Picking up where yesterday’s edition of The Owl on population change in Alberta during the pandemic left off, two common questions are: Where do people tend to go when they leave Alberta for another part of Canada and where do they tend to come from when they move here from another part of Canada?

It may or may not surprise you to learn that our neighbour to the West—British Columbia—is both the main source and main destination of interprovincial migrants to and from Alberta.

In the second quarter of 2020 (April to June), 5,716 people moved from BC to Alberta while 9,302 left Alberta for BC, yielding a net loss of 3,586 from Alberta to BC.

In percentage terms, 32 per cent of the migrants to Alberta from other provinces and territories during the second quarter were from BC while 45 per cent of interprovincial migrants from Alberta went to BC during the same period.

Ontario, which is, of course, Canada’s most populous province, accounted for about a quarter of migrants to and from Alberta.

Saskatchewan is third on the list, with 17 per cent of the arrivals from other parts of Canada to Alberta coming from the Land of the Living Skies and 9 per cent of those leaving Alberta moving one province to the east.

Despite strong connections between Alberta and Atlantic Canada, numerically speaking, the region accounted for only about 10 per cent of interprovincial migrants to and from Alberta during the second quarter of 2020.