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Where Are DIY Movers Relocating in Canada?

Alberta and BC are top destinations, says U-Haul.

Amanda Follett Hosgood 16 Jan 2025The Tyee

Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter. She lives in Wet’suwet’en territory. Find her on Bluesky @amandafollett.bsky.social.

Go west!

Nearly a half-century after the Village People made “Go West” the mantra of a generation, it seems that many are still packing up their belongings, pointing their vehicles towards the mountains and coast, and hitting the road.

Statistics released earlier this week by U.S. moving company U-Haul show that Alberta and B.C. remained the top provincial destinations in Canada last year for people using rented trucks and trailers to relocate their lives.

The company also said that the peak-COVID trend toward migration away from urban centres has continued, albeit not at the same pace.

“The urban-to-rural trends have been evident since COVID,” U-Haul media and public relations manager Jeff Lockridge wrote in an email to The Tyee. While not as pronounced as a few years ago, “our data still indicates that smaller cities are producing more net gains of one-way U-Haul customers while larger cities — on the whole — tend to be showing more net losses.”

Experts The Tyee spoke with cautioned the data should be taken with a grain of salt, noting that U-Haul clients represent a specific demographic.

“That’s not all movers,” said Marleen Morris, co-director of the University of Northern British Columbia’s Community Development Institute. “U-Haul can only use the stats that they’ve got. It’s a really interesting and fun thing for them to release but, scientifically, it’s just their clients.”

A map of Canada shows B.C. and Alberta coloured orange and Ontario and Nova Scotia coloured blue.
U-Haul’s growth index migration trends show that Alberta and BC had the greatest influx of do-it-yourself movers in Canada last year, while Ontario and Nova Scotia suffered the greatest losses. Graphic via U-Haul growth index migration trends.

Kevin McQuillan, academic director for the University of Calgary’s school of public policy, speculated that the stats represent a younger, less affluent demographic. They would likely not capture most international migrants, he added.

But he said the information still provides an interesting snapshot into population movements.

“We have to wait a long time for stuff to come from government, Statistics Canada or the provincial governments, but the businesses stay right on top of this,” McQuillan said. “The qualification is that it's only a part of the population that would likely use U-Haul to move.”

Alberta takes the No. 1 spot

McQuillan said he wasn’t surprised to see Alberta topping the list of destinations. The province’s economic downturn a decade ago led to an exodus of young people, which was followed by less movement during the pandemic. But migration to the province has since rebounded, he said.

“There really has been rapid growth in the last couple years,” he said.

Alberta’s two biggest centres, Calgary and Edmonton, placed first and second, respectively, on U-Haul’s list of top 25 growth cities in Canada. The company said it calculates growth cities and provinces by net gain or loss of one-way equipment over a customer year.

Those two placements buck a broader trend toward small cities and rural communities, with the next populous city in the top 25 having only about 150,000 residents.

The move toward urban centres in Alberta also differs from trends seen in Canada’s other largest cities — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — said McQuillan, who published a paper last year looking at the flow of people away from major centres.

“Particularly with Toronto, and to some extent Vancouver and Montreal, you’re seeing a retirement migration,” he said about a demographic of retirees and empty nesters, whose homes have likely appreciated in value, now seeking to relocate to areas with appealing lifestyle and a low cost of living. Especially in Ontario, most stayed within the province but favoured quieter locations in cottage country, like Georgian Bay, Collingwood and the Kawarthas.

U-Haul credits job availability, lower taxes and relative housing affordability for Alberta’s popularity.

“The cost of living is not as bad as compared to some other provinces. You have the Canadian Rockies and lots of recreational activities. It’s all of these factors,” U-Haul area district vice-president Naga Chennamsetty said in the company’s statement.

BC comes in at No. 2

British Columbia attracted new residents “because it is beautiful and offers a slower, laid-back lifestyle,” Chennamsetty added.

Unlike in Alberta, people headed to towns and smaller urban centres in Canada’s westernmost province.

Despite being the second most popular province overall, B.C.’s top destination, Chilliwack, landed in 16th place on U-Haul’s list of top 25 Canadian growth cities. Sidney, Trail, Kelowna and Nanaimo also made the list.

“The main reason people are moving to Chilliwack is because of the affordable real estate that you can find here,” U-Haul’s B.C. president, Mason Kolahdouzan, said in a statement. “There are also a lot of recreational areas where people can go hiking and fishing.”

The company cited affordability, recreation, economic development and real estate as reasons for relocation to B.C.’s top five destinations. Kelowna, with a population of 153,000, was the most populous B.C. city in the ranking.

Morris of UNBC’s Community Development Institute, which uses data from Statistics Canada to track population change in 38 sample communities in B.C., said the institute’s research confirms more of those communities are “reporting growth in the 2021 census than in the 2016 census.”

That’s “good news for these communities and regions,” Morris added.

Morris noted that both retirees and remote workers were showing a trend toward moving to “high-amenity communities.” It’s something she said was “always there” but has increased in recent years.

“It’s going to be really interesting to see what the 2026 census shows,” Morris said, adding that until then, the reasons underlying the movement remain anecdotal.

Longer-term trends

The westernmost provinces have been a favourite destination for at least five years, landing in U-Haul’s top three positions almost every year except for 2022, when Alberta and B.C. placed last and second last, respectively. (Lockridge blamed a tight race that year, adding that in- and out-migration varied little between the provinces.)

This year, it was Ontario that brought up the rear, despite the fact it dominated U-Haul’s list of top 25 growth cities. Among the 16 Ontario communities that made that list were Belleville, Trenton, Pembroke and Brantford, which placed third through sixth. Cottage-country destinations Collingwood and Parry Sound also made the top 10.

Overall, though, Ontario had “the greatest loss of do-it-yourself movers,” U-Haul said in a statement.

U-Haul said it uses statistics from more than 2.5 million one-way equipment transfers across Canada every year to create its lists.

While the trends that emerge “do not correlate directly to population or economic growth,” the company said its index is an effective gauge of whether a region is attracting new residents.  [Tyee]

Read more: Transportation, Alberta

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