More move out than in to city, census shows
Babies boost population over 1.2M, despite exodus of 6,500 people
When Laura Hahn and her boyfriend returned home to Calgary after a year teaching English in Thailand, everything had changed.
Born and raised in the Calgary area, the 22-year-old had hoped to easily land a job on her return 10 months ago, but has struggled since she stepped off the plane.
Wednesday was her last day as a receptionist working just one and a half days a week, giving her extra time to plan a move in September with her boyfriend, Daniel Payne, to Nanaimo, B.C., suddenly a land of opportunity compared with Calgary.
“I have been looking for work ever since we moved back,” she said.
“I never thought in my wildest dreams that I’d be living in B.C. But the job market there is really good compared to here.”
While the couple still count as Calgary citizens in 2016, next year they’ll join a troubling trend of people departing the city at a rate not seen in decades.
The city on Wednesday released its 2016 census, which saw more than 6,500 people (about half a percentage point of the city’s population) pack their bags and leave, bucking an almost annual trend of massive migration to the city dating back to the late 1980s.
While Calgary’s population actually grew by 4,256 in 2016, jumping to 1.235 million, the primary reason is attributed to a natural increase (more births than deaths) of 10,783.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said given the city’s economic struggles over the past couple of years, the fact some have chosen to look elsewhere for opportunities comes as no surprise.
“As expected in this economic downturn, growth has slowed in the city of Calgary, but we continue to grow,” he said, noting the city experienced a similar dip at the tail end of the last recession.
“Basically, what we’re seeing here is roughly what we saw in 2010.”
Only a year ago, Calgary remained a sizzling hot destination, with a net migration of 24,909 in 2015.
That sky-high figure was only surpassed in 2013 and 2014.
But with the economic swoon leading to sweeping layoffs and a tightening job market, those who once saw Calgary as a beacon of opportunity are trying their luck elsewhere.
While that may sound gloomy, the mayor said it actually may be a boon for city planners.
“It gives us a chance to take a breather, and gives us a chance to catch up with ourselves,” he said.
“We’re still building infrastructure, we’re still behind the times on many things.
“But we’re not adding a city every single year as we have for the last couple of years. So we can use this to revisit our budget projections and our expense projections, perhaps allowing us to spend a little bit less as we continue to catch up.”
The exodus from Calgary has also
It gives us a chance to take a breather, and gives us a chance to catch up with ourselves.
loosened up the city’s housing market, with the vacancy rate rising to 4.3 per cent, up from 2.54 per cent in April 2015.
Meanwhile, the number of dwellings under construction dropped to 9,508 from last year’s mark of 12,998.
Calgary’s suburbs continued to see the most growth, with Mahogany, Nolan Hill, Evanston, Auburn Bay and Skyview Ranch all leading the pack with thousands of new residents. Though Calgary’s unemployment levels reached 7.9 per cent last month, some 63.52 per cent of the city’s population was employed, with a record 637,781 reporting they had jobs.
But for those like Hahn, the battle to find employment in a withering work environment will have her looking for new horizons.
“I have a good resume with five years of experience and good references,” she said.
“But there are just so many people needing jobs right now. We left for an adventure in Thailand and when we came back it was completely different.
“We have our two vehicles and not a lot of stuff, so we’re just going to give it a try somewhere else.”