Research project digging in to reasons young adults don’t want to stay in Manitoba

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This article was published 31/05/2023 (323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Symone Bartley might drive an hour to Toronto or Canada’s Wonderland in nearby Vaughan for the weekend.

She can trek Algonquin Provincial Park on Sunday and make the two-hour drive home to Barrie by evening to wind down for the start of another work week as a paralegal.

“I packed up and I left,” said Bartley, 24. “Ontario has… more schooling, more cities… more job opportunities.”

She swapped Manitoba for its eastern next-door neighbour in 2018, for post-secondary education.

Bartley is among thousands of Manitobans to relocate elsewhere in Canada. Only once since 1971 has Manitoba welcomed more Canadians than waved goodbye when tracking interprovincial migration. That happened in 1983-84 with a net gain of 339 people, Statistics Canada data shows.

Now, $429,000 of provincial cash is being spent in the hope of understanding why Manitoba regularly sees a net loss of young adults, and how to reverse the situation to attract and retain them.

Earlier this week, the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce announced an extensive research project with the Canada West Foundation. Last year, the foundation released a 45-page report on why young people were leaving Alberta, along with recommendations for change and a companion 31-page report on western Canadian youth migration.

Money for the new project comes from the province’s $50 million COVID-19 long-term recovery fund, which the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce administers.

“(Young Manitobans leaving) is a critical issue,” Tammy Sawatzky, the organization’s director of communications, wrote in an email. “Employers have been telling the chamber that workforce is their number one challenge.

“Now that the pandemic is behind us, the chamber sees this as a great opportunity to get real time data on both why young people are leaving and to develop recommendation(s) on that issue.”

About 1,700 people have already been surveyed, said Janet Lane, project lead and director of the Canada West Foundation’s Human Capital Centre.

The money allows organizations to do their due diligence throughout the process, she said. Léger is conducting the surveys.

The survey has reached 500 people in Manitoba between the ages of 18 to 45, and 300 people each in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto (most haven’t lived in Manitoba).

Questions include asking what young adults seek when they leave Manitoba.

“We’re also trying to find out what would make them come back,” Lane said.

Nearly 100 Manitoba employers have been surveyed about workforce needs; researchers hope to reach First Nations communities and 100 immigrants.

“Immigrants come to Manitoba, but they don’t always stay,” Lane said. “So what are they looking for when they land?”

Immigrants come to Manitoba, but they don’t always stay… So what are they looking for when they land?”–Janet Lane, project lead

The project began in May. Lane plans to deliver a final report to the provincial government by Christmas.

Researchers will meet with groups of young adults and discuss recommendations pre-finalization, she said.

“I don’t think there’s a magic bullet (for attraction and retention),” she noted. “What we’re hoping to find is some real strong, tactical recommendations that, combined, might make a difference.”

After all, it’s young adults who are buying homes, starting families, spending money, working and contributing to the economy, she said.

Margot Cathcart has watched her adult sons’ friends leave Manitoba to go to school and plant roots elsewhere.

“What I see is this tug of war between the (Manitoba) lifestyle and appreciating what we have, and the fact that they’ve established these adult relationships in other communities,” said Cathcart, CEO of the Rural Manitoba Economic Development Corp.

The organization is one of several economic development groups involved in the research project. Cathcart, who’s on the steering committee, is enthusiastic about the collaboration — Economic Development Winnipeg and the Business Council of Manitoba are also participants.

“We’re feeling the acuteness of the labour shortages,” Cathcart said. “They’ve always been there, but they seem to have compounded over the last number of years.”

“We’re feeling the acuteness of the labour shortages… They’ve always been there, but they seem to have compounded over the last number of years.”–Margot Cathcart

It’s worse in rural Manitoba, where post-secondary options are slim, she said.

Bartley, the paralegal, moved to Ontario for school; job opportunities and extracurricular activities are keeping her there.

Still, she keeps Manitoba in mind.

“I asked (my dad) one day, ‘Why do people come back to Winnipeg?’ And he said ‘Family.’ I didn’t really understand that till now,” she said.

Also, Ontario’s home prices far exceed Manitoba’s. Bartley wants an acreage — something she doesn’t believe she can buy near Toronto.

In February, young adults told the Free Press they’d left Manitoba for work and for adventure. Winnipeg experienced its largest exodus of residents to other provinces in at least two decades between July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022 — a net loss of 7,140 people.

The Canada West Foundation plans to publish its findings and recommendations next year.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com