North Bay’s immigrant population continues to grow, according to an immigration statistics data dump by Statistics Canada October 26.
A full breakdown can be found here.
See related: Record share of Canadians are immigrants or permanent residents, census shows
It’s a lot of reading, so here are the highlights. Remember that the real numbers are higher, because international students at Canadore College and Nipissing University are not counted.
A sample of approximately 25 per cent of Canadian households received a long-form questionnaire. All other households received a short-form questionnaire. With that 25 per cent sample data, of the city’s 2021 population of 52,662 (up 2.2 per cent from the 2016 census), 2,615 or nearly 5 per cent were immigrants — 4.97 per cent, to be precise.
In the five years preceding the census, from 2016 to 2021, 290 immigrants moved to North Bay, or 58 a year on average. That is up from 225 in the previous five-year span. From 2001 to 2010 there were 400.
Of the 2,615 newcomers, 2,245 are visible minorities.
The breakdown is South Asian 710; Black 565: Chinese 260; Latin American 140; Filipino 125; Southeast Asian 120; West Asian 70; Arab 60; Japanese 45; Korean 35; and multiple visible minorities 65; and 45 not identified.
North Bay counts 42,510 as third-generation or more immigrants; 5,345 second-generation, and 3,600 first-generation.
In North Bay, 5,510 people have an Indigenous identity, with 3,255 being First Nations and 1,975 Metis. This is based on 25 per cent sample data.
Most of North Bay, 45,945, is English speaking, with 5,670 French speakers. Only 95 people said they speak neither.
Canada-wide, immigrants form the largest proportion of Canada’s population in history, at 23 per cent. North Bay is far below the national proportion, but slowly growing.
The national data shows immigrants are increasingly settling outside MTV—Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Regions showing substantial growth are Ottawa-Gatineau, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, and Atlantic Canada, where the Atlantic Immigration Pilot program surely was the major contributor to the share of immigrants tripling in five years.
That may be a sign of things to come for northern Ontario, where North Bay, Timmins, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay are all part of the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program, which was modelled largely on the Atlantic program.
The Atlantic pilot became a permanent immigration program and we can fully expect RNIP will follow suit.
The idea is to spread the economic growth and cultural diversity immigrants bring away from the three cities that have reaped the benefits for decades.
Nationally the shift is away from European countries and a rise in Asian immigration. India has been the top source country for international students for a number of years, and many acquire Post-Graduation Work Permits when they graduate and move on to permanent residence.
A new poll by the Environics Institute shows Canadians are more supportive of immigration than in the past 50 years.
A huge number, 85 per cent, of those polled, said immigration has a positive impact on Canada’s economy. The poll was conducted by phone with 2,000 Canadians from September 6-20. Full poll results are here.
New immigration targets are going to be announced by the federal government this week, and it’s safe to predict they will be increased.
Canada’s fertility rate has been dropping since 2009 and in 2020 the rate was 1.4 children per woman. The replacement rate is 2.1.
With a new mayor and city council soon to be sworn in, I expect the emphasis on growth by the present mayor and council will be continued.
It will happen almost on its own as Canadore and Nipissing University increase their international student numbers and, hopefully, quotas for RNIP are increased each year.
Editor’s Note: Don Curry is a Regulated Immigration Consultant living in North Bay and is a member of Bay Today’s community advisory committee.
