Greetings!

2) Canadian Census Data Released

The recent Canadian Census has just been released and Canada has the highest growth rate of all countries in the G8 for the period of 2001 - 2006. That's right, we're #1! This is great news nationally, but more important are the regional figures, so dig a little further to see how your target region is faring. Canada is now starting to be noticed as an emerging population and investment destination and these population growth figures will drive demand even further from outside the country.

Canada's population is now 31,612,897 according to the Stats Can census report released this month. This is a 1.6 million person growth over the past 5 years and represents an amazing 5.4% growth rate. Canada's population has almost doubled since 1956.


Canada's population in last 50 years (in millions)

1956.......... 16.1

1966.......... 20.0

1976.......... 23.0

1986.......... 25.3

1996.......... 28.8

2006.......... 31.6


Immigration is the largest component to the population growth, making up almost 2/3 of the growth, with the remaining coming from new births. Why is this important? Immigrants tend to rent for the first two years they are here.

Throughout the country you can see significant variations in population growths. As sophisticated Real Estate investors, you want to focus on those areas that are growing faster than the national numbers.

Provincial population growth rates

Can........... 5.4%

Alb........... 10.6%

Ont........... 6.6%

B.C........... 5.3%

Que........... 4.3%

Man........... 2.6%

N.S........... 0.6%

P.E.I......... 0.4%

N.B........... 0.1%

Sask.......... -1.1%

NFLD.......... -1.5%

Only two provincial market's growth rates exceeded the national average with the Alberta population growth rate almost doubling the national numbers. Together, Ontario and Alberta represented 66 percent of the country's new growth.

A couple of other key points:

- Nearly half of all Canadians live in the three largest urban centers (GTA, Montreal CMA & Vancouver CMA)

- Only 2 provinces had a negative decline in population, with Newfoundland having over 7,400 fewer people. This trend has also appeared in the last 2 census reports.

- There were on average 240,000 immigrants per year arriving to Canada over the past 5 years

- 400,000 of the increase in Canadians can be attributed to a natural increase (defined as how many more births than deaths)

- 80% of Canadians were living in urban areas in 2006

- BC and Alberta set provincial records of population, surpassing 4 Million and 3 Million respectively.


Top Population growth areas (with a population of at least 100,000 including an urban core of at least least 50,000): Canada now has 33 centers with this criteria, up from 27 in 2001. The fastest growing are listed below, and you will note that they were all identified by REIN™'s research as Top Regions in which to invest, in their respective provinces (another indication that the 12 fundamentals really do work).


Barrie, ON............ 19.2%

Calgary, AB........... 13.4.5%

Oshawa, ON............ 11.6%

Kelowna, BC........... 9.8%


The two fastest growing small towns in the country were Sylvan Lake, near Red Deer, AB and Strathmore, outside Calgary. Those of you who have been following our newsletters and research realize that we have been, for the past 3 years, recommending over 90% of these regions as having strong fundamentals and the Real Estate market has followed suit.

Now, the not so good news if you are investing in the following towns. The following is a list of Top 10 mid-sized urban centers with the fastest shrinking populations (in other words a scary situation is beginning to develop for the real estate markets in these areas). Many of these regions are located in the forestry sector (which, as you have read here will be running into major problems in the coming years). B.C. forestry towns have the top 5 fastest shrinking urban centers (with population of 10,000 or more)

Kitimat, BC........... -12.6%

Prince Rupert, BC..... -12.5%

Quesnel, BC........... -8.1%

Terrace, BC........... -8.1%

Williams Lake, BC..... -5.1%

Campbellton, NB....... -5.0%

North Battleford, Sk.. -4.4%

Kenora, Ont........... -4.2%

Elliot Lake, Ont...... -3.4%

Bathurst, NB.......... -3.4%

Edmundston, NB........ -3.3%

That is why when we speak of specific town we mean what we say. We don't sell Real Estate to our clients and therefore can always safely tell you the truth about a region and why you will see that our 'Watch Out' list contained so many of these towns. Shrinking population equals shrinking demand on real estate over a long term which means TROUBLE for unsophisticated real estate investors who may have be caught up in the hype and purchased blindly in these regions. All we can say is please do your homework BEFORE you take action and please keep up to date on key statistics.

The census numbers are important to analyze, as they are used to make key government policy decisions, including how to divide up roughly $62 billion in Federal transfer payments to the Provinces and Territories. As you start to see shifts in the distribution of population it is key to understand that the housing market will follow where the people go.

We will continue to analyze and release figures as they become available. Discover the keys to today's market at the upcoming ACRE System Program; it truly is THE event in Canada to attend if you are sick of the hype and misinformation in the market.

Here are the details:

================ IMPORTANT NOTICE ==============

The ACRE System Program (15th anniversary) in Toronto, taught entirely by Canadian best-selling author Don R. Campbell, and special Canadian Real Estate guests, is coming up soon (April 14th & 15th) and is right around the corner. All of our new research including our new Top 10 Ontario investment towns will be released at this special weekend event. This event will be held at the Pearson Convention Center, 2638 Steeles Ave East (Steeles & Airport Rd). It will definitely sell out quickly due to the intimate room (huge rooms have sold out across Canada the last 8 years in a row. In fact, the last ACRE System we held in Vancouver sold out 10 days in advance, with 34 people on the waiting list

For all of the details and a special $200 subscriber discount click on the following link to read all the details:

Click HERE

If you would like to listen to an exclusive interview of Don R. Campbell talking about what you will learn at the upcoming ACRE System program click on the following link:

Click HERE