The pandemic has left Quebecers on the move: 232,000 of them changed their postal code between 1er July 2020 and the 1er July 2021, unheard of for at least 20 years, show the data published Thursday by the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ). It was mainly Montrealers who left the metropolis, allowing several regions to benefit from notable gains.
Updated yesterday at 10:59 p.m.
“I’m a walking cliche back to earth,” jokes Vickie Ouimet. Last September, her lover, Alain Parent-Vézina, and she took possession of their new house in Saint-Barthélemy, a small village of 2,145 inhabitants in Lanaudière, one of the regions that experienced the strongest growth last year. . The couple swapped their 615 square foot loft in Parc-Extension for a small house backing onto a 107,000 square foot lot, on which they plan to grow their vegetables to become self-sufficient.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Alain Parent-Vézina and Vickie Ouimet in front of their house in Saint-Barthélemy, in Lanaudière, where they moved last September after leaving their condo in Parc-Extension.
“I am a girl from 5 to 7, from restaurants, friends, bars, and there, we spent the day outside on snowshoes. I take my backpack and my binoculars, and I go to my land to look at the fauna: I’ve never done that in my life! “, rejoices M.me Yesmet.
“Since I have been here, there have been 200 more souls in my village”, testifies Julie Maurice, general manager of the municipality since 2018. This includes several families with children, good news for the primary school of this small municipality. devitalized, two-thirds of whose territory is in an agricultural zone.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Village of Saint-Barthélemy in Lanaudière
The price of houses is really not expensive compared to the crown of Montreal or the Laurentians.
Julie Maurice, Director General of the Municipality of Saint-Barthélemy
With the pandemic, sales of isolated properties in the forest “exploded”, selling for double the municipal assessment, sometimes more. As a result, the municipality collected about $ 120,000 in transfer duties in 2021, double the previous years, she estimates.
“Quebecers are on the move”
Mme Ouimet and her spouse are far from the only ones to have changed their postal code last year. Some 232,000 Quebecers did the same, 19% more than the previous year.
“We were very anxious to see the figures because both in the media and in our personal environments, we have been accumulating anecdotes for a good year,” testifies demographer Martine St-Amour, of the ISQ.
And at 19%, the increase is anything but anecdotal. “In recent years, we have observed a decrease in the number of interregional migrants from year to year. There is therefore a break in the trend, ”notes Mme St-Amour. “Quebecers were a little more on the move. »
The administrative region of Montreal, which includes all the municipalities of the island, lost 48,300 people to the benefit of the rest of Quebec, or 2.6% of its population. This is unheard of since the ISQ began compiling this data in 2001-2002. The Laurentians, Estrie and Lanaudière benefited from the opposite movement, attracting more Quebecers than all the other regions of the province.
The winning and losing regions, however, remain the same as before the pandemic, underlines Mme St-Amour.
“Over twenty years, the internal migratory balance of Montreal has always been in deficit,” she recalls. Conversely, for several years now, the regions of eastern Quebec, Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine, for example, have recorded a positive balance in their migratory exchanges internal. »
Amplified Trends
The pandemic has therefore amplified the trends already present. This is particularly striking in Montreal. Unlike previous years, the arrival of immigrants and non-permanent residents, restricted to the borders, was not sufficient to compensate for the departure of Montrealers to the regions, which resulted in a net decrease in the population of Isle.
However, these data stop at 1er July 2021, grade Mme St-Amour. With the resumption of international immigration observed last summer, the phenomenon should fade in the data to be published next year. “To what extent, we will have to see, but in my opinion, this is the change to be expected for next year”, estimates the demographer.
The Laurentians, Estrie, Lanaudière, Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Mauricie, Centre-du-Québec, Chaudière-Appalaches and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean regions have all enjoyed much larger population gains in this past pandemic year than in the past.
Laval, on the other hand, has seen its migratory flight increase. Although its total population continues to grow, the 0.09% increase recorded in 2020-2021 is the lowest since the ISQ began compiling this data in 1986-1987. Laval is also, with Montreal, one of the two regions having suffered the most deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, reports the Institute.