In a country that prides itself on its diversity, a small Ottawa community is leading the way in the nation’s capital, according to an analysis of 2016 Census data.
Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge is a group of neighbourhoods located south of Barrhaven, an Ottawa suburb. Previously referred to as “New Barrhaven”, the newly-developed area saw the highest population growth out any of any Census tract in the Ottawa-Gatineau area between 2011 and 2016. The overall population of Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge more than doubled. That is an increase of over 8,000 people, more than half of which was made-up of visible minorities.
The map below is zoomed in on the Ottawa Census tracts. The dark colours represent the areas of highest increase of visible minorities in population between the years 2011 and 2016.
The city of Ottawa’s municipal boundary titles are layered on top of the Census tracts to better-show the tracts locations in the region.
Clicking inside the Census tract boundaries produces a pop-up box with the number of visible minorities in the area for 2011 and 2016, along with the increase or decrease between the years. Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge is located south of the Gloucester-South Nepean title on the map.
Source: Statistics Canada
Despite being Ottawa-Gatineau’s highest growing tract in population, Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge, geographically, only makes up less than 0.5% of the region. (A surface area of under 29km2, compared to Ottawa-Gatineau’s 6,700 km2).
Zijad Delic, an Imam at the SNMC Mosque and Muslim community organization in Barrhaven, describes the area as “safe, family-oriented”.
“Ottawa is one of those unique cities. The multiculturalism is very established,” said Delic.
During the five-year span between the 2011 and 2016 censuses, the area’s visible minorities population grew by over 4200 people. The number of visible minorities living in Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge was up to 7220 as of last year, the most living in any one census tract in the Ottawa-Gatineau Area.
Imam Zijad Delic has lived in the Ottawa area for over a decade and says its diversity and acceptance has improved greatly in recent years. (Provided)
Although SNMC is located just outside of the Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge area (about a ten-minute drive away), Imam Zijad says that he has noticed Ottawa’s diversity grow in suburban communities like it over the last five-to-six years.
“Diversity has become a trademark of this community,” said Delic.
The biggest demographic of visible minorities in the area is South Asian (1920 people), which grew by nearly 1200. The area also saw an increase of almost 3000 immigrants during the five-year span.
“Canadian diversity is very unique. It is managed fairly on the national level through multicultural policies that provinces, and then the municipalities, have taken mostly well,” said Delic.
A driving factor behind its increase in population is the area’s recent urban development, says the City of Ottawa’s Planning and Development Office.
According to Royce Fu, a City of Ottawa planner, the census tract is part of an area that accounted for nearly a fifth of Ottawa-Gatineau’s development between 2011-2016. The city planner’s office tracks development by sub-area. The sub-area that is made-up of Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge and Barrhaven, called “South Nepean”, accounted for 18% of the region’s new housing units.
“From year-end 2011 to year-end 2016, South Nepean was the fourth largest growing sub-area behind Leitrim, Riverside South, and the Central Area,” said Fu.
According to Fu, South Nepean is still one of Ottawa’s highest developing areas. In the first half of 2017, the area accounted for over 15% of the region’s development.
Between the two Census years, Ottawa as a whole saw an increase in about 45,000 people who identified themselves as visual minorities. The area now has a visible minority population of over 280,000, meaning about one in five of the overall Ottawa population.
“By the nature of being the capital, if Ottawa is not going to embody diversity, then who else will?” said Delic.