Canada’s capital has seen over a 17% increase in visible minorities residing in various areas all over the city according to a according to an analysis of census data resleased by Statistics Canada this year, however this growth isn’t apparent everywhere.
The data revealed that of the neighborhoods sprawled across the city, the areas that appeared to have gained most of this influx were the West and South-West suburbs of Ottawa including Gloucester, Barrhaven, South-Nepean and Kanata.
The map shows which areas of the city visible minority growth is concentrated in. The darker spaces on the map represent the areas in which there were the most increases seen in visible minorities and the lighter areas show no increase or a decrease in those identifying as a visible minority.
It is quite obvious to see this increase according to 23 year-old Emma Brennen, who’s family has lived in a small-division of the Ottawa suburb Kanata for her entire.
This area of Ottawa’s west-end encompasses many amenities making it a good place for a family home says Brennen, she and her younger sister went to the public school that is walking distance from their home.
“There are new developments and condos going up almost everyday it seems like,” says Brennen. “There are always new people and houses flipping on every block, our most recent neighbours are from Kuwait.”
According to Statistics Canada, of the over 30,000 immigrants that chose to call Ottawa home from 2011-2016, most of them, approximately 7,000 came from West Central Asia and the Middle East.
Although it is apparent that Ottawa has seen an increase in visible minorities overall, this is not the case for all neighbourhoods. Areas like the Glebe appearing to see a decrease in the number of individuals identifying as visible minorities according to the census data.
Anna Pearson and her family immigrated to Canada from England in March 1998 to their 3-story home on Powell Street. Since then they have seen very few new faces on their block.
“The couple that lives to the right of us are both in their mid 70s and have been here their entire life, the family across the street inherited their house from family, it’s been in the family for years,” Pearson says.
“The house for sale at the end of the street been up for sale for over a year now,” she says, “It’s appraised at over 1 million dollars and it’s beautiful but no one comes to the open houses.”
The colossal price tag may be a factor as to why see less visible minorities in neighbourhoods of Ottawa like the Glebe according to Dan Moloughey, broker of record at Ottawa Urban Reality Inc. He says that for most first-time buyers or people just moving into the country, Glebe home prices may seem incredibly high and unattainable.
According to an analysis by the Ottawa Real Estate Board, the average sale price of a residential non-condo home in Ottawa in January 2015 was $370,442 and for the same month and property type in the Glebe, the average home went for $617,000 on the real estate market.
Why would one choose to pay almost double for a home in the Glebe?
“The fact is that some people make more money than others and another financial factor is that not every Glebe homeowner paid the prices we’ve seen in the last 15 years” says Moloughey, “It wasn’t that long ago there was less of a discrepancy between the prices of homes in the core of Ottawa and those further out…those who bought in the 1990s or earlier have surely done well!”