Statistics Canada released the first batch of numbers from the 2011 census on Wednesday and the population of Corner Brook decreased by 1.0 per cent since the last census in 2006.
The city's growth rate was below the national growth rate of 5.9 per cent, while the population of Newfoundland and Labrador increased by 1.8 per cent.
When the 2011 census was taken last May 10, the population of Corner Brook was 19,886, compared with 20,083 from the 2006 census.
Canada's population on census day was 33,476,688, Statistics Canada reported.
The national census is conducted every five years. The information published Wednesday is the first of several releases of data to come from Statistics Canada over the next year and longer that will eventually paint a detailed picture of the country, right down to the local level - including age breakdowns of the population, family makeup, languages spoken, immigration and ethnic origin, the level of education attained and income earned.
At the national level, the 2011 census showed Canada's population grew the fastest of the G8 countries over the last five years - ahead of the United States (4.4 per cent), the United Kingdom (3.5 per cent), Italy (3.2 per cent), France (2.8 per cent), Russia (0.1 per cent), Japan (no change) and Germany (which had a population decrease of 0.8 per cent).
The western provinces, where the recession had less of an impact than in central and eastern Canada, led the way in population growth. Alberta saw the highest increase at 10.8 per cent, followed by British Columbia (7.0 per cent) and Saskatchewan (6.7 per cent).
Manitoba (5.2 per cent) was the only western province with a population increase below the national average. Other provinces below the national growth rate were Nova Scotia (0.9 per cent), Newfoundland and Labrador (1.8 per cent), New Brunswick (2.9 per cent), Prince Edward Island (3.2 per cent), Quebec (4.7 per cent) and Ontario (5.7 per cent). Among the northern territories, the population changed by 0.0 per cent in the Northwest Territories, 11.6 per cent in the Yukon and 8.3 in Nunavut.
Ontario is still the country's most populous province, with a population of 12,851,821. The population of other provinces and territories: Quebec, 7,903,001; British Columbia, 4,400,057; Alberta, 3,645,257; Manitoba, 1,208,268; Saskatchewan, 1,033,381; Nova Scotia, 921,727; New Brunswick, 751,171; Newfoundland and Labrador, 514,536; Prince Edward Island, 140,204; Northwest Territories, 41,462; Yukon, 33,897 and Nunavut, 31,906.
Here is a local breakdown of census population information for communities in the western region:
Community 2011 2006 % change
Massey Drive 1,412 1,170 20.7
Hughes Brook 231 197 17.3
Pasadena 3,352 3,180 5.4
Stephenville 6,719 6,588 2.0
Corner Brook 19,886 20,083 -1.0
Steady Brook 408 435 -6.2
Humber Arm South 1,681 1,854 -9.3
I'll try this again....please concentrate even if your brain hurts. Retail businesses open where they can MAKE lots of money, not where they can SAVE a few shekels on taxes. If even a ZERO tax rate would make the difference betwen a retail business opening somewhere or not, a rational person could predict how viable that business is, and what they would do the minute such a subsidy ends. It is because we have only lived in a place where every single thing is interfered with by government...poked, and prodded, and manipulated, and screwed up...while the basic chores of government is left in total shambles. That you don't understand how the supply / demand world works, how there is no "magic governemnt policy" to every desire, is because you live in a political Bizarro World. What Corner Brook has to choose from is exactly what Corner Brook, in all its boomtown glory, gets. Suck it up, buttercup.