The Great Provincial Population Re-distribution Thread

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The rest of the rural areas need to compete to attract industry in order to survive, and the main competitor is the metropolitan area. Halifax's continuing growth is at least in part at the expense of these more vulnerable rural areas. ...I know they felt that these tire plants should have been built in Halifax instead.

Is this true? If the city is doing so much better at the expense of these rural areas then where are the 5 or 10 other Michelin type plants that ended up in Halifax instead of Pictou County? The only comparable examples I can think of that went to the city in recent years are the shipyard and RIM/IBM. None of those operations were considering setting up shop in rural NS. The competitors for the shipbuilding contract were in Quebec City and Vancouver, not Yarmouth or Sydney.

The reality is that small towns and rural areas are doing poorly in most of Canada, and it is simply beyond the ability of provincial governments in the Maritimes to prop up the economies of the large percentage of the population that resides in these area. The story is not about anybody political favouritism of one city over rural areas. If anything there has been a remarkably unsuccessful focus on rural economic development.

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Of course, greater Moncton is benefitting from this rural depopulation as much as Halifax is.

Halifax population growth isn't particularly driven by migration from rural areas. People in places like Cape Breton tend to move to Alberta. Immigrants account for a lot more of the growth than people coming in from rural NS. In a lot of ways Canada has split into two worlds, the urban white collar economy and the rural blue collar economy. Things aren't looking good for the rural economy anywhere in Canada.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

You've listed some lovely towns and wonderful tourist attractions, but have deftly left out some struggling communities such as Amherst, Springhill, Stellarton, Westville, New Glasgow, Glace Bay, Dominion, North Sydney, Reserve Mines, Yarmouth etc.
(

Whether they're doing well economically or not, they exist, and have plenty of character, history, and sense of place. You claimed that the rest of the province was "anonymous" outside of Halifax and CB but having economic trouble doesn't mean a place suddenly anonymous. In fact there are lots of places that are booming economically and growing in population that I'd consider far better examples of anonymity.

Besides, how many different communities and regions does one province of less than a million people need?

[isaidso]

Rather than re-distribute a province's population I'd rather give another 5 million people each to 4 provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Canada would end up with 8 provinces of very similar population and influence, then the 2 big central Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Taken 1 step further, I'd put 5 million in northwest Ontario (Atikokan) and 5 million in northeast Ontario (Nippising) and make 2 new provinces there. The dream of settling our geography would be largely realized... at least in the south.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I'd take the majority of the populations of the 905 and suburban Ottawa and all the others and move them into their respective urban cores. Populations would be the same, just more urban.

This is good. There's a big difference between a city having a metro area of one million and being an actual city of one million.

[Skyisnolimit]

I would take a million from Calgary move them to aklavik and not let them leave.

[MolsonExport]

Move all of Calgary to Okotoks. There is a lot of things to do in Okotoks.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by someone123

The reality is that small towns and rural areas are doing poorly in most of Canada, and it is simply beyond the ability of provincial governments in the Maritimes to prop up the economies of the large percentage of the population that resides in these area.

This is an important point.

All Atlantic Canadian provinces are seeing drops in their rural populations. Full stop. If you want to increase the scope the same situation is happening to a lesser degree in Quebec (Gaspé, Côte-Nord, Abitibi), and Maine (Aroostook, Washington). Regardless of whether or not your province has a centralized location (NS, NFLD) or multiple equal locations (NB, PEI), rural areas are still emptying out.

My main concern at this point is that many governments are either trying to abate this with poor policy decisions (NS at times) or ignore it completely and hope it fixes itself with no real firm plan in place (NB all the time). These trends are only going to increase and become worse as the populations get older and the mean age rises. Census 2016 is going to be a cold shower for a lot of rural areas still trying to hold on to relevancy.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Move all of Calgary to Okotoks. There is a lot of things to do in Okotoks.

But would Calgary be in the Okotoks CMA?

[MolsonExport]

I guess not. But Okotoks could be a part of "The Big Four"

[mistercorporate]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Move all of Calgary to Okotoks. There is a lot of things to do in Okotoks.

Thats true, biggest participation sport in the big O-kotoks is calculating census projections and making trolly city vs city posts about the next biggest town/cma and feigning geekiness