Immigration fueling Saskatchewan population jump - Saskatchewan - CBC News

Immigration fueling Saskatchewan population jump - Saskatchewan - CBC News

Saskatchewan is still growing fast, with immigrants making up virtually all of the people who moved to the province in the first three months of the year, Statistics Canada says.

According to the federal statistics agency, Saskatchewan grew by 4,470 people in the first quarter of 2012 — and among provinces its growth rate was second only to Alberta.

As of April 1, there were 1,072,082 people living in Saskatchewan.

With a boost of 19,642 people in the past year, the figure now stands at 1,072,082.

The strong growth is driven by immigration, with a net increase of 3,436 people coming from other countries.

The natural increase -- babies being born minus deaths -- accounted for another 1,043.

In terms of interprovincial migration, there's actually a small negative number -- an estimated nine people left to go to other provinces.

The provincial government says from April 1, 2011 to April 1, 2012, the population grew by 19,642 -- the most growth in any one-year period since 1930.

How much bigger should this country really get? | Full Comment | National Post

How much bigger should this country really get? | Full Comment | National Post

A recent series of articles in the Globe and Mail suggested Canada should double its annual intake of immigrants to 500,000, with the goal of raising the country’s population to 75 million in 50 years and 100 million by the end of the century. The justification for this policy is almost entirely ideological. The larger population is needed to give more weight to the authors’ efforts to convince the world to follow Canada’s model of a truly social-democratic, multicultural and eco-friendly society; yet there is no discussion of the high economic costs the policy would bring.

Doug Saunders, the Globe’s correspondent in England, listed the benefits of raising Canada’s population to 100 million, saying it would end the “greatest price of under-population, (which) is loneliness: We are often unable to talk intelligently to each other, not to mention the world, because we just don’t have enough people to support the institutions of dialogue and culture — whether they’re universities, magazines, movie industries, think tanks or publishing houses.… It would put an end to the low population density that plagues large sections of Toronto and Calgary.”