Baby boom looms in Calgary

Calgary's booming economy is setting the stage for another boom — an explosion in the birth rate.

Nearly 50,000 children are expected to be born in the city over the next decade, a surge that will affect schools, hospitals and day cares across the city, an economist says.

Statistics to be released later this month by the City of Calgary forecast a 42- per-cent increase in the number of children under the age of nine.

Calgary's economic prosperity has drawn young people to the city who are starting families, said Patrick Walters, an economist with the City of Calgary.

"People in the age group who migrate generally are in the child bearing ages. They're generally less than 35 years old, so they are having children," he said.

High fertility rates and a steady flow of young Canadians have made Alberta the youngest province in the country, with a median age of 35.5 years, according to figures released by Statistics Canada in October.

That's just over three years younger than the national median age.

Boomwill hit day cares

Calgary's day cares will be the among the first to feel the impact.

According to the City of Calgary's statistics, by 2010 there will be 77,100 children under age four in the city, up from 59,500 today. By 2016, that number will reach 84,600.

"That's quite a frightening number because we can't service the zero to four- year-olds we have," said Noreen Murphy, spokeswoman for Calgary Regional Association for Quality Childcare.

Child care organizations can't plan forthe baby boomwithout government funding, she said.

"The infrastructure has to be in place to support the spaces, the staff training, the education in the first place and the wages. Parents cannot afford what it takes to have people not work at Starbucks."

Schools to feel the crunch in 2010

The new "boomers" will begin to reach school age in 2010, so schools should begin to prepare now, Walters said.

By 2016, there will be 83,900 children between the ages of five and nine in Calgary, up from 59,300 today.

Steve Stewart, the manager of planning for the Calgary Catholic School Board, says the city's forecast seems a bit high, but the province should still take note.

"If we were anticipating a big boom to occur and significant growth coming down the road, I think it would accelerate the planning process we have in terms of the number of schools and the number of portable classrooms," he said.

Hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton say they are already seeing an unprecedented number of births.

The Calgary Health Region is preparing for more young Calgarians by having pediatric beds in the $500-million south Calgary hospital set to open in four years.

The Alberta Children's Hospital, which opened in August, is already 50 per cent larger than the old one and designed so it can be expanded in the future.