Urbanization, ruralization

In his latest column in the Newfoundland Weekly Separatist, Randy Simms makes a bizarre claim, one which he repeated, in similar words, on his Friday morning radio outing:

In Canadian terms, the entire province is rural, with Labrador classified as remote.

Without more context, it’s hard to determine what “Canadian terms” Simms is referring to. Let’s start with demographics, as Simms hints at later on in his column:

In the past 55 years the percentage of Canadians living in urban centres rose to more than 81 per cent in 2005 from 61 per cent in 1950.

2006, not 2005, was the latest census year. In that year, just over half of all Canadians lived in one of the nine largest metropolitan areas: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec, Hamilton, and Winnipeg. These are the nine largest of what are called, “in Canadian terms”, or at least Statistics Canada ones, Census Metropolitan Areas.

But that’s still only half of Canada.

In addition to those nine, there are another 24 CMAs in Canada, defined as urban areas with populations of over 100,000 including their suburban commuter cachement areas. They range from London (466,000) to Peterborough (126,000), including St. John’s (181,000) along the way.

All told, these 33 largest urban centres in Canada constitute over two thirds, 67.8%, of the national population.

But Randy says that Canada is 81% urban. Which it is, if you do two more things.

First, you have to also add in the lesser, non-“metropolitan” urban areas, which are called Census Agglomerations. These are areas which, like metropolitan areas, have a core municipality, and an adjacent outlying economic cachement area, but whose total population is less than 100,000 and more than 10,000. There are 112 such Census Agglomerations, ranging from Chatham-Kent (ON), Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (QC), Charlottetown (PEI), Brandon (MB), and Okotoks (AB), through to Kitimat (BC). Along the way, included in these 112, are, per StatsCan’s definition, three other urban areas in Newfoundland: Corner Brook, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Bay Roberts. In Labrador, Labrador City has of late fallen below the threshold for CA status.

The second thing you have to do is round up: even after combining the 33 CMAs and the 121 CAs, you still fall short of 81% of the Canadian population by about four tenths: you have to lump in the N next-largest populated areas until you come up with about 140,000 more Canadians. The N next-largest areas would likely include towns of sizes similar to Labrador City, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and Gander.

So much for “the entire province is rural” according to “Canadian terms”.

Which “Canadian terms” would those be?