The province is growing faster than anywhere else in Canada, and support services can't keep up
| Alberta’s population is booming—and newcomer settlement workers are burning out | | Alberta is experiencing a population explosion. In 2023, the province’s population grew by over four per cent, largely due to immigration. As a result, newcomer settlement agencies are overwhelmed. Souleka Mustapha is a director at the Alberta Immigrant Women and Children Centre in Edmonton, an organization that helps newcomer women and their families find employment, housing, mental health services and early-childhood care. Mustapha reports in Maclean’s that she and her colleagues (there are roughly 40 of them) are on the brink of burnout. About 100 people come through her agency’s doors every day looking for support, and staff can barely keep up. Mustapha paints a picture of a system buckling under the volume of need. An immigrant herself, she is deeply passionate about her work, but she worries that newcomers aren’t getting the attention they require. “My family was fortunate enough to succeed in Canada,” she says, “but sometimes it feels like the system is set up for immigrants to fail. Newcomers bring so much to this country, so the least we can do is give them the basic tools to build a life here.” —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief | | | | |
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| | | SOCIETY | | My retirement project? Building affordable co-housing. | | Longtime developer Dave Ransier has seen firsthand how bureaucratic red tape holds back affordable housing supply. So he got creative—and came up with a way to build co-housing that would bypass the worst of the lengthy permit process. Now, Britannia House is home to a micro-community of 12 residents in Squamish, B.C. They share two kitchens, a gym, and even a backyard sauna. Ransier is set to retire soon, and once he does, he plans to bring the model to the rest of Canada. | | |
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| | | HEALTH | | The Canadian doctor who helped invent Ozempic | | When it comes to diabetes drugs, there’s just something about Toronto researchers. In 1984, 63 years after Banting and Best isolated insulin, Daniel Drucker, another U of T alumnus, co-discovered a gut hormone that lowers blood sugar and suppresses appetite. That discovery led to Ozempic. For the upcoming April issue, Maclean’s editor Katie Underwood spoke to Drucker about the eureka moment that gave rise to a blockbuster drug taken around the world. | | |
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