On the road again

	On the road again... Photo: Egidio Smiderle

Canadians of all ages move for a variety of reasons. Some seek employment, some want to be closer to their families, and others want to live in different-sized houses. In 2001, 42% of Canada's population aged 5 and older had moved in the previous 5 years. Of those who relocated, about half didn't move very far, merely changing residences in the same municipality. Some 31% moved elsewhere within their home province. Slightly fewer than 8% moved from one province to another, and more than 8% moved to Canada from outside the country. Ontario was home to the highest number of persons who had moved from another country between 1996 and 2001, while Ontario and Alberta shared the title for highest number of interprovincial migrants during the same period.

Canadians are frequently on the move, but relatively few abandon their provincial roots. In 2002, the vast majority of us continued to live in the province of our birth. According to the 2002 estimates of population, of those who did make the move to another province, many ended up in Ontario. People who moved from an Atlantic province or Quebec were most likely to have moved to Ontario, followed by Alberta. Ontarians who packed up were more inclined to make new homes in Quebec, followed by British Columbia and Alberta. Manitobans tended to move to Alberta or Ontario, whereas Saskatchewanians were most likely to move just next door, to Alberta. Residents moving from Alberta and British Columbia most often ended up in the other's province.

Canadians continue to gravitate toward towns and cities, particularly to large metropolitan areas. Urban centres in Canada have expanded through migration, some marginally and others more significantly. While most every census metropolitan areas have increased their population every year since 1990, some have shown decreases at different periods. The northern Ontario cities of Sudbury and Thunder Bay have had gradually falling populations since 1994. Saguenay, Quebec, has followed the same trend while Trois-Rivières, Quebec, had decreases from 1997 to 2001. In the Western provinces, Winnipeg saw some decreases in the mid-1990s while Regina’s population has dipped since the start of the new millennium. In Atlantic Canada, the populations of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saint John, New Brunswick, fell in the mid-1990s. St. John’s has stabilized since then while the population of Saint John began to decline again starting in 2000.