Saskatoon #1, Regina #2 In Canada For Fastest Growth Per Capita

Just a few short years ago Saskatchewan was known as the place to be from, not the place to live. How things have changed, there seems to be this renewed optimism about the province and where it is going. With vast oil, gas, uranium and potash reserves as well as of course agricultural products, you could not be better positioned for the continued increase in demand brought on by China, India and the rest of the developing world. One thing is for certain, this government will not make the mistakes that the former NDP government made. The Sask Party government is going to do whatever it takes to spur on business and trade within out country and abroad. Instead of turning it's back on progress, the government is leading with innovation resources, tax incentives, job fairs, international trade missions and much more. All things never would have crossed the minds of the backwards looking NDP. All I can say is thank you too the people of Saskatchewan for voting in a government who is willing to lead and want development instead of putting up barriers to trade and innovation. I must say that I am looking forward to the election in the fall to see how the people of this great province thank the sitting government for all that they have done.

Saskatoon the fastest-growing city in Canada

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Postmedia News  Jul 20, 2011 – 9:59 AM ET | Last Updated: Jul 20, 2011 10:00 AM ET

By Shannon Proudfoot

The Prairies are rising and Saskatchewan is leading the way as home to two of the three fastest-growing cities in Canada, new demographic analysis from Statistics Canada shows.

Saskatoon is the fastest-growing city in Canada, with a population growth rate of 27.7 per 1,000 people between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010. That translates into 7,200 more residents, for a total population of 265,300, the agency said Wednesday.

Saskatoon is followed by Vancouver, growing at a rate of 22.3 per 1,000, and Regina, which swelled by 22.3 per 1,000 over that same one-year period.

International migration was the driving force behind the Saskatchewan boom, Statistics Canada says, with nearly half the population growth fuelled by that factor. Saskatoon alone gained 3,300 people through net international migration in that year, outstripping the international draw of larger cities such as Hamilton and Quebec City.

Toronto was Canada’s fourth fastest-growing city, followed by Calgary, Moncton, N.B., Edmonton, Ottawa-Gatineau and Winnipeg.

Edmonton and Calgary’s growth rates have slowed from their furious pace between 2005 and 2009, when the two Alberta cities never dropped out of the top four in terms of growth, but they remained above the Canadian average.

In contrast, cities including Halifax, Montreal, Kelowna, B.C., Victoria and St. John’s had growth rates below the national average. Only two cities — Windsor, Ont. and Sudbury, Ont. — registered negative population growth, driven in both cases by losing residents to other Canadian cities.

As of Canada Day 2010, 23.6 million people or 69.1% of the population lived in one of Canada’s census metropolitan areas (CMAs), large urban centres of at least 100,000 people and their surrounding regions, Statistics Canada said.

And these cities are growing faster than the rest of the country: Population growth for CMAs was 14.7 per 1,000 people over that one-year period, compared to 11.5 per 1,000 as a national average and 4.3 per 1,000 in small towns and rural areas.