[Acajack]

Originally Posted by davidivivid

I won't venture a guess as to which city will reach the million mark first but I will chime in as to Quebec City's current demographic situation. The low population growth and immigration in Quebec has already become a big problem. The uneployement rate in march was 4.1% and though certain municipal and provincial politicians were quick to cast Quebec as a economic success story, which is partly true, they failed to identify the biggest problem underlined by such a statistic: labour shortage. Already the single biggest problem facing companies in the city, it will only get worse if the pace of population growth doesn't accelerate in the next few years. A survey was recently sent to business owners and once again this year, the issue of worker recruitment and retention were the respondents' primary concern, with a staggering 85% of respondents having experienced difficulty recruiting qualified people.

During the last job fair which took place at the end of march, about 14 500 jobs were available (83% of which were full time positions) and less then 12 000 attended the fair (about 55% of whom found a job).

A lot has been done by the current municipal administration to promote Quebec City as a great place to live and work in order to attract more immigrants, both domestic and international, but the results are slow to come by. I really don't care about who reaches the million first but I do care about economic growth and it is imperative for the government to lure more people in our great City. As far as domestic migration is concerned, our proximity with Montreal hasn't been a concern as of late since we lose as much as we gain people from La Métrople. However, our proximity to this much bigger city certainly has a big impact on our ability to attract international immigrants...

A good example of Quebec kinda shooting itself in the foot.