More Montrealers are leaving the city for off-island suburbs
Montreal lost nearly 24,000 residents to other regions of Quebec in 2017-18, equivalent to 1.24 per cent of its population, says Quebec's statistics agency.
Almost 36,000 people came to Montreal from other regions, but 59,633 moved out of the city to settle elsewhere in Quebec, according to data collected between July 2017 and July 2018 by the Institut de la statistique du Québec.
The city had not seen such a deficit since 2009-2010.
However, the government agency points out that, even if the inter-regional balance sheet is negative for Montreal, the population of the city is still increasing due to births and international immigration.
Most of the Montrealers that moved out headed to the Laurentians or the Lanaudière and Montérégie regions.
The Laurentians region welcomed the largest number, with a gain of 6,294 people, equivalent to about one per cent of its population.
And in this region, the Mirabel area has the highest migratory gain in all of Quebec, equivalent to 2.67 per cent of its population coming from other regions in 2017-18.
The Montérégie region, on Montreal's South Shore, gained 8,918 people from elsewhere in Quebec (0.58 per cent of its population).
More than 3,300 people moved to the Lanaudière region (0.67 per cent).
Nine municipalities in the greater Montreal region received a population increase exceeding one per cent of their population.
In addition to Mirabel, these are Pays-d'en-Haut, Laurentides and Argenteuil, in the Laurentians, Roussillon, Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Brome-Missisquoi and Beauharnois-Salaberry, in Montérégie, and Matawinie, in Lanaudière.
Montreal looks to stem the flow
Montreal is acting on three priorities to retain families: housing, quality of life and mobility, said Coun. Benoit Dorais during a recent press conference.
"It's going to take a number of years to produce results," said Dorais, who chairs the city's executive committee.
"There are people who make individual choices, and we have to go out and fight it from a collective point of view. We have to give a system, a quality of life, so that people individually decide to change or stay here."
The leader of the official Opposition, Lionel Perez, believes that the city can do more to retain its citizens.
"It should not be a privilege to live in Montreal," he told Radio-Canada.
"We do not want a rise in different demographic categories. More rich and more poor and less middle class. Of course, it's not to Montreal's advantage. We must continue to push administrations to make the right choices."
