The population of the North Shore is up 4.7 per cent since 2016, according to the latest census. Not surprisingly, the bulk of that growth came along the Lonsdale corridor in the City of North Vancouver. West Vancouver grew by 3.9 per cent, while the District of North Vancouver inched up 2.9 per cent, one of the slowest in Metro Vancouver, which is up 7.9 per cent.
The year’s census numbers, fortuitously, come during a municipal election year. Our elections tend to be fought and lost mainly over the angst of whether we are growing too fast. There’s a simplistic notion that more neighbours means more traffic and diminished quality of life.
Squamish, meanwhile, has grown by 22 per cent, a number that should startle anyone who has been frustrated trying to cross Lions Gate Bridge at rush hour. The Fraser Valley is also rapidly outpacing us. We cannot solve our traffic problem by making people live farther away.
Currently, North Shore mayors are going hat-in-hand to TransLink, arguing we should be next for billions of dollars in rapid transit infrastructure. It could be a tall order, as transit investments tend to go where the people are.
The federal government announced Monday plans to settle more than 400,000 immigrants per year for the next three years to help solve our skilled labour shortage.
It’s time for our municipal leaders to abandon the quixotic and counterproductive notion that we can or should try to limit population growth. It would be a much greater service to both current and future residents to carefully plan for how we are going to sustainably live here, get around, and get along.
