2011, Q1-3 Population Growth Rates (est)

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by dennis1

With a bigger population comes a bigger government and more services to be provided. Don't tell me you don't know this.

And more people to pay for it.

Economics of scale. For example; 90% of the inter-city/inter-provincial highway infrastructure in this country could sustain 2-3 times the current population. That's infrastructure that gets 33-50% of its potential used, with that many people paying 100% maintenance costs. So with a larger population, you'd have more people paying the same maintenance costs, making it cheaper on a per-capita basis. In parts of the country where the highway infrastructure wouldn't be adequate, with a higher population we may be able to finally afford upgrades, Northern Ontario and BC for example. HSR would also become more Palatable both in the Windsor-QC corridor and the Prairies when you are serving 30 Million people and 8 million respectively.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by Waterlooson

Alberta has long been a place that drew inter-provincial migration, but now it is also starting to attract immigration due to the opportunities for employment.

"Starting to"? Calgary punches WAY above its weight with respect to current immigration levels as well as the percentage of foreign-born here. Calgary is as of the 2006 census almost exactly where Toronto was in 1991- and that was years (I have the old Nat Geos from the mid 80s to prove it) promoting itself as the most multicultural city on earth. In 2009 Calgary had the second highest rate of international immigration in North America- only Vancouver was higher, and yes we beat Toronto (and every American city). But this isn't a new thing- we've always had high rates of internal in-migration and natural increase, but Calgary has always been a major magnet for international immigration. Always.

And so has Edmonton and so have Alberta's smaller centres, especially Fort Mac.

[Cowtown_Tim]

Just curious what the percentage of immigrants in Calgary is? Shame on me for living in Calgary and not knowing this.

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

"Starting to"? Calgary punches WAY above its weight with respect to current immigration levels as well as the percentage of foreign-born here. Calgary is as of the 2006 census almost exactly where Toronto was in 1991- and that was years (I have the old Nat Geos from the mid 80s to prove it) promoting itself as the most multicultural city on earth. In 2009 Calgary had the second highest rate of international immigration in North America- only Vancouver was higher, and yes we beat Toronto (and every American city). But this isn't a new thing- we've always had high rates of internal in-migration and natural increase, but Calgary has always been a major magnet for international immigration. Always.

And so has Edmonton and so have Alberta's smaller centres, especially Fort Mac.

[Cowtown_Tim]

Originally Posted by Vaillant

yes something between 3 960 000 and 4 050 000, it's still unofficially but febuary 3rd we will know more about it

Montreal is still bigger than the whole Alberta and that is official!

For now

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by Cowtown_Tim

Just curious what the percentage of immigrants in Calgary is? Shame on me for living in Calgary and not knowing this.

All available at statcan.gc.ca... around 24% in the 2006 census.

[sync]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

All available at statcan.gc.ca... around 24% in the 2006 census.

my friends from vancouver reminded me several times over the holidays (they were visiting alberta) that calgary is the, and i quote, "whitest city in canada".

i don't even know what to say to them when i hear that stuff.

[Surrealplaces]

Statscan site has a reasonable explanation of the formula they use and I believe Wikipedia does also.

In a nutshell, Foothills MD doesn't have as much commuter traffic into Calgary as many would think. A surprising number of people in Okotoks work within the MD itself (statscan doesn't say where they work, but likely High River)
If you go through the community profiles you can actually do the math as they have number for the amount of people that commute to other CMAs etc..
Foothills is pretty close to being added to Calgary. I don't think it made it in the 2011 census, but it's close.

Originally Posted by ssiguy

I really would like to know what formula StatsCan uses for it's CMA definition.
A great example is Calgary. The district {Foothills} bordering the southern part of the city is not even considered in it's CMA yet it has about 19,000 and is total commuter population. Nearby Okotoks has 25,000 is is also a bedroom community. This is in great contrast to Ottawa or Edmonton which take in massive territory.

[Metro-One]

I have also never figured out why that is a negative thing... It would be like negatively viewing cities in Japan because they are mostly Japanese.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by sync

my friends from vancouver reminded me several times over the holidays (they were visiting alberta) that calgary is the, and i quote, "whitest city in canada".

i don't even know what to say to them when i hear that stuff.

They are full of it. Every single large city in the country except for Toronto and Vancouver has a lower percentage of visible minorities than Calgary.

[Surrealplaces]

You'll have to ask them 'which Calgary' they visited All someone would have to do is walk around downtown Calgary for about 10 minutes and they'd realize that's not the case....or better yet if they took the c-train to the northeast they would probably be declaring Calgary, the most diverse city in Canada..

Originally Posted by sync

my friends from vancouver reminded me several times over the holidays (they were visiting alberta) that calgary is the, and i quote, "whitest city in canada".

i don't even know what to say to them when i hear that stuff.

[Waterlooson]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

"Starting to"? Calgary punches WAY above its weight with respect to current immigration levels as well as the percentage of foreign-born here. Calgary is as of the 2006 census almost exactly where Toronto was in 1991- and that was years (I have the old Nat Geos from the mid 80s to prove it) promoting itself as the most multicultural city on earth. In 2009 Calgary had the second highest rate of international immigration in North America- only Vancouver was higher, and yes we beat Toronto (and every American city). But this isn't a new thing- we've always had high rates of internal in-migration and natural increase, but Calgary has always been a major magnet for international immigration. Always.

And so has Edmonton and so have Alberta's smaller centres, especially Fort Mac.

Yes, "starting to"! As I was referring to Alberta as a whole and not specifically Calgary which you have chosen to cherry pick; even so:

"The foreign-born population made up almost one-quarter (23.6%) of Calgary's population in 2006, up from 20.9% in 2001. The proportion of foreign-born was the fifth-highest in Canada, after Toronto, Vancouver, Hamilton and Abbottsford."

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recen...57/p28-eng.cfm

You say Calgary has "always been" a major magnet for immigration? I don't think so, since as late as 2001 only 21% was foreign born.... a figure not that much higher than the average for Canada taken as a whole (currently about 22%), so as to include very low centres of immigration like the Maritimes and rural Canada.... I would say, that it's really only over about the last 10 or so years, that immigration to Calgary has really picked up.... making this a more recent phenomena than for the other cities mentioned. And I didn't single out Calgary in the first place, I was referring to Alberta as a whole... which has a much lower average of foreign-born than Calgary - obviously.

As of 2006, Calgary was ranked 5th in the proportion of foriegn-born, and it was the 5th largest metro.... so I don't see how that qualifies it as punching "WAY above" its weight in this regard... at least not until recently.... and that's just what I said.

[jigglysquishy]

What you seem to forget is that North America and Europe account for 10% of the world's population yet take in 95% of the world's immigration.

Calgary would be within the top 5% for global diversity.

[Waterlooson]

Originally Posted by jigglysquishy

What you seem to forget is that North America and Europe account for 10% of the world's population yet take in 95% of the world's immigration.

Calgary would be within the top 5% for global diversity.

Last time I checked Canada made up about .4%, the US 3-4% and Mexico just over 1% of the world's pop. for a total of around 5% of the world's pop. and other country's have taken in huge numbers of refugees that may not get counted as "immigrants"... so I think your figures are way off... no way does NA take in 95% of the world's immigration.

[Metro-One]

You missed Europe their, not to mention Australia / New Zealand.

[jigglysquishy]

Canada needs to further establish itself as an immigration capital.

I'm adamenty against all immigration to Europe. Canada and the US are the only true homes of immigrants

[Waterlooson]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

You missed Europe their, not to mention Australia / New Zealand.

Just take Australia... foreign-born stand at about 24% of population. That's higher than Canada at about 22% and the US at only about 12%.

[jigglysquishy]

Let's get real here. When I said North America and Europe I included Australia and New Zealand as well. It saves on typing

[Metro-One]

It was in response to Waterlooson's comment, not yours

[Andrewjm3D]

Originally Posted by jigglysquishy

What you seem to forget is that North America and Europe account for 10% of the world's population yet take in 95% of the world's immigration.

Calgary would be within the top 5% for global diversity.

Whoa, where are you getting your facts from? These sound like Fox news or Sun media facts and figures.

[MonkeyRonin]

Based on his posting history as well, jigglysquishy definitely has some...odd views regarding immigration.