Long Distance Moving Trends: Where Canadians Are Moving in 2026

Quick answer: Alberta is where Canadians are moving. It posted the largest net interprovincial gain in 2024 (+36,082) and has led every quarter for more than three years, drawing people from higher-cost Ontario and British Columbia with cheaper housing, higher take-home pay, and steady jobs. Ontario and Quebec continue to record the biggest net losses.

I am Mete Kalfa, Director of MTS Moving & Storage and a second-generation long-distance mover based in Mississauga. My family has been loading trucks bound for the other side of the country for two generations, and the direction of that traffic tells its own story about where Canadians are heading. Below I pair the official Statistics Canada numbers with what our crews actually see on the road — which provinces we load out of, which ones we unload into, and what the move really costs and demands once you commit to it.

Where are Canadians moving within Canada?

According to Statistics Canada, Alberta and British Columbia remain the top destinations for interprovincial migrants, while Ontario and Quebec lead the net losses. The table below keeps the year columns separate so the annual snapshot and the most recent quarter don’t blur together.

Net interprovincial migration by province

Province	Net migration 2022–2023 (annual)	Most recent quarter (Q4 2025)
Alberta	+56,245	+3,684 (largest gain, 14th quarter running)
British Columbia	+24,925	+1,227
Nova Scotia	−3,144	+826
Prince Edward Island	+3,420	Near flat
Quebec	−11,528	−1,579
Ontario	−33,295	−1,598 (largest loss)

Alberta

Net migration 2022–2023 (annual): +56,245
Most recent quarter (Q4 2025): +3,684 (largest gain, 14th quarter running)

British Columbia

Net migration 2022–2023 (annual): +24,925
Most recent quarter (Q4 2025): +1,227

Nova Scotia

Net migration 2022–2023 (annual): −3,144
Most recent quarter (Q4 2025): +826

Prince Edward Island

Net migration 2022–2023 (annual): +3,420
Most recent quarter (Q4 2025): Near flat

Quebec

Net migration 2022–2023 (annual): −11,528
Most recent quarter (Q4 2025): −1,579

Ontario

Net migration 2022–2023 (annual): −33,295
Most recent quarter (Q4 2025): −1,598 (largest loss)

Sources: Statistics Canada, Annual Demographic Estimates, 2023; Canada’s population estimates, fourth quarter 2024; Canada’s population estimates, fourth quarter 2025 (released March 2026).

Two things stand out. First, Alberta’s dominance is not a one-quarter blip — the province posted the largest net interprovincial gain for the 14th consecutive quarter in Q4 2025, and full-year 2024 confirmed it with a +36,082 net gain. Second, the ranking of losers is stable: Ontario and Quebec bleed people every quarter, and most of those leaving Ontario head to Alberta, BC, or Quebec.

What our crews actually see on these corridors

Statistics Canada counts people; we count trucks and skids, and the two line up closely. The Ontario-to-Alberta lane is the busiest long-distance corridor we run — GTA households bound for Calgary and Edmonton dominate our westbound schedule, and it has for several years now. British Columbia is our second-strongest outbound destination.

The imbalance is visible in the yard. We load far more full-house shipments heading west than we bring back east, which is exactly what a net migration table would predict. That directional imbalance matters for your quote: carriers price partly on how easily they can fill the return leg, so a popular outbound lane like Toronto-to-Calgary is often more competitive than the reverse.

A few patterns we see repeatedly on these moves:

They are full-household, not partial. People leaving Ontario for Alberta are usually relocating for good — jobs, a first detached home, a family reset — so they ship everything rather than a starter load.
Storage-in-transit comes up constantly. Closing dates rarely align across 3,000+ kilometres. A large share of our Alberta-bound clients need their goods held for days or weeks, which is why choosing the right storage for your move is part of the planning, not an afterthought.
Winter timing changes everything. A move that leaves the GTA in clear weather can hit a Prairie storm at the far end. We plan westbound winter moves around that, and so should you.

What is driving interprovincial migration?

The headline reasons — jobs, affordability, lifestyle — are real, but they only mean something with numbers attached. Here is what actually pulls people west.

Housing affordability

This is the single biggest driver, and the gap is stark. Ontario’s average home price sat at roughly $847,813 in May 2026 (CREA). Over the same period, Calgary’s residential benchmark was about $572,500 (CREB, June 2026) and Edmonton’s benchmark around $419,600 (WOWA, early 2026). For a family selling a GTA home, that spread can mean owning a detached house in Alberta mortgage-free, or close to it. We break the full household budget down in our Toronto vs. Edmonton cost-of-living comparison.

Higher pay and lower taxes

Alberta consistently leads the provinces on earnings, and it is the only province with no provincial sales tax — just the 5% federal GST (Alberta.ca). Combined with wages driven by energy, skilled trades, and a growing tech sector, that is a real bump in take-home pay for the same job. The province’s own outlook projects Alberta’s economy to keep adding jobs — roughly 49,000 more in 2026 — even as overall growth cools (Alberta Economic Outlook).

Lifestyle and remote work

Hybrid and remote work loosened the tie between where people work and where they live. For a household that no longer has to commute to a downtown office five days a week, the math of trading an $850k Ontario mortgage for a $500k Alberta one — with mountains two hours away — becomes hard to ignore. That flexibility is a big part of why the flow toward lower-cost provinces has held up rather than reversing.

The honest trade-offs of a westward move

An interprovincial move is not a free upgrade, and pretending otherwise does no one any favours. Before you commit, weigh the costs that a migration chart never shows.

Winter is a real adjustment. Prairie winters are colder and longer than most of southern Ontario. Budget for block heaters, better tires, and higher heating in the early months. Our winter long-distance moving tips cover moving safely in that weather.
Distance has a price and a timeline. Toronto to Calgary is roughly 3,400 km. A full-house long-distance move is a four-figure-and-up commitment and takes days in transit, not hours — see our breakdown of long-distance moving costs in Canada.
You leave a network behind. Family, doctors, schools, and friends don’t come on the truck. Many of our clients underestimate how much that costs emotionally in the first months.
Alberta’s economy is cyclical. It is tied more tightly to energy prices than Ontario’s, which cuts both ways — strong when oil is strong, softer when it isn’t.

None of this is a reason not to move. It is a reason to move with your eyes open. The people who settle in best are the ones who priced the whole picture, not just the house.

Why do people leave Ontario and Quebec?

The outflow side is the mirror image of the inflow. Ontario’s net loss is driven overwhelmingly by housing: Toronto and its surrounding region are among the least affordable markets in the country, and for many households the only way to own a home is to leave. Quebec’s losses are smaller and have narrowed in recent years, and language and culture keep more Quebecers in-province than a pure cost calculation would suggest.

If Ontario is your starting point, our Alberta-to-Ontario corridor guide and the Edmonton-to-Toronto movers guide cover the logistics in both directions.

What are the predictions for future trends?

The forecasts are cautiously consistent, and they come from named sources rather than a vague “experts say.”

Alberta’s lead is expected to hold. The Government of Alberta projects about 24,000 net interprovincial arrivals in 2026, keeping migration its dominant source of population growth even as federal immigration changes reduce temporary residents (Alberta Economic Outlook).
Alberta is the outlier nationally. Stéfane Marion, chief economist at National Bank of Canada, has described Alberta as the only large province breaking the trend, without a single quarter of population decline (CBC News).
Affordability remains the engine. RBC Economics notes that strong population growth continues to feed Alberta’s economy, powered largely by its affordability advantage over Ontario and BC (RBC Economics).

The through-line: as long as the housing and pay gap between Alberta and the big-city markets stays this wide, the trucks will keep pointing west.