Population Drop Worries Officials

by: Brian Flinn bflinn@hfxnews.ca

Nova Scotia isn't attracting enough newcomers to make up for the thousands of people moving to Alberta. The province's population dropped by 1,863 over the last year, according to census data released this week by Statistics Canada. The oil-fuelled economic boom in Alberta drew people from most provinces, the agency said. In Nova Scotia's case, 3,930 more moved west than moved in from other parts of Canada. Immigration was up, but it still only drew 2,199 to the province. Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan also lost population.

Finance Minister Michael Baker said he's concerned. But there's not much the province can do. He said the economy is doing well and employment is strong. "The factors we are seeing are factors faced by almost every other Canadian province: outmigration, particularly to Alberta and somewhat to British Columbia," Baker said. Three years ago, Nova Scotia had to pay back $160 million to Ottawa when the population dropped. Equalization payments are based on population. Baker said the equalization formula has changed, so he's not anticipating much of a hit. But the province needs to reverse the population trend. The minister said the province is working on a program to encourage Nova Scotians who have resettled in other provinces to return. It is also trying to boost immigration.

"Those two strategies, in the short term, are the best we can do," he said. NDP immigration critic Leonard Preyra said thanks to the population decline, the province could end up with less money to maintain services. The outlook is worst for rural areas, he said. Young people and skilled workers are leaving. Communities shrink and lose services like schools. Then there's less reason for young families to stay. "We just can't afford to lose them," Preyra said."We're undermining the future." Immigration has increased since the provincial nominee program was created in 2002. But it's still tiny compared with other provinces. Last year, Nova Scotia got less than one per cent of Canada's immigrants. Preyra said the province isn't attracting enough new Canadians and does too little to encourage them to remain in the province after they arrive. "We're having a tremendous amount of trouble coming up with simple things such as literacy programs."