By Sandeep Agrawal
A growing phenomenon across Canada is the development of boomtowns marked by sudden population and economic growth. Boomtowns tend to be resource- or industry-specific small towns in predominantly rural regions. The resource-rich regions of Wood Buffalo, Cold Lake and Peace River in Alberta are prime examples. Others are towns
with major non-resource based industries that have established themselves like Brooks, Alberta, home to Canada’s second largest beef-processing facility owned by JBS Foods. Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick, the French Fry Capital of the World, and home of McCain Foods’ corporate headquarters is another. Maple Leaf Foods employs about 2500 in Brandon, Manitoba for its pork processing facility.
A defining feature of Canadian boomtowns is the rapid growth in the immigrant population and ethnic diversity. Municipal census 2012 reveals that 18.2% of those who call Wood Buffalo home arrived from other countries. According to 2011 census, 11% of Wood Buffalo’s population are immigrants, twice the proportion of immigrants in rural Canada. Of these, 30% are recent immigrants to Canada. 15% arrived directly from other countries, a fairly significant proportion in a rural area. 46% of them are from south or south-east Asian countries. Almost half of Wood Buffalo’s population migrated from other Canadian provinces with nearly 50% of them coming from eastern provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador (many are French-speaking) and Ontario (many of whom are immigrants and newcomers to Canada). These figures do not include workers’ camps of oil companies which may be as ethnically diverse, if not more.
Other boomtowns have experienced similar demographic changes. 17.6% of Brooks Metropolitan Area is foreign-born, of which almost 40% are recent immigrants. 13% of Brandon Metropolitan Area is foreign-born, the majority of whom arrived just in the last decade. 6.8% of Peace River and slightly over 6% of Cold Lake are immigrants and non-permanent immigrants. This figure in Carleton County in New Brunswick, where Florenceville-Bristol is situated, is about 5.5%.
Many of these immigrants have landed in boomtowns directly, bypassing the large metropolitan areas altogether in contrast to long-held beliefs among immigration scholars. Immigrants’ choice to settle in these places is entirely driven by the availability of employment, and not so much friends and families or other factors generally hypothesized by scholars. Provincial nominee programs and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the latter of which has come under fire lately, are increasingly responsible for these changes. Immigrants in such places are perhaps among the highest paid in the country, particularly in the oil and gas rich regions of Alberta, as opposed to in large metropolitan areas where they face significant economic challenges with low-paying opportunities in the service industry.
The economic success of immigrant settlement in boomtowns bolsters the government’s strategy of “regionalization of immigration,” meaning a more balanced geographic distribution of immigrants. However, this strategy may work only while employment is readily available in these regions. As the industry relocates itself because of globalizing trends or other factors, and as oil and gas prices fluctuate, this strategy may not prove fruitful. Furthermore, Canadian boomtowns may not be institutionally-complete for immigrants. Services such as places of worship, ethnic retail, heritage language classes and so on may not be available. Some of the other challenges of these places are inclement weather and remoteness. Building community life for immigrants through language, art, and culture and business facilitation programs could help overcome of some of these challenges.
The increasing cost of living and limited immigrant services could possibly limit the long-term prospects of continuous immigration into boomtowns. Canada needs to continue to find an enduring, sustainable strategy – perhaps such as actively recruiting immigrants for farming through Provincial nominee programs – for immigration in rural areas.
Sandeep Agrawal, PhD, MCIP, AICP
Professor and Inaugural Director
University of Alberta
