British Columbians still moving to Alberta for bigger paycheques and smaller mortgage payments

On this topic, Addison Parfeniuk has the inside track.

As the CEO of Two Small Men With Big Hearts Moving, he sees his trucks moving twice as many British Columbians to Alberta, compared to the number of Albertans relocating to BC.

"Definitely, people are leaving the Okanagan and Lower Mainland to go to Alberta," said Parfeniuk.

"It's all about affordability and jobs."

Two Small Men With Big Hearts has become Canada's most-recognized moving brand for its coast-to-coast reach, quality, customer service and memorable name.

There's been so much in the news over the past couple of years about how unaffordable BC has become with historically high house prices and apartment rents and stagnant incomes while right next door in Alberta, good-paying jobs in the resource sector are abundant and home prices and apartment rents are in some cases half of what they are in BC.

It's a scenario that's luring people to move from BC to Alberta, even if they will miss BC's ideal four-seasons weather, lakes, wineries and West Coast lifestyle.

"It's an equation," said Parfeniuk.

"British Columbians are asking: Is it economical enough to leave my family? Is it more economical in Alberta to the extent I'm willing to leave my community in the Okanagan and go to Alberta."

And, for many British Columbians, the answer is a resounding 'yes.'

Click to watch video interview.

Two Small Men With Big Hearts Moving keeps the comparison figures.

In the last three months of 2023, for every Albertan that moved to BC, two British Columbians moved to Alberta.

It sounds so dramatic when they say twice as many British Columbians are moving to Alberta.

The figure is similar for the rest of 2023 and 2022.

So far in 2024, it's come slightly off the 2:1 ratio with 1.86 British Columbians moving to Alberta for every Albertan that moves to BC.

Yet, it wasn't all that long ago -- post-pandemic 2021 -- that Albertans were moving to BC in droves.

For every one British Columbian that moved to Alberta in 2021, 2.2 Albertans moved to BC.

With the work-from-home trend of COVID, many Albertans felt it was the time to sell up and move to BC, because if you're going to work from home, it might as well be in an awesome place like the Okanagan.

Statistics Canada puts the current British-Columbians-moving-to-Alberta trend into specific numbers.

For the first time since 2012, net interprovincial migration was negative in BC with a net loss of 8,624.

What that means is more people moved out of BC to another province (mostly Alberta) than moved to BC.

In total, 67,944 people left BC, with 37,650 of them finding a new home in Alberta.

Yet, BC's population still grew in 2023 by 178,515 people to a total of 5.6 million, due mostly to immigration.

Alberta interprovincial net migration in 2023 was 55,107, the largest since 1972, when comparable records have been kept.

You'll see that of Alberta's net gain of 55.107, the majority, 37,650 people, came from BC.

The numbers show how reality has set in for many.

BC's high cost of living is crushing budgets, especially for young singletons who see no chance of ever being able to afford their own home and young families that don't make enough to do much more than pay the mortgage.

To some of these people it's more than worth it to move to Alberta, even if there is the weather-and-lifestyle adjustment.

While Alberta definitely has colder and snowier winters, it can offer big-city vibes in Calgary and Edmonton with professional hockey and football teams in both cities, emerging food scenes and culture.

The Alberta provincial government has fuelled the fire with its 'Alberta is calling campaign' running ads in BC telling us how much house we can get in Alberta for $500,000, how much cheaper rents are and how much higher wages are for skilled tradespeople.

To hit you with some more numbers, Kelowna's unaffordability is based mostly on the price of homes, which are currently $1,015,700 for a single-family home, $724,300 for a townhouse and $507,500 for a condominium.

Monthly apartment rents in the city are $1,900 for a one-bedroom and $2,320 for a two-bedroom.

Compare that to Edmonton's single-family home price of $546,390, townhouse at $294,742 and condo at $206,591 and rents of $1,330 and $1,610.

In Calgary, the costs are $761,800 for a single-family home, $462,500 for a townhouse, a condo at $345,700 and rents of $1,830 and $2,200.

The average annual salary in BC is $58,300, in Alberta $61,500, which isn't all that big a difference.

But, jobs in Alberta's resource sector can pay much more and anything you make in Alberta is taxed less and goes a lot farther when it comes to housing.