Why people are moving to Alberta in droves

Normally when Canadians heed the call to head W, they end up settling in British Columbia. Not anymore. They've been hanging their hats in record numbers in Alberta and especially here in Calgary. Check out these new stats from who else Stats Canada. They show Calgary's population shooting up to nearly 1.7 million by July of last year. It's a record 6% increase for a one year period equal to almost 100,000 people. And that puts Calgary behind just two other cities for largest population growth by percentage in 2023. So what's bringing them to Alberta? Typically, our population swells with every oil boom. But ATP Financial looked at the data and found this time is atypical. What we're seeing is something much broader and getting growth across a wide variety of sectors. But also people dealing with the cost of living crisis in housing affordability concerns are being drawn to Alberta as relatively more affordable. Now, don't mean to suggest that housing is affordable for everyone in Alberta because prices have and rents have gone up a lot. But relative to Ontario and BC, where we're getting a lot of migrants, the housing market is more affordable here and that has been a big draw. So no surprise most of the new arrivals are from Ontario and BC. Parsons says remote workers are another reason for the population growth. They've been able to keep their jobs and other provinces and do that work here. And while affordability might be a big draw now, how long will it last? Because there's some more stats from Stats Canada, while inflation is falling in Alberta. Last month, our province saw Canada's highest rent increase for a one year period compared to the same time last year. Rents were up more than 16%.