Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli isn’t shocked by the recent census from Statistics Canada which shows the city of North Bay’s population has dropped by nearly four per cent in the past five years.
“Communities will have ebbs and flows in their population and I know that this will serve as a wake-up call to the community that where do we really want to be? What kind of community do we want to be? So these numbers while they are important, as they change in a smaller percentage, as they continue to kind of match what is happening in the whole of the north - with some exceptions of course,” noted Fedeli, relating back to his days in the early 2000’s when he was the mayor of North Bay.
“When I took over as mayor back in 2003, I had the community adjust our population number on the sign. I think it was listed at 56,000 back then but it was really only 52,000 and we adjusted it at 52,000 and I know that the community rallied together in an all out attempt. I remember when we put 108 municipal lots for sale and had 107 houses built over the next two years. Our population rose by 2000 so we were able to change the population sign to 54,000 because it signified a real number.”
In 2016 it was 51,553, down from 53,651 in 2011, a drop of 3.9 per cent.
However, while the numbers drop in North Bay, the population numbers are increasing in the outlying communities.
South River is up 6.2 per cent, while Powassan jumped 2.3 per cent and Burk’s Falls up 1.4 per cent.
“When you look at ‘416’ and downtown Toronto versus the suburbs - the Brampton’s, the 905’s - so it follows the similar kind of pattern,” noted Fedeli.
Fedeli noted that he he has looked at the demography of the province. He says the numbers show the population is aging and the older population is getting older.
“The younger population is not growing so we’ve got diverging numbers and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that the senior populations are looking for quieter, less expensive lifestyle and I think you will continue to see something."
