How on earth did Jocelyn Township's population grow one-third in five years?

Poring over just-released data from the 2016 federal census, SooToday uncovered some notable local success stories.

Somehow, in just five years, the population of tiny Jocelyn Township has swollen by 32.1 per cent.

According  to Statistics Canada, the 237 upstanding citizens who resided in the St. Joseph Island municipality in 2011 grew to 313 last year.

That's 76 new souls.

And so far, SooToday has been unable to find anyone who knows for certain what's going on down there.

"It's not my fault!" township councillor Ches Wallace, age 90, protested too much when we reached him by phone Thursday night.

Wallace isn't sure where the 76 Jocelyn newbs came from, but he expressed admiration for his stalwart fellow islanders.

"We have some very good people who stay at home and get their homework done," he revealed.

And, the councillor speculated, Jocelyn's bumper crops of zinc-rich maple syrup just might be helping set the mood for late-night knowledge procuration.

Interestingly, Wallace appeared to be the only member of Jocelyn Township Council who wasn't too busy with homework to answer SooToday's calls late Thursday.

Hard-working councillors Janet Callahan, Ken Ward, Brian Dukes and reeve Mark Henderson all had far too many irons in the fire to pick up their phones.

As SooToday reported on Wednesday, the City of Sault Ste. Marie suffered a 2.4 per cent loss down to 73,368 people, compared to 75,141 in 2011.

All of St. Joseph Island did well in the 2016 census.

Hilton Township's population was up 17.6 per cent to 307.

The Village of Hilton Beach rose 17.9 per cent to  171.

St. Joseph Township tallied up tp 1,240, up 3.2 per cent from five years earlier.

In nearby Tarbutt Township, there was a success story even more impressive than Jocelyn's — the 2016 census recorded 534 souls, up 34.8 per cent from five years earlier.

The following are breakouts from the 2016 census for Algoma's 32 municipalities:    

Algoma, Unorganized, North Part (Unorganized)

5,739 (up 4.0 per cent over 2016)

Algoma, Unorganized, South East Part (Unorganized)

0 (no change from 2016)

Blind River (Town)

3,472 (down 2.2 per cent)

Bruce Mines (Town)

582 (up 2.8 per cent)

Dubreuilville (Township)

613 (down 3.5 per cent

Elliot Lake (City)

10,741 (down 5.3 per cent)

Garden River 14 (Indian reserve)

1,125 (up 1.6 per cent)

Goulais Bay 15A (Indian reserve)

Not available for a specific time period

Gros Cap 49 (Indian reserve)

77 (up 13.2 per cent)

Hilton (Township)

307 (up 17.6 per cent)

Hilton Beach (Village)

171 (up 17.9 per cent)

Hornepayne (Township)

980 (down 6.7 per cent)

Huron Shores (Municipality)

1,664 (down 3.4 per cent)

Jocelyn (Township)

313 (up 32.1 per cent)

Johnson (Township)

751 (up 0.1 per cent)

Laird (Township)

1,047 (down 0.9 per cent)

Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional (Township)

1,609 (up 9.9 per cent)

Mississagi River 8 (Indian reserve)

411 (up 5.4 per cent)

Plummer Additional (Township)

660 (up 1.5 per cent)

Prince (Township)

1,010 (down 2.0 per cent)

Rankin Location 15D (Indian reserve)

Not available for a specific time period

Sagamok (Indian reserve)

1,140 (up 10.0 per cent)

Sault Ste. Marie (City)

73,368 (down 2.4 per cent)

Serpent River 7 (Indian reserve)

371 (down 0.5 per cent)

Spanish (Town)

712 (up 2.3 per cent)

St. Joseph (Township)

1,240 (up 3.2 per cent)

Tarbutt and Tarbutt Additional (Township)

534 (up 34.8 per cent)

The North Shore (Township)

497 (down 2.4 per cent)

Thessalon (Town)

1,286 (up 0.5 per cent)

Thessalon 12 (Indian reserve)

124 (up 14.8 per cent)

Wawa (Municipality)

2,905 (down 2.4 per cent)

White River (Township)

645 (up 6.3 per cent)

Canada's national population grew by 5 per cent to 35.2 million over the past five year.

Ontario climbed 4.6 per cent to 13.4 million.

Algoma District's population was 114,094, down 1.5 percent from 2011's 115,870.

Response from Mayor Provenzano

“It’s disappointing, though not surprising, that our population has dipped according to the latest census," said Mayor Christian Provenzano.

"We know we have some demographic challenges in the community and Northern Ontario as a region has struggled to grow in most places,” the mayor said.

“To become a growing city again, it’s clear that we have to work hard to be a welcoming, inclusive place that people will want to move to and we have to do our best to provide a mix of economic and social opportunities."

"The community adjustment committee has been examining these issues over the past few months. I’m optimistic that the report of the committee will provide a good road map to help us move forward,” the mayor said.

Ross Romano

“Sault Ste. Marie should be a major northern hub. With a bridge to the United States and the Port of Algoma, business should be booming and people should be flocking to the Sault," said Ward 6 Councillor Ross Romano, named to represent the Ontario Progressive Conservatives in the as-yet-uncalled byelection to replace Sault MPP David Orazietti.

"Sadly after 13 years of Liberal government policies, the Sault is at a competitive disadvantage leading to jobs and youth leaving the city," Romano said.

“I left for university and came back to the Sault because I believe in this city.  It is where I was born and raised. It is the city I love and it’s the city where I want to continue to raise my children. I want everyone to have the same opportunity I did but under this Liberal government the opportunities are few and far between."

Terry Sheehan

Sault MP Terry Sheehan said that census findings will demonstrate the value of the 61-question long-form census axed by the Harper Conservatives in 2011 and restored by Justin Trudeau's Liberals in 2016.

"The long-form census is an important tool for government. It’s important to have good data," Sheehan told SooToday.

The new figures don't surprise him because he was hearing concerns about population decline when he went door-to-door campaigning in the 2015 election.

"My goal is to reverse this trend, to make our community start growing again. It takes time."

"I wasn’t surprised by the decline over the past five years because I head that at the door. We need to redouble our efforts on diversifying the economy, to continue to support the steel industry and invest in infrastructure, invest in youth. We need to ensure that seniors can afford to live in Northern Ontario."

Tom Dodds

This week's population statistics also didn't surprise Tom Dodds, chief executive officer at Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corp.

"The last two censuses, we were flat," he says. The local labour force, which has averaged about 40,000 over the past 20 years, dropped by about 3,600 over the past two years.

Even so, the local labour force population, defined as persons older than 15, has remained stable since last fall at 66,900.

And the labour force, defined as the total of those both employed and unemployed, has increased by 400 since last fall to 36,700, Dodds said.

'If you’ve got less people working, it will have an effect on the population."

"It’s not any lower and entirely consistent with the Northeast  Ontario region. The only centre that’s grown is Sudbury and it has a larger urban population. The densest part of the population of Northeastern Ontario is a band from Sudbury to North Bay and the Tri-Town (New Liskeard, Cobalt and Haileybury)."

"It’s helpful to have this information because it helps us to re-calibrate," Dodds said.

"We have to, as a community, aggressively increase the number of people who are immigrating into the community, in order to retain the population we have now and to grow it."

Many of the economic development initiatives undertaken recently in Sault Ste. Marie will start to bear fruit over the next few months, Dodds said.

Statistics Canada will be releasing additional data from the 2016 census according to this schedule:

• May 3: age and sex, type of dwelling
• May 10: census of agriculture
• August 2: families, households and marital status, language
• September 13: income
• October 25: immigration and ethno-cultural diversity, housing, Aboriginal peoples
• November 29: education, labour, journey to work, language of work, mobility and migration