I think you misunderstood. If you’re from Toronto the definition of “middle of nowhere” is “anywhere more than a 3 hour drive from Toronto”. By that definition New York City is the middle of nowhere. (I see not just a few Torontonians nodding their heads.)

People really shouldn’t take offense when someone who lives somewhere else doesn’t want to move to where you happen to live. Most people stay put their entire lives.

Toronto isn’t reporting net interregional migration, it’s reporting international migration.

It’s literally the problem the writer mentions in the article that people focused on grifting international migration are focused on.

I personally moved to BC from ON this year. I can just speak for myself. Please go searching for a $600k 2bdrm condo in both GTA and Metro Vancouver, and compare the property tax, condo fee, etc. If you can get a same income job, you’ll surprisingly find Metro Vancouver is more affordable.

Max, think about it for a moment longer. If Ontario is reporting net out migration but Toronto is reporting net in migration (not sure it is on interprovincial basis, it might be doing so on an overall immigration perspective but that’s different) then that means the net flows in the rest of Ontario has to be that much worse. Basically everywhere else in Ontario other than the GTA is probably thinning out, and at an increasing rate.

The answer lies in the fact alluded to at the start where people are moving right now might not be where people are settling. I suspect what’s happening is people in Ontario are thinking of moving and decide to try to make it in BC. But it might only be a matter of time before a large chunk of them get costed out of BC as well are then they’re off somewhere else (my family is a prime example of that, we just moved to Alberta). That won’t show up in the data until later (although the jump in Alberta’s figures are probably a leading indicator of this)

I also think you might be underestimating a) how much of the gap between BC real estate and Ontario real estate has recently closed so people might view them as equally costly but in BC the quality of life is better, and b) the rate of cost increases in the non-Toronto cities in Ontario compared to the non-Vancouver cities in BC. I imagine someone looking to vacate Toronto might first consider Kitchener or Hamilton or Ottawa, before realizing it’s not much more affordable.

If you think two cities each with 1million + people (one of which is a Provincial capital and the other is as close to the Rockies as a Toronto’s suburbs are from the urban core) are “in the middle of nowhere” you are exactly the type of person Martin was referring too; willing to accept Toronto purely for what seems like failure to see reason.

Cost of living is actually higher in Edmonton and Calgary compared to Toronto. They’re also in the middle of nowhere, most people don’t like that vibe.

Bud, you realize that Toronto is part of Ontario?

Meaning Ontario is losing ~100,000 people per year while gaining ~70,000, for an overall loss of about 30,000 people.

That’s what net means. I imagine you probably just didn’t read carefully enough. Not to say it’s not cyclical, but to be clear Ontario is losing people. Torontonians will end up with nobody left to service their needs.