Statistics Canada Reports II

[BlaineN]

Originally Posted by someone123

I think Canada is fairly balanced between regions these days, more than it was in recent decades, or maybe ever before. Oil and gas has cooled somewhat in AB, housing affordability issues are a challenge in BC/ON, and Atlantic Canada's economy is more in line with the national average these days.

Agreed. The country feels different to me than it did when I was younger. My memory of things might be different from others, but I remember Ontario and Quebec as the overwhelming powerhouses of Canada, far more than any other province.
I remember the Maritimes, Manitoba and Saskatchewan being poor and BC and Alberta in the middle somewhere.
Ontario and Quebec are still powerhouses, but overwhelming powerhouses in a relative sense like they were in the 80's.
These days, the Maritimes, Man and Sask are all growing and doing well.

BC and Alberta, still in that middle area, but larger and more dynamic than they used to be. Forestry and mining has been in decline for BC, and oil and gas has been in decline for Alberta but both province have been booming nonetheless. There's been a lot of non oil and gas growth here in Calgary over the past decade or so.

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by BlaineN

Agreed. The country feels different to me than it did when I was younger. My memory of things might be different from others, but I remember Ontario and Quebec as the overwhelming powerhouses of Canada, far more than any other province.
I remember the Maritimes, Manitoba and Saskatchewan being poor and BC and Alberta in the middle somewhere.
Ontario and Quebec are still powerhouses, but overwhelming powerhouses in a relative sense like they were in the 80's.
These days, the Maritimes, Man and Sask are all growing and doing well.

BC and Alberta, still in that middle area, but larger and more dynamic than they used to be. Forestry and mining has been in decline for BC, and oil and gas has been in decline for Alberta but both province have been booming nonetheless. There's been a lot of non oil and gas growth here in Calgary over the past decade or so.

Immigration patterns are part of that. For decades international immigrants settled heavily in Montreal and Toronto and then later Vancouver. Recently they are settling in all parts of Canada and it's changed up the dynamic as smaller cites like Saskatoon, Halifax, etc.. are showing strong growth. Same for cities like Winnipeg that previously had slow growth for years.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by jc_yyc_ca

Immigration patterns are part of that. For decades international immigrants settled heavily in Montreal and Toronto and then later Vancouver.

Some of this was federal government policy, officially or unofficially. Case processing happened in Ontario and Quebec and there were many stories of workers discouraging immigrants from moving outside of a few big cities. In the Harper years, provincial nominations existed but the Maritimes had very low caps imposed. When the caps were removed, lo and behold, growth increased and the economy improved.

Canadian economic policy was at times brutal in places that were not Ontario and Quebec back in the 1970's-2000's, and it was rarely acknowledged nationally as mismanagement. There was relatively low understanding across regional lines. You had things like the NEP, de facto ban on offshore development, and the 90's federal cuts impacting different areas disparately. When the regions did poorly the attitude was often that that was just how it was; Atlantic Canada for example was viewed as a shithole by many so it simply made sense that there would be outmigration.

[q12]

Halifax council passes plan to prepare city for 1 million people

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...ople-1.7566338

[someone123]

This is for the municipality, not metro area. In the past the estimated growth was way too low. I wonder if this is too high.

Another article pointed out that in 2024, Halifax added 13,900 jobs and the average income per person was up 6% (!). There was only about a 25% spread in incomes between the highest and lowest cities surveyed in Canada.

Council is planning with housing zoning but there isn't really any viable transportation plan. Halifax would need something like LRT well before 1 million. It has a small, convoluted road network that's already overloaded and people don't want highway development in brownfield areas. The municipality wants to concentrate most growth in those existing developed areas (and there's a large capacity for infill as a lot of old postwar development was sparse).

[Chocolite]

Originally Posted by someone123

Some of this was federal government policy, officially or unofficially. Case processing happened in Ontario and Quebec and there were many stories of workers discouraging immigrants from moving outside of a few big cities. In the Harper years, provincial nominations existed but the Maritimes had very low caps imposed. When the caps were removed, lo and behold, growth increased and the economy improved.
.

This was the case for my parents. I don’t know if it specifically was from case workers, but when they immigrated to Canada in 1987, my father inquired about potential moving other parts of the country but received advice not to. He didn’t explore other parts of Canada until only a few years back, after my sister moved to BC.

[MolsonExport]

Canada should have a 1m person metro on the East Coast. Alas, I think that Halifax Municipality takes in a huge chunk of the province.

[Nashe]

Halifax, Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton combined would have a pop of about 1m.

[zoomer]

/\ another thought.. Halifax + Moncton + Saint John + Fredericton + Charlottetown + St. John’s + Winnipeg + Regina + Saskatoon + Edmonton + Calgary + Kelowna + Victoria + Nanaimo still falls just short of one city - TORONTO.

7,045,574 vs. 7,106, 379 for Toronto.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1...pid=1710014801

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by zoomer

/\ another thought.. Halifax + Moncton + Saint John + Fredericton + St. John’s + Winnipeg + Regina + Saskatoon + Edmonton + Calgary + Kelowna + Victoria + Nanaimo still falls just short of one city - TORONTO.

7,045,574 vs. 7,106, 379 for Toronto.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1...pid=1710014801

...and you could still probably drive across all of those faster than that last one.

[zoomer]

Damn - hot take! Haha. Or can you imagine if you split TO’s transportation budget across those cities, especially the under 1 million ones. We’d have a few new cities with LRT/subway lines.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by zoomer

/\ another thought.. Halifax + Moncton + Saint John + Fredericton + St. John’s + Winnipeg + Regina + Saskatoon + Edmonton + Calgary + Kelowna + Victoria + Nanaimo still falls just short of one city - TORONTO.

7,045,574 vs. 7,106, 379 for Toronto.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1...pid=1710014801

Another way to look at it. If you add ALL the other Capitals in Canada, including Ottawa.... Toronto still has almost 360,000 more people than that total. (The other Capitals, come out to about 6,750,000 people in total)

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Alas, I think that Halifax Municipality takes in a huge chunk of the province.

There's something like 10,000 people living in the eastern 1/2 of that area. The eastern half of the Atlantic coast of mainland NS is very rocky and has a very small population. But the other 4 counties to the west and north of Halifax have 200,000 people or so.

[zoomer]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

Another way to look at it. If you add ALL the other Capitals in Canada, including Ottawa.... Toronto still has almost 360,000 more people than that total. (The other Capitals, come out to about 6,750,000 people in total)

Ok, that’s a good one!

Btw, I forgot to include Charlottetown in my original list above, but had included them in the calculation.

It’s hard to blame the national media for having a Toronto focus when you look at these numbers. If anything Toronto is probably under represented per capita in the national news.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by zoomer

Ok, that’s a good one!

Btw, I forgot to include Charlottetown in my original list above, but had included them in the calculation.

It’s hard to blame the national media for having a Toronto focus when you look at these numbers. If anything Toronto is probably under represented per capita in the national news.

Yup. One of every 5 Canadians lives in the GTA. One of every 3 lives within a 2-3 hour drive of Toronto.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by zoomer

Ok, that’s a good one!

Btw, I forgot to include Charlottetown in my original list above, but had included them in the calculation.

It’s hard to blame the national media for having a Toronto focus when you look at these numbers. If anything Toronto is probably under represented per capita in the national news.

To be fair, I also failed to include Charlottetown in my total too. I just rounded all the CMA totals as I went down the list and didn't realize I'd missed it since it's "just" a CA.

I also hadn't officially counted the Territory capitals, but I knew they wouldn't make a significant difference in the Capital total.

So with Charlottetown's 93,000, Toronto is "Only" 270,000 bigger than all the rest of the Capitals.

[someone123]

It's a bit of a contrivance though as cities #2-4 just happen not to be capitals, and you can point out something similar for Montreal, where 1 in 10 Canadians live. Metro Vancouver's share of the national population is comparable to NYC in the US.

[svlt]

Originally Posted by someone123

It's a bit of a contrivance though as cities #2-4 just happen not to be capitals, and you can point out something similar for Montreal, where 1 in 10 Canadians live. Metro Vancouver's share of the national population is comparable to NYC in the US.

When you put it that way, A "Greater Toronto" of the US would be akin to having a nearly 60M population megalopolis. It would be bigger than LA, NY and SF all combined.

So while I also bemoan the attention focused on Toronto, it really is a very big center of gravity for Canada.

If you use the entire greater golden horseshoe region of Toronto as a count (~10M stretching from Niagara to Belleville), it would be even bigger. In fact that region could well be the fourth most populated region in all of North America depending on how you count the population figures, behind Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by svlt

When you put it that way, A "Greater Toronto" of the US would be akin to having a nearly 60M population megalopolis. It would be bigger than LA, NY and SF all combined.

So while I also bemoan the attention focused on Toronto, it really is a very big center of gravity for Canada.

I can't think of any other cities off the top of my head that concentrate so much of a national population concentrated into one metro, to the exclusion of others. Australia comes to mind, but both Sydney and Melbourne have about one in five Australians each, so there's a bit of balance between them; neither is dominant.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I can't think of any other cities off the top of my head that concentrate so much of a national population concentrated into one metro, to the exclusion of others. Australia comes to mind, but both Sydney and Melbourne have about one in five Australians each, so there's a bit of balance between them; neither is dominant.

There are lots. Especially if you use such an all encompassing definition. Niagara to Oshawa is bigger than lots of whole countries. Seoul is like half the population and more of the GDP of Korea. Of larger countries Buenos Aires comes to mind. It doesn't feel too out of whack in Canada. We have other large cities. Lets say at least Montreal and Vancouver.