'We are very excited by the diversity in our town': Whitchurch-Stouffville library CEO
'Without a doubt, things are changing,' town director says of growing diversity

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 5, 2019
Lisa Queen

While a new long-term care home in Stouffville announced last week will be open to seniors of all cultures, it’s not surprising the organization behind the project is a charity specializing in the Chinese community.

When Canada’s census was taken in 2011, Whitchurch-Stouffville’s Chinese community did not make the list of the town’s top five ethnic origins.

At the time, English, Canadian, Scottish, Irish and Italian took the top spots.

Fast forward to the 2016 census and Chinese now sits at No. 3, behind English and Canadian and ahead of Scottish and Irish.

As of 2016, 6,690 residents report Chinese as their ethnic origin, accounting for 15 per cent of the town’s population.

That’s only five percentage points behind the 20 per cent who report English as their ethnic origin, which dropped from 24 per cent in 2011, and three percentage points behind those reporting Canadian as their ethnic origin, which dropped from 18 per cent in 2011.

The town’s growing diversity made Stouffville an appealing area for the seniors’ home, expected to open in 2022, said Stephanie Wong, CEO of the Mon Sheong Foundation, which is building the long-term care home.

“We learn from each other. This is Canada. It is not just restricted to any ethnic group,” she said.

“For us to find a place for the new long-term care centre was definitely not easy, With the (Chinese) population actually gradually moving north for the last 10, 20 years, it’s not too far away (from Toronto and southern York Region).”

As with any cultural group, the Chinese community is drawn to Whitchurch-Stouffville’s less expensive housing and good transportation networks, Wong said.

Whitchurch-Stouffville is home to a rich mixture of residents who have come from all over the world.

Of the town’s 14,740 identifying themselves as immigrants, 295 are from Jamaica, 225 are from Guyana, 335 are from Greece, 190 are from Romania, 1,940 are from China and 1,660 are from Sri Lanka.

Of the 975 recent immigrants between 2011 and 2016, 375 came from China, 100 from India, 100 from Sri Lanka and 25 from the United Arab Emirates.

Based on the town’s population of more than 45,000 in 2016, 15,305 residents reported they are first generation Canadians, while 13,405 are second generation and 16,635 have been here at least three generations.

Over the last year, the town’s Welcome Wagon has greeted more than 250 new residents of various ethnic backgrounds, the organization’s Mary Bresser said.

“Many of them have expressed delight with the welcome they have received from us and other members of the community. They love the small town feel and are very eager to be a part of such a great community,” she said.

Very few newcomers to town are brand new immigrants. Instead, many first arrive in large cities such as Toronto and then look for a peaceful place to live like Whitchurch-Stouffville, Bresser said.

That being said, Welcome Wagon has greeted residents who have just arrived from Turkey, Syria, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Australia, she said.

Aware of its growing diversity, the town focuses much of its efforts on serving residents speaking the most predominant languages, with 29,700 speaking English, 2,995 speaking Cantonese, 1,880 speaking Tamil, 1,445 speaking Mandarin and 1,225 speaking Italian,

Marilou Murray, director of leisure and community services, said.

Not sure how that compares to past census results, Murray said “absolutely, without a doubt, things are changing.”

This June, the town will endorse a York Region diversity charter and will later embark on a diversity framework and strategy to support the town’s growth and to continue ensuring all residents’ needs are met, Murray said.

The public library is often the first place newcomers come to discover programs and services, Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library CEO Margaret Wallace said.

The library is building new partnerships with groups such as York Regional Police, Catholic Community Services of York Region and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority to offer a growing range of services such as English-language conversation circles, tours of town amenities and guidance to connect people to the right resources, she said.

“A lot of newcomers come to the library, seeing it as a safe and inclusive place to start and they want to get connected to their community,” Wallace said.

“We are very excited by the diversity in our town. It gives a greater depth to our programming.”