Ottawa's population blooms to 1M

Ottawa is about to reach a major population milestone:the city will officially join the one million club on Friday, Mayor Jim Watson announced Tuesday.

Watson said Friday's the day when the city's population ticker will jumpfrom six digits to seven.

"It's symbolic in some respects, but it also brings us into the league of cities like Toronto and Calgary that are over a million people, and I think it's a feather in our cap," Watson said.

He said the citychose Friday based on informationfrom city records.

"It's not the exact date, but we've chosen that date because it's the closest we believe to us hitting a million."

It's estimated the city's population will grow by 28 that day alone, so it's not known who, exactly, will become the city's one millionth resident.

The 1M club

According to Statistics Canada, three other Canadian cities have reached populations of one million: Toronto, Montreal andCalgary.

While Edmonton and Vancouver are often cited as cities with over a million residents, the City of Vancouver's population of 631,486 doesn't include the populous neighbouring cities of Burnaby, B.C., and Richmond, B.C., nor does Edmonton's at 932,546include St. Albert or Strathcona County.

Asked whether reaching onemillion people would mean any change to city services, Watson pointed to transit.

'"The general rule of thumb is when a city reaches a million it has to change the way people get around because it just becomes too congested," he said.

He pointed to the subway systems in Montreal and Toronto's as examples.

"We're in that same league now, and we hope to have obviously LRT up and running by this summer," Watson said. "That's going to be one of the ... game changers for the city because when you become a million people in a geography the size of Ottawa, you have to start doing things a little differently, and transit is one of them."

It's still unclear when Ottawa's LRT will be up and running after builderRideau Transit Groupannounced it would miss its fourth deadline to hand over the Confederation Line.

• No LRT by Canada Day, city confirms