Image Credit: City of Penticton
November 16, 2023 - 7:00 AM
Welcome to Penticton, Lower Mainlanders.
A new survey from the City of Penticton shows that's where the majority of newcomers to the area came from and they did so for work purposes, according to a release from the City. The data was collected through the City’s Welcome Home Initiative and surveys of residents who have arrived in Penticton in the last 15 months to better understand the city’s growth.
Newcomers having arrived after July 2022 were asked to complete the survey in which they can apply for a Welcome Home pack which includes local information and free passes. Since Oct. 31, 2023, 384 new residents were counted from the survey.
54% of these newcomers responded that they moved to Penticton for employment reasons: to start a job or business or to take over a business. From this group, 13% work remotely and 55% responded that moving closer to friends and family attracted them to Penticton. Another seven per cent followed their partners because they got jobs in Penticton.
After the working newcomers, the retired newcomers are the second largest group representing 25% of the survey’s responses. Most of them moved from the Lower Mainland (39.5%) and Northern and Interior BC (23.7%) while some moved from other provinces such as Ontario (13.2%) and Manitoba (10.5%).
Another 16% of respondents are recent immigrants having arrived in Canada in the last five years. The Philippines, India and Mexico top the list of where they emigrated.
Most of the reasons for the motivation behind these newcomers’ arrival were the climate (21%), access to nature (19%) or proximity to friends and family (15%).
“The Welcome Home campaign reflects the diversity that we’re seeing in our housing needs assessment,” Blake Laven, the City’s director of development services, says. “As we continue to grow, we’re going to welcome more skilled workers, students, professionals and parents. This data reinforces the need to continue to provide a mix of housing types to meet the needs of new and old residents.”
The Welcome Home pack’s contents combine the involvement of Visit Penticton, the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce, Okanagan College, Community Futures Okanagan Similkameen, OneSky Community Resources, WorkBC, and South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services.
The initiative is part of the greater Start Here Penticton campaign, which builds upon the Economic Development strategies to attract skilled workers and businesses to the City.
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