Hon. Donna Dasko: Honourable senators, with the momentous events of recent months, some of us may have missed the very exciting first findings from the 2021 Canadian census. I hope to change this in my brief comments today and provide a few key take aways.

Released on February 9, this first statement from StatCan tells us about population changes in this country. The census paints a picture of robust growth and relentless urbanization.

Did you know that Canada led all G7 countries in population growth from 2016 to 2021? Although the pandemic halted growth in 2020, Canada’s population still grew at almost twice the pace of other G7 countries during that time frame.

Canada is now home to almost 37 million people, which is a 5.2% increase from 2016. Most of the increase occurred before the pandemic, and, in fact, 2019 was a record high year for population growth in this country. Immigration accounted for four fifths of the increased growth.

Among all provinces and territories, Yukon grew at the fastest pace nationally by 12.1%. Among the 10 provinces, Prince Edward Island had the highest growth at 8%, followed by British Columbia with 7.6%. Ontario also experienced above-average growth, with a 5.8% increase. Following Ontario were Nova Scotia and Manitoba, with 5% each, and Alberta with 4.8%. Quebec and New Brunswick each had growth of 4%, Saskatchewan’s growth was 3.1% and Nunavut had a growth of 2.5%. Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories were the only places to experience a drop in population over the five-year period.

The second big population trend can be described as relentless urbanization. Urban areas overall grew at a rate of 6.6%, while rural areas had almost no growth at all.

Here are some fast facts: All 41 of Canada’s largest urban centres grew. Ottawa and Edmonton each exceeded the 1 million mark. The downtown areas of large cities are growing at a faster pace than ever. Notably, downtown Halifax, Montreal, Calgary and Toronto have grown significantly over this period. As well, the most distant suburbs of the three largest urban areas grew at a faster pace than the inner suburbs. In the Greater Toronto Area, we call that the 905 area. The 905 is famous for its swing voters, and now there are way more of them.

Colleagues, I hope you appreciate that I have mentioned all of Canada’s provinces and territories in my brief statement today.

Thank you.

Hon. Donna Dasko: Would Senator Patterson take another question? Thank you, senator.

I want to approach this question similarly to Senator Dalphond but from a different angle. Although it’s desirable in your view to have these two initiatives go forward at the same time, from the enthusiasm we saw earlier here today for the earlier motion, it would seem likely that the first one could go forward while the second one might take a little more time.

Is that acceptable to you, even though you would prefer to see them both go together? Is it acceptable for you for the first one to go forward, and then perhaps Quebec, seeing the change in the other provinces, might in fact be more enthusiastic about taking this on if the change occurs in other parts of the country? Given that the current practice is so elitist, it seems to be very unacceptable to many of us. Thank you.

Senator Patterson: Thank you for that. You know, I think you make a very good point. If the reform is approved by both houses for every province and territory except Quebec, it will place an interesting challenge to the Government of Quebec and the people of Quebec to follow suit.

I have heard Senator Dupuis’ suggestion — which I would like to explore further — that the federal government’s position is to wait for a province to initiate such a change. I am not familiar with that position. She may be referring to what happened with the Saskatchewan matter that we are considering. I would take that into account in deciding how to proceed.

Let us have the bill studied in committee and the motion considered here. I am sure I will have further opportunity to discuss the strategy as we go forward. Thank you.

(On motion of Senator Wells, debate adjourned.)