Three Policies to Improve Productivity Growth in Canada



37

productivity growth and measures that increase interprovincial migration will increase
productivity.

According to Statistics Canada, there were 370,791 persons who moved between
provinces in Canada in 2006 (Summary Table 5). This is equivalent to 1.14 per cent of
the population. The incidence of interprovincial migration in Canada has increased 46 per
cent since 2003 when it was 0.78 per cent (Chart 13). This is not surprisingly given the
attention given to interprovincial migration by the media in recent years.

From a long term perspective, however, the rate of interprovincal mobility has
been falling as the rate was 1.78 per cent in 1972. Canadian workers now appear to be
less willing to seek economic opportunities in other provinces than they were three
decades ago. The much greater importance of dual-earner families reflecting increased
female labour force participation is one factor that appears to have reduced geographical
mobility. The aging of the population has also contributed somewhat.25

In addition to a falling incidence of labour mobility, Canada’s interprovincial
migration rate is well below that of the United States (Chart 14), The incidence of inter-
state migration on the United States in 2005 was 2.60 per cent, almost three times the
Canadian rate (Sharpe, 2007). The 50 states are organized into nine divisions so the inter-

25 While older workers have lower mobility rates than younger workers (Table 7), the aging of the labour
force accounts for only about one eighth of this downward trend. If the 1972 age structure had prevailed in
2006, the incidence rate would have been only 12 per cent higher.



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