British Columbia Premier David Eby said the province is facing major pressures because of the amount of people moving to it, despite lifelong British Columbians looking at leaving it. One group Eby said he is most concerned about is young people, ensuring they feel welcomed and can build good homes in BC. “That is why we focused on affordability for young people,” said Eby at a Monday press conference at the Western Premiers’ Conference in Whitehorse. “That’s why housing is our major government priority.” He pointed out that is the major challenge for young people. At the moment, he said young people are looking for attainable, middle-income housing they can see a future for themselves in. To allow young people to have more opportunities for affordable housing, he said the BC government is having tough conversations with municipalities. Since young people are facing significant pressures, he said that is why it has been a central focus for it. The Canadian government gave Quebec $750 million to deal with immigration pressures. It has offered the BC government no money. Refugees are living in homeless shelters in BC. International students have complained about a lack of supports in their communities. He called the Canadian government’s agreement with Quebec “an underlining of a sense of frustration that I heard around the table.” While he would not speak for other premiers, he said he was frustrated money was being showered on Quebec and Ontario while other provinces begged for it. Since Quebec and Ontario were being treated as favourites, he said it is unacceptable. He added part of the pressure young people are seeing is federal resources, time, energy, money, tax credits, and effort going to them at the expense of Western Canada. In response, he said that needs to change. He said the announcement with Quebec “was the straw that broke this camel’s back.” Eby concluded by saying he looks forward to a call from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the details of immigration funding to BC on a per-capita basis. He said he wants the exact same funding as Quebec. A total of 36% of British Columbians said they have given serious consideration to moving away because of housing affordability, according to a Monday poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute (ARI). READ MORE: Poll finds one-third of BC residents looking at leaving province over housingThe ARI said half of British Columbians younger than 35 years old admitted this is the case for them. It said the area with the largest percentage of people wanting to leave BC was the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley (42%). However, it said 38% did not want to leave it because of housing affordability and one-tenth were unsure. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith followed up by saying when the provincial government began its Alberta Is Calling campaign, it had been through 13 quarters of net outmigration. “I don’t think that we anticipated that we would be as successful in that campaign as we were last year,” said Smith. “We’ve had over 200,000 people come into Alberta last year.” Smith said many of these people are newcomers. In the past, newcomers were heading to Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. More than 55,000 people from other parts of Canada moved to Alberta in 2023, according to April data published by Statistics Canada. READ MORE: Alberta gains 55,000 interprovincial migrants in 2023; BC loses 8,600About 333,000 Canadians moved from one province or territory to another in 2023 — the second highest number since the 1990s and the third straight year it has topped 300,000.At 55,107 newcomers, Alberta topped the list for the second straight year and represented the largest net gain nationally since the data was first recorded in 1972.
