VANCOUVER – BC recorded Canada’s largest net gain in interprovincial migration in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2021, according to Statistics Canada report released on Sept. 29.
The province’s net interprovincial migration – the difference between residents moving into and out of a region – was +34,277 in 2020/21.
B.C. also saw its largest migration increase in 28 years. The last time numbers were this high was 1993/94, when the province gained 37,871 residents.
Other provinces seeing high net migration are Nova Scotia (+9,949), New Brunswick (+3,887) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+785).
B.C.’s neighbours in the Prairies didn’t fare so well, with Alberta (-11,831), Manitoba (-9,685) and Saskatchewan (-9,410) reporting more residents moving out that in.
Overall, Canada’s population is still struggling to catch up to pre-pandemic numbers. Statistics Canada attributed this not only to “the number of COVID-19-related deaths,” but to “border restrictions… vastly reducing international migration flows.”
The country’s pace of growth – estimated to be +0.5 per cent – was less than half of its 2019/20 growth (+1.2%). That marks the slowest growth rate since 1915/16 during the First World War.
