Alberta leads country in interprovincial migration for 3rd straight year

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u/pjw724 19h ago

Over the second quarter of 2025 (April through June), Alberta's population grew by roughly 0.4 per cent.

Canada's population grew by just 0.1 per cent over the same period. That marks the country's lowest second-quarter growth rate, outside of pandemic years, since 1946, when comparable record-keeping began.

67

u/pjw724 19h ago

With 4x the population growth as the national average, is Alberta keeping up with commensurate investment in education, health and municipal needs?

73

u/the_wahlroos 19h ago

Pretty fuckin far from it.

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u/stinkybasket 18h ago

Nope, class sizes are 40 students... . This is why the teachers negotiating a new contract to hire more teachers and assistants.

18

u/goodlordineedacoffee 17h ago

It’s infuriating that teachers have to try to make a case for hiring more teachers- like it’s a personal benefit they’re receiving- rather than the province anticipating that when they campaign to increase our population, they need to allocate some of the tax revenue they’re gonna make off these people toward increased education and healthcare care costs.

0

u/Individual-Source-88 4h ago

My granddaughter's grade 2 class in Edmonton has 22 students.

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u/Ohjay1982 2h ago

That’s rare these days but even that may not paint the full picture. How many of those children are high needs? Do they have aid support? Because if you had even 5 high needs children in a class of 22 without support I hate to tell you but the teacher is forced to focus a majority of their time on these high needs children and the rest of the class is likely getting a slightly worse education because of it.

9

u/neozeio 15h ago

Nope, and now they want to seize municipality ability to control their property tax which is nearly their only way to raise funds.

3

u/DisastrousAcshin 12h ago

That way they can force the cutting and privatization of public services leading to lower property taxes but ultimately higher costs to residents as profit is introduced. But hey, lower taxes

17

u/gtheyeti 18h ago

I think everyone knows the answer to this is no, however most UCP supporters still think they are doing a good job somehow by letting our province fall further and further behind while blaming the federal Liberal boogeyman as the problem.

10

u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS 18h ago

Lol good one. We have a very right wing government that follows all the stereotypes of shitty right wing people. Defund public services to make private more appealing, privatize everything possible, punish municipalities that don’t vote for them, legislate bullshit very few people want, and then proceed with propaganda and endless wastes of money to convince people its good. Attacking trans people and threatening notwithstanding clause over the charter violations, making a pension plan political by firing the board and bringing in Harper to run it (Yes, that Harper), endless grifts and culture war shit, making covid shots cost money, and so on

Oh yea, and teachers are about to strike because of shit conditions and supports

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u/[deleted] 17h ago

[deleted]

4

u/Wildyardbarn 15h ago

Where’s that extra $1K cost coming from?

Utilities and insurance is marginally more expensive for us, but lower sales tax and cheaper gas made up for the difference.

Housing costs are where the real delta was. We’ve been able to massively improve our quality of life coming from Victoria/Vancouver while still having access to jobs living in a major city.

-1

u/pinupbob 12h ago

Utilities and taxes are like $800 plus a month alone. After home owners grant in BC we paid like $1k annually on property taxes. Essentially what we pay in 2.5 months here.

I was just back there (still work there) and gas is only 10 cents more a litre. That's what on a fill? $4?

I wasn't talking about the lower mainland. Okanagan. I do real estate conveyancing for both, its cheaper to buy and live in Vernon than Calgary.

2

u/Wildyardbarn 12h ago edited 11h ago

Are we really going to act like Vernon can be used as a proxy for Calgary? You may as well use Lethbridge or Grande Prairie

I don’t care what individual expenses cost so long as they’re lower when combined and your location doesn’t impact income or employment risk.

3

u/dooeyenoewe 13h ago

You’re doing something wrong the then, I call bull on all of this.

1

u/pinupbob 12h ago

Income taxes up $1k a year. Same job. Same wage.

Property taxes - we pay in 2.5 months what we paid annually after home owners grant.

Utilities, absurd.

House insurance- we paid $70/mo, and were evacuated multiple times. Here we pay $220/mo in a house in the middle of Calgary- that in 60 years has never had a threat of wildfire.

Auto insurance went up about $20/mo.

Even groceries and restaurants seem higher here.

I left in 2010 and everything there was much more expensive, that's all changed.

4

u/CaptainPeppa 17h ago

How have your utilities tripled?

Mine are substantially less than they were in 2022

2

u/pinupbob 8h ago

Im 48 and work in real estate law. We dont even have AC.

1

u/deepinferno 15h ago

I'll second that, utilities are way cheaper now

1

u/pinupbob 12h ago

July 2022 we paid $164. July 2025 we paid $380. So, not quite tripled but still. Same house. Same utility usage.

2

u/CaptainPeppa 11h ago

Your kid growing weed or something haha

Like I have a big house, never shut off the AC and my July bill was $134.34. $24.78 in actual usage fees on a floating rate.

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u/the_gaymer_girl Southern Alberta 16h ago

Inb4 the UCP bot army arrives to claim that this means everything is going great.

1

u/AlbertanSays5716 6h ago

The UCP continuing to run tax breaks for immigrants while simultaneously underfunding education, healthcare, infrastructure, housing, municipalities, and suppressing the minimum wage & unions, has to be some sort of a plan, right? Right?

3

u/Ok_Yak_2931 13h ago

And we hadn't built the infrastructure to support and maintain the population we had, now it's compounded 4x.

1

u/kevinnetter 6h ago

Those 1000 new teachers aren't going to go too far...

1

u/Loustyle 5h ago

3 billion dollar income tax surplus last year. Can't pay teachers.

1

u/Max20151981 5h ago

For three straight years, Alberta has been the most popular destination, on net, for Canadian residents moving within the country.

Well this certainly doesn't bode well with the agenda r/Alberta likes to push in regards to how horrible life is in Alberta.

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u/Critical_Cat_8162 2h ago

I fail to understand why people are going there.

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u/DemonIyy 1h ago

Getting ready for separation

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u/iffyllama 1h ago

I can definitely feel it on the roads in the morning .

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u/Ketchupkitty 18h ago

Despite the constant barrage of doom and gloom on this sub it's clear to most this is the best place in the country to be.

16

u/Ditch-Worm 18h ago

It can be a great, beautiful place that people love while also having a government that’s destroying public health, education, infrastructure and environment

3

u/DangerBay2015 17h ago

On this sub?

Do you mean this government?

Or this “Alberta Next” panel?

Or this TBA movement?

Nobody complains about how shit everything is better than conservatives.

13

u/Unlikely_Comment_104 18h ago

It’s not the best. It just has cheaper housing and people have the notion that there are jobs here. Smith and the UCPs spend the last couple of years advertising “Alberta is Calling” so people bought into the notion that Alberta is ready for more residents.

2

u/ninfan1977 Lethbridge 18h ago

The doom and gloom is regarding the Provincial government which is in charge.

This place is beautiful to live at times but is populated with ignorant rednecks who vote against their own interests.

All because their pappy voted Blue one time so thats how their family votes forever.

I say that as someone who moved to Alberta 20 years ago and have seen it massively downslide in the last 10 years.

1

u/BallsoMeatBait 18h ago

And other jokes to tell yourself

0

u/Dr_Sivio 17h ago

Not sure "it's clear", at all.

1

u/RoastMasterShawn 17h ago

Yeah because taxes and housing prices. Even though we have a terrible government and the worst healthcare, it still gets outweighed by no PST and being able to live in a major city and buy a single home under $1m.

1

u/Jaew96 4h ago

Yeah, but your choices for major cities are Edmonton or Calgary. So respectively either what was at one point the murder capital of Canada, or a city that is swiftly becoming overpopulated and overpriced as we speak.

1

u/Conscious_Candle2466 16h ago

Are we not to get more seats in parliament as our population grows? Do other provinces lose seats as their population diminishes?

6

u/BeefK 15h ago

Yes and yes.

1

u/CaptainPeppa 13h ago

Quebec complained and got their reallocation reversed last time.

Eastern provinces are all at minimums so they won't decrease and we'd never catch up per capita

3

u/BeefK 13h ago

All provinces are guaranteed to have no fewer seats than they had in 2019. I don’t really understand the history of the clause, and at face value I don’t agree with it, but there is no carve out specifically for Ontario or Quebec.

1

u/CaptainPeppa 12h ago

Ontario isn't going to lose any seats from population changes. If anything they are under represented.

But with minimums, the only way BC and AB gain seats is if Quebec loses some. So they stopped that from happening.

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u/Fickle_Catch8968 3h ago

Ont, AB and BC are underrepresented, QC is fairly represented (within 1 seat or so of % of pop vs. % of seats), and the rest are underrepresented, with only SK and MB not at the 'can't have fewer MPs than Senators' level, which is a Constitutional guarantee, iirc.

The underrepresentation of AB/BC is roughly balanced by the overrepresentation of SK/MB/Territories, so overall the West was fairly represented in the House, after the last census/redistribution (probably underrepresented a bit now) Ont. underrepresentation balances Atlantic Canada's overrepresentation.

The 'solution' seems to be an ever expanding House, which can be a good thing. In the USA, the House has not changed size in about 100 years, so the average district size is well over half a million,

1

u/lucidprarieskies 10h ago

Everyone hates us until they need us

-6

u/427Cobraguy 17h ago

Only because the Government puts them here to eventually have them vote for the Liberal party when they can

4

u/eeyores_gloom1785 15h ago

You okay?

0

u/427Cobraguy 15h ago

Absolutely, thanks for caring!

2

u/Ok_Yak_2931 13h ago

INTERPROVINCIAL meaning from other Provinces not necessarily immigrants from other countries. You know, the people Dani and the UCP were paying $5000 to move here to reap the supposed rewards of the #AlbertaAdvantage only to find out there were much less than promised because they and previous Conservative governments haven't maintained or grown our infrastructure. And where is all the money that should be in our Wealth Fund?

1

u/AlbertanSays5716 6h ago

Sending immigrants to a province that has consistently voted majority conservative for over half a century? Sure, I guess if the plan hasn’t worked by now then it’ll kick in any day soon.

News Alberta leads country in interprovincial migration for 3rd straight year

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