Thousands leaving province in search of work, StatsCan reports

New Brunswick's population shrank by almost 2,000 people last year, spurred especially by the exodus ofyoung people looking for work inwestern Canada.

Statistics Canada reports that western movement grew by 30 per cent in 2005,swamping the birth rate and immigration, with Alberta as theNo. 1destination of those leaving for the first time in a quarter-century.

The decline brings New Brunswick's population to approximately 750,000 people as of April 1.

Itis not good news for a provincial government that relies on population-based equalization payments to keep New Brunswick afloat.

Those payments work out to $3,249 per person, and with 1,841 fewer residents in New Brunswick that means a loss of around $6 million for the province.

Most of Atlantic Canada experienced population declines last year, with numbers shrinking in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island was the only area province to see an increase.

Saint John high school graduate Payce Yeomans is part of the emigration trend. He's working to save money to move west, aplan he says that's shared by the majority of his 248 classmates.

"Most of them. It's either Ontario, Alberta," said Yeomans. "A lot are going to B.C. to find work and school and other things like that."

The construction boom in Alberta is partly to blame for the mass departure. Severalcompanies from that province travelled through the Maritimes recruiting workers,persuading 3,800 New Brunswickersto make the move.

That's triple the number that left for Alberta in 2004, causing an acute labour shortage in New Brunswick.

Carpenter Jeff Erb is working on a new seniors' complex in Saint John the eldery being the onlydemographic currently growing in New Brunswick.

He tried working in Fort MacMurray last fall but got homesick, though he said there's almostas many Atlantic Canadians out there now as at home.

"You go into Wal-Mart out there and you see morepeople [you know] than you do in Saint John," he said.