Labour, housing shortages are complicating P.E.I.'s population strategy
CBC
After a pandemic-induced slowdown in 2020, P.E.I.'s population has resumed growing at a record-setting pace – and there are signs housing in the province can't keep up.
Statistics Canada's latest population estimate for the Island is 167,680.
The province added 4,817 people in 2021 — the biggest population increase in more than 50 years — and estimated growth in the first half of 2022 has already outpaced last year's.
That growth is no accident. It's the result of a five-year strategy aimed at increasing the population, and reversing the province's aging population.
"If you don't try to solve that aging demographic issue … it's only going to get worse over the next decade," said APEC economist Fred Bergman.
But the growth has come with a cost.
Population growth was identified as a factor in P.E.I.'s housing crisis as early as 2019.
A study by the City of Charlottetown found housing construction slowed as the population started growing. That study found the roots of the housing crisis went back to 2014 and 2015, when a number of factors contributed to a construction slowdown.
When the province's population began to grow with the introduction of the provincial population strategy in 2017, the construction industry ramped up to build new housing. But it's struggling to keep up.
The number of housing completions more than tripled to almost 1,400 last year, up from a low point under 400 in 2015, according to Statistics Canada.
But with population growth at almost 5,000 in 2021, there's still a massive shortfall.
The average P.E.I. household, according to the 2021 census, is made up of 2.3 people. Assuming that's the case, those 1,400 units would house an estimated 3,200 people. That still leaves a shortfall of 1,800 people, or about 780 housing units.
This broad analysis, notes Bergman, doesn't take into account that some population growth doesn't require new housing.
When a child is born, for instance, the parents likely already have housing lined up. Alternatively, someone returning from work out of province may have a household to come back to.
Wildlife rehabilitation group Hope for Wildlife is in the process of getting Nova Scotia's first black bear cub rehabilitation centre up and running by the spring.
Saint John is launching a two-year security program to address resident and business concerns about crime and public safety.
Yao Zhang says she doesn’t have any friends, yet every week, thousands of her 175,000 YouTube subscribers tune in to her channel to listen to her live takes on Chinese current affairs.
Conservationists are raising concerns as the City of Winnipeg considers walking back a development bylaw designed to help save birds from fatal window strikes, less than a year after the rules came into effect.
A Saskatchewan veteran is being considered as a possible recipient of the highest honour in the Canadian Armed Forces.
As the World Health Organization conditionally recommends the use of GLP-1 medications to treat obesity, a Halifax-based expert says the change likely won’t bring immediate improvements for Prince Edward Islanders.
Three weeks after a 52-year-old crossing guard was killed after being hit by a dump truck on the intersection of Mohawk Road E. and Upper Wentworth Street, city staff say they are waiting for police to finish their investigation in order to review the intersection.
Pets are often seen as a member of the family and the grief when they die can be difficult to deal with. But a new online resource from the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College aims to support people through that journey.
After four years of delays, the Finch West LRT line is set to open Sunday morning.
Christmas trees farms across Ontario haven’t been spared by the devastating impacts of climate change, but a lab out of the University of Waterloo (UW) is pushing to curb the effects.
The Town of Bonavista issued an emergency water ban for the community Saturday, due to an ice formation blocking the Long Pond water intake.
People killed in the Halifax Explosion were honoured in ceremonies across the city on Saturday, 108 years after the destructive blast.
Rothesay's Lincoln Bell says sourcing ingredients amidst tariffs imposed by the United States has become a strain on his honey and beeswax product business.