Article content

Calgary is apparently flooded with newcomers who are invisible, rather like ex-premier Alison Redford’s famous ghost riders in the sky, the fictional passengers on her government flights.

Statistics Canada’s latest five-year report paints us as the country’s fastest-growing city, with a population spike of 14.6 per cent between 2011 and 2016.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Braid: The Calgary population boom that isn't Back to video

The story was all over the country: Calgary, growing like a prairie weed, way ahead of the pack.

Except that it isn’t.

The 2016 city census shows that in 2016 the growth rate was close to zero. For just the second time in the past 24 years, the city lost more people to other provinces (6,527) than it gained.

Only a healthy birth rate kept the overall population growing just slightly, by 4,256 souls. That’s an increase of 0.34 per cent in a city of 1.2 million.

The Statistics Canada numbers aren’t false. They’re just a reflection of the fading past.

Almost all of the growth occurred in the first four years of the 2011-16 survey period.