TORONTO —
With lower rates of international migration and climbing death rates, Canada saw its lowest population growth rate percentage last year since 1916, Statistics Canada reports.
The data released Thursday indicates that Canada’s population increased by 0.4 per cent in 2020. This is approximately one-quarter of the growth seen in 2019, and the lowest annual growth rate percentage since 1916, when Canada was at war.
“Since the majority of growth in Canada comes from international migration (86% in 2019), the restrictions on international travel greatly impacted the population growth patterns in the country,” Statistics Canada said in a statement to CTVNews.ca. “Had the pandemic not have occurred, we would have had every reason to expect growth in Canada to have continued as it has in the recent past.”
The agency reported that, with the exception of Nunavut, the population slightly increased in most provinces and territories last year. Both Ontario and British Columbia had a 0.4 per cent increase in population in 2020, however this was Ontario’s lowest growth rate since 1917 and British Columbia’s lowest growth rate since 1874. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the population declined by 0.6 per cent.
HOW COVID-19 AFFECTED THE ANNUAL POPULATION GROWTH RATE
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
According to StatCan, the effect that the pandemic had on international migration made it the root cause of Canada’s lower numbers in population growth last year.
“International migration has accounted for more than three-quarters of the total population growth since 2016, reaching 85.7 per cent in 2019,” the agency wrote in their report. “Following border and travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, this percentage fell to 58 per cent.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada estimated that approximately 341,000 individuals immigrated to Canada prior to the pandemic. Last year, Canada had just under 187,000 individuals immigrate, making it the lowest number since 1998. This is also about half of what the numbers were in 2019.
“This has a long-term implication. Canada needs this demographic and [the] socio-economic boost of immigration,” Anna Triandafyllidou, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration, told CTVNews.ca on Thursday. “The economy is growing, and is going to grow after we can put the pandemic behind [us], and I think clearly the immigration is part of the demographic picture.”
NON-PERMANENT RESIDENTS
In 2020, Canada saw more non-permanent residents leaving Canada than coming into Canada. This year, there was a decrease of 86,535 non-permanent residents, as opposed to the 190,952 increase in 2019. StatCan says that these numbers reflect the net loss of non-permanent residents that every province and territory had last year, with the exception of Prince Edward Island.
Triandafyllidou says that many people come to Canada on work permits to work, for instance, in the tourism and transport industry. With the companies in these industries operating under COVID-19 restrictions, many workers have been forced to leave due to layoffs and permit restrictions.
“People find themselves in this situation where they cannot take up another job offer even if they have one because the work permit is a closed work permit, so it’s valid only for that employer and that job,” said Triandafyllidou. “So people who had an uncertain status had fallen from a temporary work permit to a visitor status.”
NUMBER OF DEATHS
Last year, Canada hit a record high in the number of deaths recorded in a single year, reporting over 300,000 deaths in 2020. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, COVID-19 accounted for approximately one death out of every 20 deaths in Canada last year.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
