Alberta has seen an immense influx of interprovincial migration over the last year prompting the province to end its “Alberta is Calling” advertising campaign, which encouraged Canadians to move there.
Alberta’s population increased by 17,094 people, driven by migration from other provinces and territories in just the months between July and September, the highest recorded amount since tracking such data began in 1971.
The province has seen a steady increase of at least 10,000 people migrating interprovincially, for the last five consecutive quarters, according to Statistics Canada.
New Brunswick is the only other province to see interprovincial migration gains in the last quarter, however, it was an increase of only 21 people.
Every other province saw a loss of people leaving, and most likely, headed to Alberta.
“Most of Alberta’s population gains through interprovincial migration were due to its exchanges with Ontario and British Columbia,” wrote Statistics Canada in a release.
While Alberta has seen a total population increase of 4.3% in the last year and continues to rise in migration, British Columbia is moving in the other direction.
“British Columbia experienced five consecutive quarters of interprovincial migration losses for the first time since the first quarter of 2013,” reads the release.
Since the first quarter of 2020, Ontario has been the province with the largest amount of out-migration, with 5,952 more people leaving than arriving. However, that trend has started to slow down as of 2023’s third quarter.
“Meanwhile, the Atlantic provinces observed a negligible or negative net interprovincial migration, which is a contrast to the trends seen from 2020 to 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they recorded strong growth from population exchanges with other provinces and territories,” said the agency.
“This can be largely attributable to the recent decrease in the number of migrants moving from Ontario to the Atlantic provinces.”
Alberta’s advertising campaign was first launched in August 2022 and was relaunched in March of this year.
It aimed to attract other Canadians to move to the province with the promise of “bigger pay cheques” and “smaller rent cheques.”
“We have the most affordable housing in all of Canada, pretty much, of any city,” said Brian Jean, Alberta’s minister of jobs and economic development in March. “So people now can, for instance, sell their house in Toronto or in Vancouver and buy four houses here in Alberta: live in one and rent three.”
Alberta’s population also saw a major spike due to international migration, international students and natural growth, bringing the total population up to 4,756,408 people.
The surge in population can most be felt in Calgary, where rent prices have gone up by 16.1%, since 2021.
Finance Minister Nate Horner called the “Alberta is Calling” campaign a success and announced that it would be ending last week during a town hall.
The town hall discussed the rising cost of housing and inflation, according to CBC News.
“We’ve since quit that campaign,” said Horner. “We think Alberta called and many, many answered but it has taken up a lot of the vacancies. The housing market’s very tight.”
