Edmontonians being urged to ‘move up’ to Prince George

EDMONTON – The city of Prince George is recruiting residents and Edmonton has been chosen as one of the top places to get them from.

“Statistically, there is a history of people from Edmonton relocating to British Columbia and to Prince George,” said Melissa Barcellos with Initiatives Prince George, the city’s economic development group.

Prince George is hoping that trend will continue. On Thursday, a new website called “Move Up Prince George” was officially launched, giving prospective Prince George residents a glimpse of what the city has to offer.

Among the “top 10 reasons” to make the move? “Four seasons with 2,000 hours of sunshine…1,600 lakes within an hour of Prince George.” Barvello says there are also four ski hills in close proximity, and plenty of other opportunities.

“If [people] are looking to move up in terms of their career, or their house or their lifestyle…consider Prince George because it’s very affordable here.”

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“The average price of a house is under $270,000, and that’s for a nice house in a nice area,” she added.

In Edmonton, the average house price in August was $435,430 and the unemployment rate in August was 5.7 per cent, slightly higher than Prince George’s 4.6 per cent.

The occupations that are in the highest demand in Prince George: professional engineers, chartered accountants, university professors and lecturers, specialist physicians, heavy duty equipment mechanics, millwrights, truck drivers, power engineers, welders and instrumentation technicians.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) was identified as offering training in at least one of those skill sets, which is why Prince George plans to advertise at the college.

The city of roughly 80,000 is looking to increase its population to 100,000. Residents of Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, and Windsor are also being targeted to help make that happen.

Calgary, Kamloops, Montreal, London and Abbotsford will be next.

Another selling feature some residents of those cities may appreciate? According to Barvello, “the commute times are under 15 minutes to get anywhere.”