Survey measures Metro's newcomers
CityThink explores how many are new to the city and where they hail from
By Aloma Jardine
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Saturday March 22nd, 2008
Appeared on page A1
Metro Moncton's population has grown by thousands in the last five years, thousands who have come from every possible nook and cranny of this earth.
The majority seem to be making their way south from northern New Brunswick, but Metro is also attracting immigrants from all over the world and Canadians from across the country.
The 2006 census found that between 2001 and 2006, 23,105 people had moved to the Moncton Census Metropolitan Area, which includes Metro Moncton and some of the surrounding area.
The population only grew by 7,746 over the same period, as people also left the area, but the number of new people represents about 18 per cent of the total population.
In January, CityThink, a poll conducted by Bristol Ominifacts on behalf of the Times & Transcript, sought to find out how long people have lived here and where newcomers came from.
Of the 601 people surveyed, 10 per cent had lived here five years or less.
"You have this impression by living here that the place is growing, Dieppe in particular, with lots of people moving in," says Craig Wight, vice-president of research for Bristol Omnifacts. "I think what it does confirm, if you take the number of 10 per cent, is that there has been a lot of growth."
Only 21 of the 601 interviewed had lived in Metro Moncton for less than three years, and they came from a wide variety of places: Senegal, Houston, Goose Bay, Ontario.
A few came from Fredericton, Saint John, and Halifax, but the largest number came from parts north: Edmundston, Bathurst, Miramichi, Campbellton.
With only 21 people in the group, the findings are not statistically sound.
"But I think it sort of stands up to the intuitive test," Wight says.
"If you add Bathurst and Miramichi and northern New Brunswick together, you're up to a good chunk of those... What we intuitively know or hear seems to be confirmed here."
John Thompson, CEO of Enterprise Greater Moncton, is one who makes a point of knowing where the region's population growth is coming from and says the greatest part of the population growth is, in fact, coming from the northern part of the province.
"That is urbanization, it's happening across the country," he says. "They are moving for various reasons: access to hospitals, the retail experience, quality of life and availability of jobs."
He says the region has also been attracting more immigrants from Korea and China, plus from the various countries that make up the Francophonie.
Of the 23,105 people who moved here between 2001 and 2006, 14,600 were from another part of the province, 7,115 were from another province, and 1,390 were from a different country.
Of those who came from another country, the largest number came from Africa (315) and Asia and the Middle East (215), according to the 2006 census.
"It comes down to opportunities," Thompson says. "If you look at a company like Molson, it came into the region, it attracted a lot of people. There were about 400 people applying for 35 jobs and those people were from all over."
Opportunity is what brought Paul and Joeanne Thomson and their two young sons from Toronto to Moncton almost three years ago.
Paul grew up in Ottawa, Joeanne in Nova Scotia, but they had been living in the Toronto area for about eight years before packing up and moving here when Paul was offered the position of director of communications for the City of Moncton.
Both the professional and the personal were part of the decision: professionally, Paul jumped at the opportunity to head up a department, personally the couple have two young sons, now seven and four, and felt family-focused Metro Moncton would be a good place to raise them.
Joeanne was also thrilled with the chance to move closer to home and near at least one set of grandparents.
Joeanne says she didn't look for a job here right away as she was blessed with a very flexible employer for whom she continued working for 18 months, commuting back and forth to Toronto.
But eventually the commute got to be a bit much and she began looking for opportunities in the city and is now vice-president of business development for ShiftCentral, a market intelligence company with clients in New York, Boston, Toronto, San Francisco and other cities across Canada and the U.S.
It's the type of position one wouldn't necessarily expect to find in a relatively small city, but the Thomsons are proof you don't have to be in the big city to have a big city job, nor do you have to choose quality of life over career -- both say moving to a smaller centre hasn't impacted their career path.
But don't they miss the big city lights?
"When we first were thinking of moving, we were saying we won't have the professional sports and the museums and the theatres and the plays and then we started laughing and saying how often did we go," Joeanne says. "We need hockey and a grocery store."
They do the museums and sporting events when they visit Paul's family in Ontario, which Joeanne figures is about how often they would have went had they been living there.
"We have no regrets for the move. It has been really good for our family and career-wise it's been good for us too," Paul says. "We've made lots of friends here, we enjoy the city, we enjoy the culture. The French-English dynamic the city offers was appealing for us. Moncton has a lot going for it. It has even surpassed our expectations. We've been really pleasantly surprised at how much we like it here."
The loss of a few big city things has been made up for by the things they've gained -- like shorter commutes.
Joeanne used to travel 1 1/2 hours each way to work when they lived in Toronto.
"When I first moved here I had to meet the city manager and the assistant city manager for breakfast at Cora's," Paul recalls.
The city had put the Thomsons up at the Wild Rose Inn off Shediac Road and not wanting to be late for his 8:30 a.m. meeting, Paul was out the door by 7:10 a.m.
"I was downtown by 20 minutes past seven," he says, laughing. "It opened my eyes to how easy it is to get around here, which was a bit of an adjustment."
When they came in May 2005, they rented a place in Shediac and people kept asking Paul if he was minding the commute.
"For a long time, even getting the kids to sports and stuff, we would leave an hour early," Joeanne says. "Now we leave five minutes beforehand."
John Thompson says Enterprise Greater Moncton has been on missions to Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal in the recent past, trying to recruit people to come to the region.
He says there are many people like the Thomsons who are discovering the advantages of coming to Atlantic Canada, and it is something the agency is working to promote.
"We're connected now more than we have ever been with the rest of Canada and the rest of the world. No one feels like they are isolated," he says.
Also gone are the high unemployment rates that once plagued the region and real job opportunities are now available.
Attracting more people is going to become increasingly important for the region in the coming years to avoid a labour shortage as baby boomers retire.
"The more we spend time telling people about the region and the benefits of living in a small city, that in itself will attract people," Thompson says.
On average, the CityThink survey found women had lived in the area for longer than men (29.3 years compared to 27 years), but more women than men moved here within the last three years (7 men compared to 14 women).
More than 40 per cent of those who moved here in the last three years (nine out of 21) were between 18 and 34. Five were between 35 and 44 and only one was older than 65.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nubody's opens downtown Moncton fitness centre
Employees of downtown businesses sweat their way through lunch hours at new gym
By Yvon Gauvin
Times & Transcript staff
Published Saturday March 22nd, 2008
Appeared on page A3
Changing work trends including growing emphasis on developing healthier lifestyles for corporate employees convinced Atlantic Canada's largest fitness chain to set up shop in downtown Moncton.
Nubody's Fitness Centre at 795 Main St. (formerly Dooly's) has been open for some time now and already has about 500 members, many of them employees of businesses downtown, explained fitness centre manager Trevor Boland.
The centre caters mainly but not exclusively to the corporate market, while its Dieppe outlet is more geared for the residential members, he said.
Boland said the Moncton centre hopes to attract those people who have never worked out or who haven't for a long time with the intent to help them attain a more active and healthier life style.
Members come in seeking to reduce stress, lose weight or improve their overall health.
Companies also see the value of a healthy employee in improved productivity, less sick time and absenteeism, he said.
The centre is open seven days a week from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. with a staff of about 20.
The centre marks the fifth in New Brunswick and the 19th in Atlantic Canada. Seventeen more are planned in Atlantic Canada in the next three years, said one corporation official.
The grand opening of the Moncton centre will be held Wednesday, April 2, with celebrations beginning at 5 p.m. for members and non-members.
Grand opening week beginning Monday, March 31, will including different activities including a free Smart Set session at 5:30 p.m. to educate participants on how to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RONA not looking at Metro store
Quebec-based home renovation retailer already has over 670 stores across the country
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF
Published Saturday March 22nd, 2008
Appeared on page A5
Canadian hardware chain RONA has no current plans to open a larger store in Metro Moncton, but isn't ruling out the idea either.
"Right now we have no plans for Moncton, but that doesn't mean we won't look at that market at some time," said Eva Boucher-Hartling, communications director for the hardware retailer. She said the hardware and home renovation chain has ongoing market research to determine the feasibility of new locations.
There have been rumours that RONA may open a second full-sized outlet in Metro Moncton. There is currently a RONA Express store on the Irishtown Road. RONA has eight affiliate stores and one corporate store in New Brunswick.
Based in Boucherville, Quebec, RONA is a publicly-traded Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, home renovation and gardening products similar in scope to Home Depot and Home Hardware. The company operates a network of more than 670 franchised, affiliated and corporate stores of various sizes and formats across the country, and has more than 26,000 employees. The network generates approximately $6 billion in annual retail sales.
Rona is scheduled to open a new big-box store next month in the new Bayers Lake Business Park outside Halifax.
Last week, the company opened a new $15-million RONA store in Carleton Place, a town of 10,000 near Ottawa. The new concept store includes both an indoor and outdoor drive-through lumberyard and a large garden centre. The new concept stores have boutiques for products associated with paint, lighting, storage, kitchen and bathroom renovations, doors and windows; along with staff to help customers plan and carry out their home renovations.
Metro Moncton already has several large hardware/home renovation stores, including Home Depot, Kent Building Supplies, Home Hardware and others.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The sleuth
GOSSIP FROM N.B.’S FAVOURITE RUMOUR-MONGER
Published Saturday March 22nd, 2008
Appeared on page D10
A recent walk through Moncton's oldest mall this week revealed a pretty sad state of affairs.
Highfield Square has almost as many vacant storefronts as it does retailers. Even the Deluxe French Fries outlet in the food court has packed up and left!
But you know what they say about it being darkest before the dawn?
Sleuth hears that most retailers in the Square are now on month-to-month leases. The reason? Property owners Crombie-REIT has big plans for the land, starting later this year.
There have long been rumours that once the new Sobey's store was finished at the corner of Main and Vaughan Harvey, that Crombie (another company in Sobey's Empire Co.) would turn its attention to the sagging Square.
Crombie officials are being top-drawer secretive these days. So let Sleuth pose this question: Is there any truth to rumours the Square will be remodeled into an open-air retail complex, a la Dartmouth Crossing in Halifax or the Wheeler Park complex here in Monkeytown?
Something big is in the wind.
Prev
Linear Mode
