If the streets seem a little more crowded, the grocery store a little busier and your neighbourhood seems bigger, it is not your imagination.
According to 2011 census data that Statistics Canada released Wednesday, St. Albert is now home to 61,466 people, up from 57,674 in 2006.
Those numbers represent a growth rate of 6.4 per cent, a number much lower than many other communities in the Capital region.
Just up the highway, Morinville grew to 8,569 people, a 26.5 per cent increase from the 2006 number of 6,775. Spruce Grove grew at a rate of 33.9 per cent rising from 19,541 to 26,171.
Strathcona County grew to 93,490 – a 12 per cent increase – and Edmonton expanded to 812,201, an 11 per cent increase.
Leduc grew very rapidly during that time frame, rising 43 per cent to 24,279, while overall Alberta’s population rose 10.8 per cent from approximately 3.2 million people to about 3.6 million.
The population numbers don’t come as a tremendous shock to Mayor Nolan Crouse, who said the city has always grown in steady, predictable increments.
“There is nothing about our community that is boom or bust. It is very stable growth. It makes it very easy to plan, to deal with schools or roads,” he said.
Statistics Canada numbers show that between 2001 and 2006 the city saw 8.7 per cent growth and between 1996 and 2001 it saw 13.2 per cent growth.
Coun. Cam MacKay was similarly unsurprised. He noted the city is by and large built out.
“We haven’t had the same kind of housing starts that other municipalities have had, mostly because we don’t have a lot of land that is serviced and ready to go,” he said.
MacKay also noted that population growth tends to come with young families, which can be difficult for St. Albert to attract.
“Our housing is more expensive than other regions and we are only able to target growth to a certain percentage of the market,” he said. “Creating a community that young people are able to move to is a challenge nowadays, due to the high cost of living that we have.”
Crouse said the city could have reduced lot sizes or made other changes to lower the cost of housing in the city, but that could change the character of the community.
“You can also change some of your policies to make lots cheaper and therefore more people will be buying them. We haven’t gone there; we haven’t done that,” he said.
He agreed that the city is essentially built out, which also makes it difficult to expand.
“We don’t have the water capacity, the sewer capacity, the road capacity. Others may have had that already in place,” he said.
MacKay agreed with those challenges, but said the city has done the most important work.
“The one thing I am convinced we don’t have to work on is creating a great community, because we already got that,” he said. “Other communities are trying to create a great place to live so we already have the biggest piece of the puzzle solved.”
