Front Burner - What Charlottetown’s immigration boom can teach Canada

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

When Alex Cyr was growing up on Prince Edward Island in the early aughts, the capital Charlottetown was a pretty quaint and homogeneous place.But in 2024, the city looks very different. In the last few years, the provincial government has made it easier for immigrants to flock there – and they have, more than any other city in the country.The city is younger and more diverse, and it’s solved a lot of the problems caused by its aging workforce. But housing prices have gone up, and the healthcare system is stretched.These challenges that Charlottetown faces now are familiar to so many cities across the country. Journalist Alex Cyr wrote about the city’s immigration growth for Maclean’s. His piece is called: “How Charlottetown Became an Immigration Boom Town”.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Allie Janes, in for Jamie Poisson. Alex Cyr grew up in a small village on PEI in the early aughts. It was pretty quaint and quiet and a lot of the same stuff. Everyone played hockey, baseball.

A lot of us actually have the same last name. Now, my last name, Sear, comes from my father, who's from New Brunswick. So I felt like a bit of an outsider, whereas a lot of people out here have the last name Arsenault or Gallant. The spoken language was basically English, and everyone was white. The capital, Charlottetown, was pretty much like that too. But in 2024, the city couldn't be more different. In the last few years, the provincial government has made it easier for immigrants to flock there, and they have, more than to any other city in the country. Charlottetown is younger and more diverse, and it's solved a lot of the problems caused by its aging workforce. But also, housing

prices have gone up. The public health care system is stretched. These challenges that Charlottetown faces now are familiar to so many cities across the country. They need population growth to survive, but have they put the plans in place to accommodate all these new residents? And what should be done about it? Alex looked at all of this in a piece of Maclean's called How Charlottetown Became an Immigration Boomtown. So Alex, we're about to talk about the story of an immigration boom in PEI, of people coming to the province in big numbers. But when you were growing up, that was not the story, right? Like people were leaving in droves. And not the story, right? People were leaving in

droves. And you did too, right? I did. And it came as a surprise to me because growing up in a small town, you somewhat think that you're going to stay there. And then in grade 12, I realized that that wouldn't be the case for me. The things I wanted to pursue were actually out of PEI. So I wanted to run competitively at a university. I wanted to study kinesiology. I eventually flipped while I was in university and became a journalist. And for all of these jobs, you know, they're doable on PEI, but it felt to me like there were more opportunities elsewhere. And then as I got older, I noticed that was the

case for a lot of my friends, too. You know, they pursue medicine, law, finance, software, engineering. They study that somewhere and they come to realize that perhaps PEI doesn't have the company that hires for their specialty or that they can be paid more elsewhere. And a lot of people, a lot of young people end up leaving and it becomes a vicious cycle too, because few people want to stay. So some industries can't develop and that leads to more people leaving. Right. I mean, you, in, in, in your article for McLean's, you describe the province as having been in a demographic death spiral. Um, and I mean, in terms of facts and figures, like just how bad was that problem? Well, to put it into numbers, from my birth, which was in 1995,

to my 18th birthday, the island's population increased by just around 9,000 people. And during that time, immigration was virtually non-existent and young adults, say, moved away really quickly. And in that time, the median age went from 34 to 43. And I guess what we can extrapolate from that also is that the workforce was retiring, right? Like the boomers, boomers were getting to retiring age. You know, there were like less young people to work. Yeah, well, when we talk about brain drain, we usually think of young people who leave their province for opportunities as they begin to enter the workforce. But we had been seeing that on PEI in the last five to 10 years is that we saw a brain drain from both sides because boomers started to retire. And on PEI, they represented and still represent pretty significant part of the workforce. Let's get into that. I mean, basically, you know, it was clear, I think, that the province had a problem, right?

I mean, an aging workforce, not a lot of job opportunities for young people and, you know, not a lot of things keeping them there, opportunities for young people and, you know, not a lot of things keeping them there, which obviously means also not a lot of, you know, like you were saying, this kind of spiral where these opportunities aren't being created. So, you know, as I understand it, for a long time, the government of PEI was trying to lure back the people who had moved away, but that wasn't working out so well. So in 2001, they decided, okay, what we need to start doing is bringing in new people, we need to start bringing in more immigrants. So they signed up for this provincial nominee program. And the whole goal of this federal program was to encourage more immigrants to settle down outside of Canada's biggest cities. So tell me more about that. And you know, sort of what was different

about the requirements that you needed to sort of what was different about the requirements that you needed to immigrate to PEI versus other provinces? Yeah, no, that's it, you know, PEI got on in 2001. And, you know, I can't read their minds. But my guess is that the government then also thought, you know, what can be our X factor? Why would an immigrant choose PEI over another province? How could we be better at attracting people? You know, we're smaller. People from abroad might not know us like they know Manitoba, Nova Scotia. I don't know. So what the province ended up doing is they created a lower barrier to entry to Canada. Basically, back in the early 2000s, an immigrant could move to PEI and gain immediate permanent residency to Canada if they invested $200,000 in a local

business. Whereas entering Canada through other provinces typically involve a waiting period of maybe six months or a year. And that program started working somewhat early on, but also there were growing pains. So for example, around then in the early 2000s, there were some criticisms that some investments were being doled out to friends and families of provincial officials. So then the program changed a little bit. In 2008, newcomers would have to actively run the business that they invested in. And then that transpired to 2012. The province also set up this new stream that was aimed at entrepreneurs, immigrant entrepreneurs specifically, to jumpstart the economy. So they could receive permanent resident status immediately. These

immigrant entrepreneurs provided that they gave the province, again, a $200,000 deposit and then receive it back after operating a business for one year. But again, that stream was shut down back in 2018 because there were some allegations that I guess hundreds maybe of these entrepreneurs weren't even living on PEI. According to federal investigators, many didn't settle on PEI, let alone open a business. Canada Border Services investigators are looking at up to a thousand cases where the same handful of PEI addresses were used on immigration forms, they say, to make it appear people were living on PEI when they were not. Fast forward to now, 2024, and the X factor that PEI has is unlike most other provinces, newcomers in, we call it low-skilled jobs, like fast food and retail,

can live and work in PEI for two years and then get their permanent residency status, whereas they might be out of luck in another province. And then there's this express entry stream for more highly skilled workers. We've seen rapid population growth here in PEI over the last four or five years leading the nation. So we felt it was necessary to, you know, reduce those nominations and refocus them on those areas, as you mentioned, health care, construction, early childhood, to try to, you know, those industries that can help with that growing population. So that's kind of what we're doing. That's led to a lot of people coming to PEI to get that residency. Now, some stay and some don't.

and some don't. And for locals, I think that's begun to create some anxieties about how easy it is to enter PEI, but then also how easy it is to leave for bigger places. It's like a revolving door. Well, we're going to get more into some of that and, you know, more, I guess, some of the, you know, growing pains that you mentioned. But before we do, I mean, I guess I'll just note that as the province has continued to welcome new people in, I mean, do you think it's fair to say that, like, despite the challenges, you know, this push to invite workers. Is it fair to say that this has, at some level, you know, helped solve the problem that it was trying to solve? Oh, absolutely. A lot of these people coming in, a lot of immigrants coming in are between the ages of 20 and 35. And that was the demographic that I think we were desperate to hold on to. And I think that if it wasn't for high levels of immigration, we wouldn't have

this young, bustling population. I mean, I think the goal that the province has is to bring hundreds, thousands of young people who, you know, some of them will become our leaders in the next 10, 20 years. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix.

I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo. 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Let's talk about, you know, some of the

new islanders who have come in, you know, as part of these booms. There's one person you spoke to, a Lebanese chef named Pierre El Hadjar. And can you tell me a bit about him and what brought him to Charlottetown? Pierre has a fun story that he came in about 10, 15 years ago to PEI. He saw a work opportunity there. A friend of his had moved, I think, in the year prior. And he said, look, there's some opportunities to make food here. There were chefs, right? They wanted to open a restaurant. He had a slower start than expected. So he first got a job. He rented a place. He got a job at a school, made food there, was the head chef. And he found it a bit difficult to convince people to eat new foods, is what he said.

Whatever sometimes happened to me that I don't eat your food, I'm a meat potato guy. Right. Okay. And then fast forward 10 years, he says he's seen such a change on PEI. Not only are there many more immigrants around, but also I think the locals on PEI have become accustomed to a bunch of different types of food. So his type of cuisine became so popular that he opened a restaurant, Gaia Urban Eatery, right on one of the main thoroughfares of Charlestown, Queen Street downtown.

And it became a hit. In 2023, his restaurant, his creation, won the PEI Burger Love, which is like this showdown of all these restaurateurs making burgers and people vote on what they like the most. So his burger won and his store is doing really well. And he told me,

he doesn't think that would have happened 10 years ago. And it's a reflection of people being a whole lot more open-minded to the types of foods that they eat. I love the nature. Oh. Because my house in Lebanon is nature.

It's all nature. It's in the mountain. I love fishing. I love hunting. I love camping. I love camping with my kids. The overall population, like from, you know, from a numbers perspective, from a census perspective has radically changed too, right? Yeah, I mean, I think that the population of PEI has grown more in the last year or just as much in the last year as it has over 15 years of my existence back between, 1995 to 2010 roughly so the population is is has grown

much faster than people could have predicted and i think that's the crux of the story right is that brings a whole lot of of good things it rejuvenates the population brings a whole lot of diversity we have awesome things like cricket pitches i don't play cricket i've never played but now there's a cricket pitch right next to a hockey rink you You know, there's, there's more for more for different people. And so I think it's more well welcoming, but also we're a lot bigger. We're a bigger population than we used to be. And that happened very quickly and faster than I think PEI has ever, has ever experienced. And I mean, what seems really clear in your reporting is that a lot of people feel that Charlottetown

and PEI more broadly didn't do enough to prepare for the practicalities of a big population boom. I mean, notwithstanding all of the excellent things that have come with this boom, that they maybe didn't do enough to prepare for what that was actually going to mean. Long wait times, closures, staff burnout, just a few of the problems plaguing island emergency rooms.

Well, the PEI government's trying to slow population growth and to ease the strain on housing and our health care system. The most recent numbers have PEI's overall vacancy rate at 1.1%, just 0.5% in Charlottetown. And, you know, another story that stuck out to me in your reporting is the story of Joy Fajardo, who's originally from the Philippines. She moved to Canada from Singapore with her husband, Francis. And, I mean, you describe a lot of challenges that she had accessing the health system, even when she became pregnant. And can you tell me more about her story? Her husband was working. She became pregnant. It was all going to plan.

But during her pregnancy, she said she was having stomach aches and didn't have a family doctor. So she struggled to get routine appointments. I didn't really have someone look at me for the first three months, even if I'm experiencing some pain. It's pretty hard. And I actually got a bit depressed that time because I know that there's something wrong but I cannot do anything instead she had to resort to the emergency room and sometimes going home and giving up because she wasn't able to be seen about what was happening eventually she had a miscarriage and couldn't help but wonder if things had been different if there was more prenatal care services around. And to that, you know, she didn't blame anyone.

It's not one specific person, but she just felt that the system was incredibly overburdened. It's not the doctors. It's not the nurses. I think it's the medical system because we don't have enough. We don't have enough people to look after our own people. So, yeah, I understand 100%, but it's just a bit sad. That's an incredibly tragic story.

Can you tell me more about what happened after with Joy? Because there is some good news in her story afterwards, right? There is good news. there is some good news in her story afterwards, right? There is good news. So they ended up giving birth later, and now they're raising a family on PEI as they had hoped. So I just want to go back to healthcare for a second. We heard a bit about how tough it was for Joy at first to get seen by a doctor. And how common was that for other people that you spoke to? Like, how does it compare to before the population boom?

alike, right? Anyone who doesn't have a family doctor has no choice but to rely on our walking clinics, which are pretty overburdened, and also our emergency rooms. And their visits increased by, I think, 20% between 2021 and 2023. And in general, there's just a sense that we're growing too quickly for the healthcare system, right? Our health minister, Mark McLean, blamed rapid immigration for that and for the system's recent failings and said the island would need a new physician every 80 days to keep up with that influx, which just isn't realistic. It's not happening right now. I mean, what about housing? How has access to that changed as this boom has happened? I think housing is the main thing. I mean, obviously, this is not just a PEI problem. This is a Canadian problem. But on PEI, I think people are startled by the speed at which the real estate market changed. And this is not just an immigration thing. This is a Canadian Canadians moving from province to province during

COVID as well. A lot of people came to the Maritimes to try to find a quieter way of life. But in this time, in the last four or five years, some house prices have doubled. I spoke with with two young men who are from India's Punjab province, Tejbir and Lovepreet Singh. And they're young people. They're entrepreneurial. One leads a driving school. And they've come to really like PEI. They met a lot of people on the cricket pitch in Stratford and they have a group of friends and they host parties and they want to be these active members of the community. They're in their mid-20s, but their decision to stay at this point, they both said will hinge on whether or not they can find a house to buy. They're both renters and they want to advance to the next stage of their lives. And so they're not necessarily convinced that they should leave PEI because they think

that, you know, maybe in other provinces, it's not going to be any better. There's no winning with housing, but that housing is basically what I think is playing into the minds of young people over healthcare right now. I mean, these kind of examples of, you know, the building blocks of the city being stretched, it's obviously something that all residents feel, you know, whether they're new to the city or whether they've been there for a long time. So for people who have been there, you know, perhaps for generations, what were they telling you about how this is affecting them? A lot of people, a lot of locals are noting that parts of life are getting worse, right? Housing is more expensive, healthcare is tougher, but also jobs are more scarce. There is a lot more homelessness, or let's say there is homelessness. 10 years ago, that was very rare in Charlottetown.

say there is homelessness. And 10 years ago, that was very rare in Charlottetown. And so a lot of locals, I think, are noticing at the same time that visibly there are a lot more immigrants around. Right. So I can see how, you know, there's a thought that people might get frustrated. But I don't think it has anything to do with where people are coming from. I think it's more of a frustration, the frustration at the government for maybe overcrowding the place. You know, it's like a feeling that there was a disregard for what might happen if we overcrowd PEI without having the infrastructure to support this influx. And I think newcomers could be from anywhere. They could all be from New Brunswick. And I think the same frustration would arise. Yeah, I mean, I was just going to note that like it feels worth worth

noting that, you know, I don't know if this is the case in what you're seeing, but like immigrants can kind of become scapegoats sometimes for these kind of issues when in reality there are other factors also at play. Right. Like, you know, for example, with housing prices, I mean, as you noted, there are lots of other factors, you know, for example, like decades of low interest rates, corporate investors, zoning laws, you know, so on and so forth, even with healthcare. As you've noted, you know, other provinces have also seen staffing crisis, especially after the pandemic. I mean, there are pay issues, there's issues with, you know, international doctors not being able to practice in Canada.

I'm just giving a bunch of examples, but like there's often these really complex factors. But I know often, and we're seeing this, I think, all over the country right now, you know, immigrants might kind of bear the blame for that. And obviously anywhere that this happens, like a population boom is going to exacerbate all these issues. But to what extent were there also, if we're talking about PEI, like pre-existing issues also at play here? Zoning laws are actually pretty strict in Charlottetown. And in some ways they've prevented the city from growing.

Earlier this year, there was a developer who made a proposal to build this eight-story building downtown, and the proposal was denied. It would have been great if it had 158 units, including 30 below market price. We haven't been able to have that. been able to have that. And at this point, the city's tallest building is still the Delta Hotel on Queen Street, which was built in 1983. So this is 40 years ago, and it's only 10 stories high. The city's plan for the future is to grow to 66,000 people by 2040. As of now, Charlottetown is hovering around 40,000 people. I don't think they're equipped. A growth of 20,000 people in the span of, call it 15 years, would be unprecedented. What has the provincial government's response been to all these issues that we've been talking about?

Well, it's funny because around midway through the point that I was reporting the story, Around midway through the point that I was reporting the story, the current government came out and it says it was in February. They said that they were cutting nominations for permanent residency through the provincial nominee program. So the PNP by 25 percent in 2024 this year and also nominating fewer workers from service and sales sectors and in favor of in-demand occupations. So that's health care and construction. So two occupations that we're in great need right now. And the hope, I think, is that this pause, the temporary pause, allows housing stock and the health care system to catch up to our population. We made the changes trying to target our immigration

to utilize it to the best ability that we can to help us grow and prosper as a province in areas of need like health care, construction industry, early years, etc. So that's what we've done and we're going to continue to do it. And, you know, that's still playing out, right? Right now, there's some protests in Charlottetown around that policy. And the sudden changes have made a drastic impact on my life. But they changed it overnight, right?

This is youth exploitation. They called us here. Now they want us to leave. We want to be here in PEI. We want to grow with you guys. Some business owners are saying that we've paused it too much and that in a few years that's going to lead to, when people have to go back, that will lead to a renewed worker shortage once those work permits of temporary residents expire. Are they, that you know of taking active steps to build up the housing stock, to staff the hospitals, you know, to encourage more staff to I remember having a good conversation with Rob Lance, who's the minister of housing on PEI. And he said that not only does PEI deal with the same issues as other places in the country, so supply chain and workers, but also there's a scaling issue. A lot of our construction companies, they started as mom and pop, right? They started in, not even in Charlottetown, but in places near Charlottetown, it was smaller scale. And now

they're asked to build massive condo buildings and completely multiply their production. It's hard to do. We might not be equipped for that. So, you know, everyone is willing, but I think that it's still going to require patience. For you, what do you think the takeaways of this story are? Like, I guess the lessons of this are? You know, in a way, I do think that this influx of immigration saved PEI, supercharged it with some youth, and will make it look a lot more vibrant in the next five to 10 years and hopefully beyond. But I mean, if this is a microcosm of what's happening elsewhere, I think most provinces, most places have to ask themselves big questions of, okay, how do we, how are we able to, how are we able to sustain this growth? It's great to bring people in, but how can we support them?

Do we have enough housing? Do we have enough healthcare? And I think the takeaway is that allowing many, many people in a province comes with its potential dangers and growing pains, but it's worth a try. Trying is better than just seeing the province get older. Thank you so much. I really appreciated talking to you, Alex. I hope that it was helpful. Thank you for reaching out. All right. That is all for today. I'm Allie Janes. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.