By Andrew Ng
The big topic of discussion over the past week has been yet another article about young people choosing to leave Calgary and not look back. This one comes from Don Braid in the Calgary Herald, who is citing a search for proposals from Western Diversification, a federal agency, to do a big study on why people are leaving the city and the province. It said, “… the growing number of young entrepreneurs and skilled workers that are choosing to leave Alberta in favour of other jurisdictions seems to indicate that without abundant economic opportunity there are few other incentives to retain or attract young talent.”
Braid responds, “…this problem is serious. We need more than fine words about youthful Alberta, when Alberta isn’t so youthful anymore.”
This was also the topic on this week’s Unconventional Panel on the CBC Calgary Eyeopener. Panelist Annalise Klingbeil, a 32-year-old communications expert and born and raised Calgarian said, “I think, in conversations and reading tweets and reading articles, a lot of this comes down to this feeling that they don't belong, feeling like there's no future here.”
Some people are treating this like it’s new when it’s not. This article with actual data on how many youth are leaving is from February 2020. Someone brought it up during Calgary on Purpose’s latest engagement circle this week: “I just heard young people are leaving.” (Paraphrased) Young people have seen the lack of opportunities for several years between the crash in the oil and gas sector and the desire for more action on climate change. Neither of those issues are being addressed to a point of satisfaction, especially by the provincial government. So it’s not surprising young people are choosing to go places where there are opportunities to grow and where the government isn’t openly hostile towards you. Just ask doctors, teachers or environmentalists.
For me, it’s really unfortunate that young people around my age (34) might not stay to help make this city and province what they want it to be. I get that they can’t stand the politics and the tension and they just want to live a peaceful life. But there’s an opportunity here to really shape our city’s future, especially because of this year’s municipal election. I’m not a born and raised Calgarian and I could always choose to find work back in Ontario where my family still lives. But I’m choosing to stay. There is a lot of potential here that many young people just might not see because we’re pushed to focus on the oil and gas sector. That needs to change. And it can change.