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Commuting Patterns and Places of Work of Canadians, 2006 Census: Portrait of census metropolitan areas and their municipalities
Place of work
Municipalities where workers live are not always the ones where the jobs are concentrated
In general, workers tend to live close to where they work, often in the same municipality. However, whereas some municipalities are mainly known as places where workers reside, others are better known as places of work (municipalities that attract workers from surrounding municipalities).
Some municipalities have more workers than they house. Thus, these municipalities have a positive balance (a net gain of workers). Conversely, some municipalities are home of more workers than they have, showing a negative balance (a net loss of workers).
Of the 25 municipalities with the most workers in 2006, Montréal was the one with the sharpest net gain in workers (the number of people working there was almost 270,000 greater than the number of workers living there). It was followed by the municipality of Toronto, which had a net gain of 232,300 workers. The municipality of Mississauga also stood out, with a heavy daily influx of workers from the neighbouring municipalities (net gain of 68,700 workers).
The municipalities of Laval and Surrey stood out for their relatively strong growth in the number of workers between 2001 and 2006. In Laval, the increase was 15.8%, and in Surrey, 17.0%. In both cases, however, the number of workers residing in the municipality was still higher than the number of people working there. In the case of Laval, the difference was 36,800, and in the case of Surrey, 47,400. In other words, the number of workers in these municipalities was higher by night than by day.
However, it was the municipality of Brampton, located in the Toronto CMA, that had the highest net loss in workers to the surrounding municipalities (59,000 workers).
