British Columbia is losing residents to Alberta and other provinces due in large part to housing unaffordability, says the Business Council of B.C.
Nearly 70,000 West Coast residents left the province for other parts of Canada over the past year, according to a July 28 analysis by the business advocacy group.
Outflows have resulted in net interprovincial migration turning sharply negative, said the BCBC analysis.
Net interprovincial migration figures exclude international migration that’s otherwise boosting the overall population size.
B.C. has seen net interprovincial migration of around -5,000 to -9,000 people per year since around 2023. BCBC said this is unusual because the province has not seen negative net interprovincial migration of this magnitude in 25 years.
BCBC director of policy Jairo Yunis said housing and affordability were among the top issues raised by respondents of the organization’s recent “Stay With B.C.” campaign.
BCBC launched the campaign—a response to the Alberta government’s “Alberta is Calling” campaign—last December and heard from over 3,000 British Columbians, many of whom cited housing as a top concern.
“Even during Christmas Day, people were reaching out and sending us emails,” said Yunis, who co-authored the analysis. “We heard over and over that people absolutely love this province but that they are struggling to see a future here.”
In a campaign update released Tuesday, BCBC said ultra-low interest rates, easy credit and high immigration overstimulated demand in recent years. Meanwhile, high construction costs, restrictive zoning and permitting delays drove up the cost of homebuilding.
The result was heightened unaffordability, which may be causing some B.C. residents to pack their bags, including young families. Seventy-seven per cent of those leaving B.C. for other provinces since 1971 have been under the age of 40, according to the analysis.
Yunis said affordability is not just about home prices, but also about whether incomes can keep up.
“Over the last two years we’ve been—in Canada and in B.C.—in a GDP-per-capita recession. That means the economy isn’t generating the kind of income gains needed to keep up with rising living costs,” he said.
Every quarter since the third quarter of 2022 has seen the number of people moving to Alberta over the previous 12 months rise above 30,000 per year, significantly above the long-term average of 21,500, the BCBC analysis said.
“British Columbians should be concerned about large, sustained, negative net interprovincial migration. It is an important barometer on the health of B.C.’s economy, a ‘canary in the coalmine,’” said the BCBC analysis.
