Census 2016: Canada’s big cities home to big share of 35 million Canadians
OTTAWA — Colin Basran is having growing pains.
In some ways a victim of his own success, the mayor of Kelowna has been struggling in recent years to rein in his city as it slowly spreads across the B.C. interior, testing his ability to provide core municipal services and build badly needed infrastructure.
Nor is the city’s middle-aged spread at all unique, according to the 2016 census data released Wednesday: Canada’s population of 35.15 million is settling in the bigger cities, ensuring they and their suburban neighbours keep growing, while small cities get smaller.
The three biggest metropolitan areas in the country — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — are now home to more than one-third of all Canadians with a combined population of 12.5 million, with almost one half living in Toronto and its suburban neighbours, the data shows.