Canmore among top 10 fastest growing small urban centres in Canada

The population of Canmore, Alta., has been climbing steadily over the last five years — since 2016, the town has seen a 14.3 per cent increase in the overall population, outpacing both the provincial and Canadian average.

The mountain town is now one of the fastest growing small urban centres in Canada, according to recent census data. 

That's a fact Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert says comes as no surprise.

"People come here and visit, they fall in love," he said. "They want to be part of the community. Some move right away. For some, it's a dream down the road."

While the numbers suggest Canmore is an attractive place to live, it also comes with two major constraints: a high cost of living and the need to keep wildlife corridors intact.

Krausert said the most growth Canmore can sustainably handle is around six per cent annually — a figure from the town's 1998 municipal development plan. 

"The population increase is what we expected, we expect it to be over the 15,000 mark," Krausert said.

"The actual growth per year is less than three per cent per year, which is in keeping with our growth management estimates. That's not large growth compared to what Canmore experienced in the past."

Cost of living

Ian O'Donnell with the Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association says he's tracking a variety of trends that have emerged amid the pandemic: early retirement, people looking to leave busy urban centres, or — with remote work — taking the opportunity to move somewhere with a better lifestyle.

And, Canmore ticks boxes for people.

"We're seeing that compound prices," O'Donnell said. "Certainly the lack of supply of housing really just exacerbates the cost of housing and the challenge in delivering new supply to the market."

Hospitality remains the town's biggest industry, which Krausert said drives the need for affordable homes for workers.

"We have the highest cost of living in the province," Krausert said.

"I'm really quite concerned about that because, in order to be a fully functioning, you know, population of all ages and stages, you need to have representation in various socioeconomic brackets … with the new council, we're going to be turning up the heat on more affordable housing."

Coexisting with nature

Then, there's the big amenity people are moving to Canmore to enjoy: nature. That can involve the mountainous terrain for people to explore or the wildlife who also call the Bow Valley home. 

It's something that Josh Welsh, Alberta program manager with Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y), is tracking closely. Population and development all tie into that balance.

In the past, Welsh said Canmore has been an example of how to coexist well with nature. The town has planning initiatives like bear-proof garbage bins and rules against planting fruit trees that might attract animals.

But when it comes to more people choosing Canmore as home, he said the town's development plan doesn't champion conservation.

Welsh said Canmore is one of the most densely populated communities in the Yukon to Yellowstone region.

"What happens here is really consequential," Welsh said. "A lot of our work is around informing decision-makers of how development and humans can still thrive, enabling wildlife simultaneously to thrive."