Population boom in RMs throughout

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2012 (5256 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Rural Municipality of Headingley is continuing to grow at a steady pace, according to preliminary results of the 2011 census released by Statistics Canada.

The latest results show that the RM’s population grew by 17.9% since the last census was released in 2006. A total of 3,215 individuals called the municipality home based on the 2011 results compared to the 2,726 who did so in 2006.

Chris Fulsher, Headingley’s chief administrative officer, said that while the percentage figure is impressive, RM officials were expecting the population increase to be slightly higher.

“It looks like we have grown a lot at almost 18%, but when you are dealing with little numbers like ours that percentage can be deceiving,” he said.

“Since the last census there have been about 200 new homes constructed in the municipality, so we were expecting the population increase to be a little more than it has.”

Counc. James Robson agrees.

“We’ve been working towards slow moderate growth in the RM and these numbers reflect the fact that we are on track,” he said.

Headingley economic development officer Dave White said the population growth is good news for the RM’s business community and the local economy.

“Our continued growth is really good for our economy out here and it really shows that we are attracting new people and new businesses to the area,” he said.

Fulsher said Headingley’s growth has been on target with the municipality’s own projections and  will not place any undue strain on local infrastructure.

“We have a target in our mind of about a 5% annual growth with housing starts which is pretty much what we have achieved in the last five years,” he said.

“This is a comfortable rate for us to grow at without our infrastructure being strained.”

Headingley isn’t the only RM in the region that is experiencing growth. St. Francois Xavier’s population grew by 14.1%, from a total of 1,087 individuals to 1,240.

“The rate of growth is ideal for us,” said SFX Reeve Roger Poitras. “It is not too fast to be stressful and it provides increased tax revenue through growth and not through tax increases.”

The RM of Macdonald posted a population growth of 11.1%, which increased the local population from 5,653 to 6,280.

Not every municipality is growing, however. The RMs of Cartier and Rosser experienced declines of 0.3% and 0.9% respectively. Cartier’s population fell from 3,163 to 3,153 during the five-year period while Rosser’s population dropped from 1,364 to 1,352.

Manitoba as a whole saw a population increase of 5.2%, bumping up the province’s population from 1.14 million to 1.2 million.

facebook.com/TheHeadlinerWpg
Twitter: @HDLYHeadliner

prescott.james@canstarnews.com