Numbers released last week by Statistics Canada as part of the 2011 census offer much for Brant residents to consider.

As noted in a story by Sean Allen in this week’s Brant News, population growth in Brantford and the County of Brant lagged behind most other major centres in southwestern Ontario between 2006 and 2011.

At first glance, the picture painted by the census numbers was pretty rosy, with figures showing local population growth of 8.7 per cent between the 2006 census and 2011 census. But what’s known as a “statistical outlier” put a damper on initial enthusiasm. Taking the statistical outlier into account, real growth in the Brantford census metropolitan area – which includes the City of Brantford, County of Brant and Six Nations – was only 3.7 per cent.

So what was the statistical outlier? The answer lies in the inclusion of Six Nations residents in the census. More than 6,200 residents of Six Nations were not counted during the 2006 census but were included in the 2011 census and factored into the 8.7 per cent growth rate presented by Statistics Canada last week. The fact is that most of those 6,200 people were already living in the Brantford census metropolitan area, but were not included in past census counts.

While Brantford and Brant kept pace with London’s population growth rate of 3.7 per cent in the 2011 census, most nearby municipalities experienced a higher rate of growth. The Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge census metropolitan area grew by 5.8 per cent, Guelph grew by 5.5 per cent and Hamilton grew by 4.1 per cent. In southwestern Ontario, only the St. Catharines-Niagara and Windsor census metropolitan areas experienced slower growth than Brantford and Brant.

Statistics don’t lie and the numbers beg the question: why is our population growing so slowly? The decline of Ontario’s manufacturing sector and move toward a “knowledge-based” economy may be one reason. Other areas with traditionally manufacturing-based economies also grew slowly. (See Windsor and St. Catharines-Niagara.) As good-paying manufacturing jobs become more and more scarce, people may be leaving for areas where work is more abundant.

The answer may also lie in a matter with a more local focus, namely the issue of Six Nations land claims. During recent years, there’s been no shortage of local residents (or politicians) willing to point out the impact the land claims issue has had on the local economy. It’s certainly no secret that unresolved claims and the potential for protests at development sites has caused economic growth to stagnate in Brant.

Look at the Kitchener-Waterloo number (or population growth in oil-rich Alberta, for that matter) and it’s not hard to see that population growth is tied to economic growth. To grow our population, we need to grow our economy. And there’s much more that could be done on a local level to turn the numbers around.

First and foremost, we believe innovation is the key. In Brantford city council’s 250-page economic development master plan, approved in 2010, one of the main recommendations is to create a business incubation centre, sometimes referred to as an “innovation centre.” We believe creating such a centre would go a long way toward helping grow the local economy and, in turn, local population numbers.

But city council didn’t see fit to fund such a centre during recent 2012 budget deliberations. Brantford’s economic development advisory board had asked council to pitch in $75,000 to create a business incubation centre, but the request was turned down. Even before the census numbers were released, we believed that was the wrong decision for council to make. Voting to fund the centre – which would help local entrepreneurs and innovative businesses establish local roots – would be a first step in the right direction.

As a next step, local governments in the City of Brantford, County of Brant and Six Nations must move beyond words in working together to press higher levels of government to resolve outstanding land claims. That, likely more than anything else, would get our economy and population numbers moving in the right direction again.