Record number of people leaving B.C., mostly for Alberta and Ontario

B.C. has historically been a place many move to for employment opportunities and an active lifestyle, but that appears to no longer be the case.

Economic perspectives from the Business Council of British Columbia, which tracked interprovincial migration, found that out-migration of B.C. residents to other provinces surged to almost 70,000 people over the last few years.

The business council said this was a record level — by comparison, the next closest peaks in out-migration were 64,000 in 1998 and 65,000 in 1975.

Meanwhile, the report found that people moving to B.C. from across Canada dropped to around 55,000, which is below the long-term average of around 62,000.

“What we heard repeatedly is people who are leaving are leaving by necessity and not by choice,” Braden McMillan with the Business Council of B.C. said.

“We heard that across the province, people were not just sending us snippets, they were sending full essays.”

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Of the more than 3,000 respondents to the business council, 36 per cent of respondents pointed directly at housing.

Twenty-eight per cent blamed taxes and regulations for leaving B.C. and 23 per cent expressed concerns about jobs and wages, while 18 per cent pointed to a lack of public services.

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“When other (places) like Alberta or Washington are rolling out the red carpet, we cannot be rolling out the red tape. We need to be focused on the economy,” McMillan said.

Gavin Dew, the B.C. Conservative economic development critic said these numbers are concerning because B.C. is losing the next generation of people who can’t see a future in the province.

The majority of people who left B.C. went to either Alberta or Ontario, with two-thirds of those leaving being under the age of 40.

The provincial government says they are attempting to put in place conditions that make staying in B.C. worthwhile.

“I can’t speak to the individual decisions of British Columbians but what I can say (is) we are tackling issues like cost of living,” B.C.’s deputy Premier Niki Sharma said.