Atlantic Canada's Urban Growth Agenda - Greater Halifax Partnership

3.11.1 Atlantic Canada’s Rural Fringe Within CMA/CAs
Another unique challenge facing Atlantic Canada’s urban areas is
related to rural populations located within the CMAs and CAs. Atlantic
Canadian CMAs and CAs have a much higher percentage of rural
fringe population than the Canadian average (24.1% versus 7.9% of
populations) (Figure 14). This high concentration of rural population
underscores the close proximity of urban and rural populations in
Atlantic Canada.
As sections 3.6 and 3.9 above point out, employment rates and
employment growth in the rural fringe areas in Atlantic Canada CMAs
and CAs are much lower than in Canada as a whole, while
employment growth in rural areas outside the CMAs and CAs is higher
in Atlantic Canada than in the rest of Canada. This emphasizes the
need for Atlantic Canada’s urban areas to be more integrated with the
rural fringe communities in their economic and labour market
development strategies.
Figure 14: % of Population Located in the
Rural Fringe of the CMA or CA area
Fredericton
Charlottetown
Cape Breton
Saint John
Halifax
Moncton
St. John's
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Calgary
Toronto
Vancouver
Montreal
3.3%
2.9%
2.7%
2.5%
6.0%
9.3%
14.2%
23.8%
21.1%
20.5%
24.6%
33.5%
30.9%
*Source: Statistics Canada 2001 Census.
…Atlantic Canadian Context 25