-year-old from Sudan who now lives in Halifax, said his family truly does feel at home in Nova Scotia. He fled the war-torn African country in 1993 and his wife and four children followed three years later.
At one point, Mr. Atiol travelled to big-city Toronto but he decided to live in Nova Scotia and hasn’t looked back since.
"We are Nova Scotians, we love Nova Scotia — it’s like home," said Mr. Atiol, who has been a Canadian citizen since 1999 and watched his loved ones become citizens Tuesday morning during a ceremony at Pier 21 in Halifax.
"People are nice, normally, they smile to you and they say hi to you when you wave at them."
His wife, Agnes Fatna Atiol, 42, wholeheartedly agreed that the Halifax area is a great place to raise a family. But some of their children begged to differ.
Daughter Vicky Natiki Atiol, 13, called Nova Scotia "too small." She said she hopes to check out cities in Alberta one day. Son Jimmy Loboi Atiol, 19, said he’d like to live in Toronto, while daughter Hellen Nauren Atiol, 20, said she’d prefer Ottawa.
They said there are many more family members and much more diversity in the Ontario cities.
"There’s a lot more mix," Hellen said.
Vicky, Jimmy and Hellen, along with their mother and sister Christine Namwa Atiol, 17, were among 64 new citizens sworn in Tuesday. Their brother, Patrick Loki Atiol, 9, was born in Canada.
Although Mr. Atiol and his family settled in Nova Scotia, many other immigrants are indeed attracted to western provinces.
Ontario was the big draw from 2001 to ’06 with 19,450 moving there. Alberta was second with 12,625 Nova Scotians moving there, followed by New Brunswick at 6,290.
"It’s clearly an outmigration," Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said. "There has been no plan by this government to retain the thousands of university graduates we’ve had over that period of time. There’s no plan to invigorate the rural economy to keep the young people here in rural Nova Scotia. It’s not surprising that this is happening."
( klipscombe@herald.ca)
A breakdown by the numbers:
N.S. UPS & DOWNS:
Antigonish
–518
Cape Breton Regional Municipality
–3,718
Halifax
+13,675
Inverness
–155
Kentville
+205
Lunenburg
–251
New Glasgow
+23
Port Hawkesbury
–184
Truro
+308
Windsor
–69
Yarmouth
–399