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Statscan numbers

Ottawa city council seems to have voted to increase development charges by 11%, and this was after an original plan to increase much more.
As opposed to our 8% increase?
 
Calgary CMA grew by nearly 100,000 people in the last year
2022: 1,586,7252023: 1,682,509

Fascinating, what's also remarkable is even with that huge of a number (6.0% growth) we weren't the fastest growing CMA - Kitchener (6.1%) and Moncton (6.1%) grew faster. Here's the top 10 by rate of change:

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Of the largest CMAs, we grew at the faster rate, but the big three continued to exceeded us in absolute gain. Here's the top 10 by absolute growth:
1716402952704.png
 
Fascinating, what's also remarkable is even with that huge of a number (6.0% growth) we weren't the fastest growing CMA - Kitchener (6.1%) and Moncton (6.1%) grew faster. Here's the top 10 by rate of change:

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There would be likely be a big slowdown in KW growth in 2024 and beyond due to the the international student caps. I also wouldn't get too hung up on the rate, the smaller metros, a slight error in the data (since these are not census counts) will lead to variations in the rate. Especially areas in the GTA where it's very possible someone lives in one CMA, but works in another one.
 
That's some very impressive growth #'s for our city! If we post a similar amount this year, it puts us at close to 1.8 million without even including Foothills/Okotoks etc which means our Calgary region population is getting really close to 2 million. I don't worry too much about the growth rates in the small and midsize cities, out of the 6 big cities we are growing fastest by a significant margin. That's a big turnaround from the 2016-21 census when our growth lagged some of the other big cities due to the o&g slowdown. I would guess that some of K-W's growth might be GTA-ers looking for more affordable housing.

On more of a "nation-building" note, it's pretty cool that Winnipeg is on track to join the million club in the next ~3 years at current growth rates!
 
Another slice of the data:
  • 91% of Alberta's total population growth between 2022 and 2023 is estimated to have occurred in the four CMAs - Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Red Deer.
  • 86% of Alberta's total provincial growth is in Calgary (52%) and Edmonton alone (34%).
  • The concentration of growth is so huge only 3 jurisdictions in Alberta (CMAs or CAs) exceeded the Alberta overall growth rate of 4.1%: Calgary (6.0%), Edmonton (4.2%), and Canmore (4.2%).
  • Non CMA or CA Alberta grew by 1.1%. Rural Alberta dropped from 22.5% of Alberta in 2003 to 17.0% of Alberta in 2023.
 
My question is, do we want to continue growing at this rate when our infrastructure capcity and housing affordability are beginning to erode? 7 years ago during an oil recession, these numbers would have been exhilarating, but in 2024 amid an affordability crisis, these numbers give me anxiety.
 
Does anyone know the dates of the year that they are comparing to? for example July 2022 compared to July 2023 etc.
 
Massive growth, even more than I was expecting. My best guess is to expect one more big year and then a cool down. Going by the log of reduced immigration I’m assuming there will be a cool down, but who knows.
Going by housing starts it doesn’t appear that population growth has slowed down as housing starts since July 2023-April 2024are higher than July 2022-April 2023.
 
Does anyone know the dates of the year that they are comparing to? for example July 2022 compared to July 2023 etc.
I believe it's July to July like you said. That's the point in time they're estimating, unless that's changed.
Correct. In the statscan link it says July 2023.
 
My question is, do we want to continue growing at this rate when our infrastructure capcity and housing affordability are beginning to erode? 7 years ago during an oil recession, these numbers would have been exhilarating, but in 2024 amid an affordability crisis, these numbers give me anxiety.
I would imagine once immigration numbers drop we’ll see more normal growth again.
I have to admit it’s exciting to see numbers like 100,000 in growth, but it’s not something I want to see continue for too long.
 

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