Three Manitoba communities are among the fastest growing municipalities in the country, according to census data from Statistics Canada.
The Town of Niverville was the fifth fastest growing municipality in the country, growing in population by 29 per cent from 2016 to 2021. It was also the fastest growing out of all the Prairie provinces.
Niverville councillor Nathan Dueck says they anticipate the community keeping up that pace.
“We are predicting that by 2030 we are going to be moving to 9,000 to 10,000 people,” Dueck told Global News. “Which is a prime candidate to being Manitoba’s next city.”
Dueck says there are numerous factors contributing to Niverville’s growth, including business expansion, new developments, health services, a new recreation centre and a new MJHL team coming to town.
“Once we have all these pieces in town, the people come,” he said.
He also says the pandemic has likely played a role as well.
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“Part of the logic with the pandemic is people are working remotely, people are staying at home, people are shopping in town, people are using the facilities we have in town (like) our recreation centre, community resource centre, as an example,” Dueck said.
“We’re seeing people wanting to move to smaller towns.”
The rapid expansion of Niverville is good news for business in town.
“It kind of feels like every couple days you’re hearing some exciting news about new businesses coming,” said Niverville Chamber of Commerce president Amanda Wiens, who also owns Wiens Furniture in Niverville.
She says Niverville’s proximity to Winnipeg and cost of living makes it appealing for both homeowners and businesses.
“There’s a lot of job opportunities out here. You can make this your home and your community, but it’s also only 45 minutes to downtown Winnipeg,” she said.
West St. Paul also made the cut of fastest-growing Canadian municipalities, ranking at 10th with growing 24.5 per cent in the last census period. Neepawa ranked in 13th, growing by 23.3 per cent within that same time period.
West St. Paul Mayor Cheryl Christian says they only expect that to continue to escalate.
“We foresee even greater growth. Within the last year since this data has been available from 2021, we’ve had an additional 10 per cent growth,” Mayor Christian said.
“So when this census is done I expect West St. Paul may be number one in Canada. We’re anticipating over 50 per cent growth within the next census period.”
Christian says new schools, recreation and other services have contributed to the community’s growth, but the pandemic has also had a significant impact.
“During the pandemic we’ve had more people move into West St. Paul than ever before,” she said.
“We’ve had a lot of people move out (to West St. Paul) and (it) surpassed our expectations of how quickly developed areas are filling in.”
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