P.E.I. learns to attract newcomers, but keeping them may prove the hard part

By: Melanie Patten, The Canadian Press

CHARLOTTETOWN - The latest census numbers suggest Prince Edward Island has figured out how to attract skilled immigrants. The question now is whether Canada's smallest province can hold on to them.

P.E.I.'s growth rate increased to 3.2 per cent during the latest five-year census period, Statistics Canada said Wednesday, an increase fuelled largely by an influx of immigrants — more than 8,100 of them between 2006 and 2011, compared with just over 1,100 during the previous five years.

The problem is, they don't all stay.

Two years after trading the busy streets of Tianjin, China, for P.E.I.'s leisurely pastures, Alex Yin and Juan Du wondered if there might be better opportunities for their young daughter in a more cosmopolitan city.

So the family of three left their adopted home in 2009 and settled in Toronto, where they bought a house and enrolled Kitty, now 13, in private school. But it wasn't long before they began pining for the charming red-sand province on Canada's East Coast.

“Toronto is really a big city, but it made us feel we really missed this tiny island,” said Du, 37, whose family has since grown to include toddler Max and a soon-to-be sibling. “We thought ... here is the best place, especially for us to raise our kids.”

Yin, Du and Kitty are among more than 5,000 people who immigrated to P.E.I. between 2005 and 2009. They, like the vast majority of immigrants, came to the island through the provincial nominee program, which welcomed more than 2,700 newcomers to P.E.I. in 2008 and 2009 alone.

Like most newcomers, they chose to settle in the historic capital city of Charlottetown, which boasts a quaint downtown, a harbour, post-secondary schools and the province's largest hospital.

The changing multicultural face of Charlottetown is apparent on the city's streets, where several ethnic restaurants and Asian grocery stores have cropped up in recent years. Last year, a local realtor launched a Mandarin-language newspaper.

Immigrants have also helped to jump-start Charlottetown's economy by snapping up and vehicles and houses. Yin and Du, for example, own several rental properties. Yin, 41, also works as a settlement worker at the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers to Canada.

“I truly believe that Prince Edward Island avoided the recession that much of the country went through in 2009 because of the number of newcomers who moved (here) in the past five years,” says Kathy Hambly, executive director of the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce.

There's no doubt immigrants are making an impact, but the question remains: for how long?

Six months ago, the chamber launched P.E.I. Connectors — a program that aims to connect newcomers with business contacts.

“An awful lot of immigrants were coming to P.E.I., but we had the impression that many of them were not staying very long," said program co-ordinator Don MacCormac.

Language is usually the biggest barrier facing new immigrants looking for work.

Byoung Choi worked as a high school teacher in Seoul, South Korea, before moving to Charlottetown in July 2007. Limited by his poor English, the married father of two found himself working part-time at a convenience store for a year.

Driven by his desire to teach again, Choi, 52, enrolled in English classes at a local college and worked as a translator at the Chameleon Language Centre. When the school's owner moved on last year, Choi took over the small business.

It was Charlottetown’s welcoming atmosphere that endeared him to a province he had never heard of before applying to the nominee program.

“Charlottetown is very quiet, it's a cosy town," says Choi, 52. “There are so many old buildings and especially the residents everywhere ... we have eye contact, they always say hello.”

The provincial government insists its efforts to attract immigrants have been successful. But its nominee program hasn't been without controversy.

During last year's provincial election campaign, a former government employee accused senior provincial officials of accepting cash bribes in order to expedite applications from China.

Innovation Minister Allen Roach, whose department administers the program, said he doesn't believe the allegations have hurt the province's immigration strategy.

“The program has gone through growing pains right across the country, not just Prince Edward Island,” he said. “We're not immune to those growing pains.”

Still, the immigration influx of the past five years isn't likely to repeat itself any time soon.

The program’s rules were tightened last year, which the province expects will curb the numbers. The federal government has also lowered the limit on the number of immigrants P.E.I. can accept.

And while the provincial government does not know how many recent immigrants to the island have left, Roach said emerging job opportunities in the aerospace and bioscience sectors, among others, should boost retention.

Those efforts are key for new immigrants, said MacCormac.

“They love the quality of life that's here,” he said. “As long as there's an opportunity to make a living or get involved in business, they'd love to stay.”

Yin and Du echo that sentiment.

“We are happy here,” said Yin. “This is the best place ever, here in Canada, we believe.”

Canada’s future is in the West: 2011 Census

JOE FRIESEN AND BILL CURRY

Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update

Power and population are shifting to the Prairies and B.C. as Ontario enters a period of relative decline.

The results of the 2011 census released Wednesday confirm what many Canadians already instinctively understand. The country is re-orienting itself away from Central Canada and toward the Pacific. Oil, gas, potash and other resources are drawing migrants and the region’s political and economic influence is growing as a result.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are booming as both immigrants and native-born Canadians flock to the oil fields and resource industries.

Ontario, long the central engine of growth, was the only province in the country to see its rate of growth drop since 2006. It’s also the first time in 25 years that Ontario slipped below the symbolic threshold of the national growth rate.

Overall the Canadian population increased by 5.9 per cent since the last census to 33.5 million, a slight increase from the 5.4 per cent growth between 2001 and 2006.

Canada is the fastest growing country in the Group of 8 industrialized nations, thanks largely to its immigration program, which accounts for about two-thirds of the increase in population.

But the end is near for that kind of fast growth. The report estimates that population growth could, within 20 years, be close to zero – unless there is a sustained level of immigration or a substantial increase in fertility.

Alberta, in many ways the centre of the Canadian economy today, leads the country in population growth at nearly double the national average. Its two big cities, Edmonton and Calgary, were the two-fastest growing cities in the country. A significant portion of its population increase came from interprovincial migration, as it has traditionally. Alberta also saw a significant increase in immigration from abroad.

Saskatchewan’s turnaround has been stunning. From 1996 to 2006 the province lost more than 1 per cent of its population, an indictment that saw young people leaving for opportunities elsewhere. But as the price of commodities rose over the last five years Saskatchewan grew by 6.7 per cent to pass the 1 million mark, as it did once before in 1986. More than a quarter of that growth was due to Canadians re-locating to Saskatchewan from other provinces.

Manitoba doubled its rate of growth since the last census, to 5.9 per cent. Much of that was due to a doubling of immigration under the provincial nominee program.

When combined with strong, immigration driven-growth in British Columbia, the Western provinces for the first time have a greater share of the Canadian population than the sum of Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

The decline of manufacturing in Ontario, which cost the province more than 300,000 jobs over the last decade, was a major contributor to tens of thousands of Ontarians leaving the province for greener pastures, twice as many as between 2001 and 2006. Ontario also welcomed about 100,000 fewer immigrants over the last five years than it did in the first half of the decade. While it’s still growing at a healthy rate, it’s not growing the way it used to.

“What is significant is that all other provinces had higher rates of population growth,” said Laurent Martel, senior demographer at Statistics Canada. “It’s not a huge decrease but it’s the only province showing that kind of trend.”

Quebec saw its share of the Canadian population dip a little further, as it has for several years. It’s now down to 23.6 per cent, from 29 per cent in 1951. All four Atlantic provinces showed higher growth rates than in 2006, but all were still below the national average.

Newfoundland grew for the first time in 25 years, as fewer people moved away.

Wednesday’s data marks the first of four releases from the 2011 mandatory short form census and the information is limited to data on population and dwellings.

Part of the census data released Wednesday looks at population growth from 1851 to 2061 and it underscores many of the demographic trends that are currently at the heart of political debate.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is provoking heated debate across the country with two major policy announcements in recent months. The first is his decision to curb the rate of growth in provincial health transfers over time so that they grow in line with the economy. The second was his decision to open up a debate about raising the eligibility age for Old Age Security, arguing the shrinking ratio of workers to retirees will not be able to support the current age of 65 as an increasing number of baby boomers qualify for the federal program.

The numbers show the aging of Canada’s population will be most pronounced during this decade and the next.

“The aging of the population will accelerate between 2011 and 2031 as baby boomers reach the age of 65,” states the census report. “In 2026, the first of the baby boomers will reach the age of 80, an age when mortality is high. As a result, the number of deaths will increase significantly.”

Statistics Canada projects that the number of births and deaths will be nearly the same in Canada from about 2030 to 2060, meaning any population growth will rely almost entirely on immigration.

On May 29, Statistics Canada will release the second of its four census reports. It will break down the census information based on age and sex. Then data on families, households, marital status, and other dwelling information will come out on Sept. 19, followed by a final report on Oct. 24 dealing with language.

Information in these reports are not affected by last year’s controversy over the long-form census. The Conservative government decided to replace the mandatory long-form census and its more detailed questions with a voluntary household survey. The change prompted the resignation of the head of Statistics Canada amid concern about the reliability of a voluntary survey and the compatibility of the results with previous research.