I'm writing a thing.

I suspect this will garner some attention.

At the risk of spoilers, here's why Ontario's population is booming. I suspect a lot of this is international students. @AlexUsherHESA?

As promised, my latest piece examining migration patterns in Ontario.

In short: Ontario's population growth rate shot up around 2015, and this is likely an important cause of the province's explosive real-estate market. https://mikepmoffatt.medium.com/ontarians-on-the-move-2021-edition-1-the-big-picture-8b46eb87e4d5

And spoiler for my next piece - the fastest growing counties in Ontario probably aren't the ones you'd think.

I'm writing a piece. Spoiler.

Here's my latest piece, looking at population growth across the province. Over the past 5 years, six Census Divisions have grown by 10% or more: Waterloo, Peel, Simcoe, Middlesex and Halton. https://mikepmoffatt.medium.com/ontarians-on-the-move-2021-edition-2-one-million-new-ontarians-df2f634bec0b

Though it looks like Ottawa makes the 10% growth cut if you round up. Here's all the Census Divisions in Ontario that grew by 8% or more between 2015 and 2020.

I haven’t had much of a chance to talk housing yet, but the basic theme is this:

Ontario can’t simultaneously grow by a million people, while at the same time restricting urban new build, without some big side effects (housing price spikes, rural land loss, homelessness).

And let’s not forget really long commutes and the associated pollution. “Drive until you qualify” means people are living further away from where they work, and we can’t all work from home.