By Cheryl Jahn

PG’s population increase modest

Feb 9, 2022 | 4:11 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The roads are busier and the city is breaking building permit numbers on a monthly basis. It just feels busier. But is that hubbub reflected in the population numbers from the census? Not really?

In fact, the numbers for the region are modest. Prince George saw its population increase from 74,003 to 76,708. A 3.7 percent hike, surprising to Mayor Lyn Hall.

“I had anticipated that we would be somewhere around 82,000,” he said. “Those were numbers that came out a number of months ago from stats that were done within the province. So when we came in around 77 [thousand], yeah, surprised. And would I have liked to see more? Absolutely.

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But Vanderhoof, Mackenzie and Fort St James saw their populations drop, some by as much as 13 percent. Not surprising given the state of forestry.

Northern BC: 2016 2021 Diff %

PG 74,003 76,708 +3.7

Vanderhoof 4,434 4,346 -2

Mackenzie 3,714 3,281 -11.7

Fort St. James 1,598 1,386 -13.3

But the city is consistently breaking records in terms of development permits, not really jiving with these numbers.

“We have developers that come to town that are confident about the city, confident about investing here because they’re seeing that there’s a market. A rental market. And also on the single-family housing market side of things. They don’t just come here on a whim. They have done their homework, they’re investing millions of dollars. So are they seeing something different? I don’t know.”

While Prince George saw modest growth, peer communities like Kamloops, Nanaimo, and Chilliwack all saw significantly higher growth.

Peer Communities: 2016 2021 Diff %

PG 74,003 76,708 +3.7

Kamloops 90,902 97:902 +8.4

Nanaimo 90,504 99,863 +10.3

Chilliwack 83,788 93,203 +11.2

In the eyes of the City’s Economic Development Branch, slow and steady wins the race.

“We’ve seen consistent growth now over a couple of censuses,” said Melissa Barcellos. “And it’s manageable, it’s sustainable growth as opposed to some communities that have seen massive influxes and peaks and valleys which is aligned with a boom and bust economy. We don’t have that here. We’re seeing consistent, steady growth.”

But the challenge for a municipality, and every municipality is that the census numbers in terms of population are used to calculate some very important dollars.

“Because it really means that we get transfer payments from the feds to the Province and, ultimately at the end of the day, to the municipalities. And those transfer payments are around gas taxes, around health care. When they do this work to determine the population of a community, it has a financial impact on us.”

Typically the gas tax coming to the City was just over three million dollars. Last year, in a one-off, it was double that. The money goes toward capital projects, like sidewalks. So if you didn’t fill out your census, expect more of the same.