PEI news: Pandemic-era population patterns show signs of pulling back [Video]

Over the last six months, more people have moved from Prince Edward Island to other provinces than have moved from other provinces to P.E.I.

Most of that out migration was to the other Atlantic provinces and Alberta. Four hundred more islanders left P.E.I. for Alberta in the last year than vice versa. That’s the biggest Island exodus in a decade, around the time the oil bubble burst in 2015.

It’s due to a number of factors, according to University of PEI Economist George Jia, but one of the biggest is cost of living.

“[Charlottetown’s] basically on par with Edmonton, and consider that they pay much lower taxes and have more jobs there,” said Jia.

Since the pandemic, cost of living has normalized across the country, but wages have not. That makes places like Alberta, with lower taxes and higher pay, even more appealing to young workers. Particularly in high-demand skilled …