Fernie – British Columbia’s Growing Cities

Fernie’s population grew 18% from 4,448 residents to 5,249 residents in the 2016 Census Canada results. Fernie’s diverse and buoyant economy, its proximity to the large mining operations (3% of Canada’s GDP) of Teck Resources, to the travel and tourism industries, to many home businesses and small offices and to the migrating professionals and  active baby boomers have contributed to the city's growth.

Fernie offers a rich heritage, a vibrant and growing cultural environment, a diverse  network of winter and summer trails, ski slopes and cat ski operations, state-of-the-art fibre network infrastructures and good local shopping. The schools in Fernie (public elementary, public high school, French Immersion, Fernie Academy and a francophone school) attract families and offer superb educational choices for children, Proximity to three airports, Kalispell in Montana(FCA), Cranbrook(YXC) and Calgary(YYC) allows easy access to and from Canadian and American cities or international destinations for business or leisure travellers.

Neighbouring communities in the east Kootenay along the western slope of the Rockies also had positive population growth: Invermere was up 15%, Kimberley was up 11% and Golden was up 0.2 %.  Whistler had the greatest increase at 20.7%