Hayley Burrell moved from Ontario to southeastern New Brunswick at the start of the pandemic, got a real estate license and is now selling homes to people who look a lot like her.
“I would say 95% of the buyers I’ve had this year were from Ontario,” Burrell said.
“People go on Facebook and search ‘move to New Brunswick,’ or they do the same thing on Instagram, and ask questions about what, you know, what life is like there if I want to move my family?”
The sudden attraction to life in Eastern Canada has been an ongoing and potentially transformative side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic for New Brunswick.
Fueled by a wave of immigration and a parade of Canadians moving east, the Maritime provinces were inundated with years of newcomers within months.
Just before Christmas, Statistics Canada reported that in July, August and September, the three Maritime provinces added 13,470 people combined. This has made this once declining region the fastest growing part of Canada during the summer, ahead of British Columbia.
Individually, Prince Edward Island was the fastest growing jurisdiction, but the three Maritime provinces were among Canada’s top four growth poles, according to Statistics Canada analyst Stacey Hallman.
“Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and New Brunswick are the four,” she said.
New Brunswick’s share of this summer’s population growth spurt was 5,075. This is New Brunswick’s largest one-quarter increase since the 1970s, and in just 92 days it has equaled the province’s total population growth over 16 years, between 1996 and 2012.
Added to the more than 8,000 people gained earlier in the pandemic, New Brunswick’s population suddenly jumps to 794,300.
It’s a figure that grim population projections from just two years ago suggested the province may never reach, and even the most optimistic models didn’t see it coming for several years.
It’s a startling development in a province that has worried for decades about its stagnant population growth.
In August 2019, just months before the start of the pandemic, the New Brunswick government announced revamped plans to try to boost the attraction of newcomers to save the province from the impending labor shortages caused by the retirement of baby boomers.
“Population growth is critical to the future success of our province,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labor Minister Trevor Holder.
“Attracting and retaining new Canadians is key to helping us grow our province’s population and meet the needs of our employers.
The effort was launched around the same time that Statistics Canada developed nine population projections for New Brunswick to 2043 based on various different scenarios.
None of the projections predicted that New Brunswick would reach 794,300 people before 2024. Six of the nine did not see this happen at all in 2043, and one projection saw the province shrink by 35,000 people over 25 years.
It’s a possibility the province took seriously and felt that international immigration was the best chance to avoid. The idea that thousands of Canadians would spontaneously begin to settle in the area was not seriously considered.
Over the first 15 years of the 2000s, New Brunswick lost a net average of 1,500 people per year to other provinces, including a peak of 3,240 in 2014. Reversing this flow in the opposite direction has always been a hope, but not something the government has officially planned as a solution to its population problems.
But it still happened.
Boasting some of the cheapest house prices in Canada, New Brunswick began showing up in the search engines of thousands of people looking for space and a place to plant roots that they could afford. .
Burrell said his own decision to sell his home in London, Ont., and come to New Brunswick was prompted by an internet search for a better work-life balance. Most people who buy homes through him tell a similar story.
“It’s more affordable. They’re looking for a different pace of life,” Burrell said.
Since the beginning of 2020, this attraction has been strong. New Brunswick recorded a net gain of 6,900 people from other provinces, more than half of them from Ontario.
Burrell said it wasn’t a smooth transition for everyone. A few encountered problems accessing health care, including finding a family doctor, but she heard few complaints beyond that.
“There’s still an overwhelming majority of people saying they don’t regret the move and they’re happy they made the decision,” she said. “Verry much.
“We’ve been back to Ontario to visit twice. And it’s wonderful to see family and friends, but we can’t wait to go back to New Brunswick both times we’ve been. No regrets at all. It was the best thing we could have done for ourselves.”