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A recession in Alberta hasn’t stopped thousands of Canadians from moving to the province in recent months, says ATB Financial chief economist Todd Hirsch.

Between April and June, more than 31,000 people came to Alberta from other provinces, said Hirsch, citing Statistics Canada numbers released Tuesday. About 23,000 packed up and left for greener pastures elsewhere in Canada during the same period, leaving a net gain of 8,264 new Albertans. That number outpaced the average quarterly gain of 7,000 over the past five years, said Hirsch.

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“The fact that Alberta is still gaining thousands of net interprovincial migrants presents a bit of a puzzle,” Hirsch wrote in a commentary.

“The mystery could be partially explained by the fact that while economic conditions in Alberta are weak, they aren’t much better in most other parts of the country. The economy was tepid across Canada in the first half of the year, to the point that Statistics Canada claimed it met the technical definition of a recession.”

Hirsch said while the oil and gas sector is shedding jobs, hiring is still happening in other areas, including education, health care, transportation, forestry and accommodation and food services.