Population and Housing

[MacBerry]

Burlington is only part of The Hammer for political CMA data only. Burlington is part of Halton Region for planning and policy. The population  of Burlington inflates the importance and CMA population of Hamilton and is  therefore imply a paper inclusion. There is no reason to include Burlington in the Hamilton data except it makes the "CMA" seem to be larger and important.

MY point is it is time to change the CMA to reflect a reality that Hamilton is not what the CMA purports to tell. Propping up CMA Hamilton is last century. StatsCan didn't decide the areas, politicians did.  Just change the data to reflect 21stC realities that Hamilton is not what politicians want everyone to believe. CMA fairy tales.

This is patently false. The criteria for inclusion in a CMA are well-defined and are not even remotely political except in so much as where municipal boundaries lie.

Some data:
Employed labour force in Burlington: 95,975
Residents of Burlington working in Hamilton + Grimsby: 8,655 + 165 = 8,820
Residents of Hamilton + Grimsby working in Burlington: 24,505 + 1,345 = 25,850
Total interchange: 34,670 (36.1% of Burlington employed labour force)

This means Burlington would be included under Rule 7 - Merging adjacent CMAs and CAs of the CMA definition. I'm pretty sure it was originally included due to other rules (Reverse Commuting certainly, which was only 25% of employed labour force in the past - now changed to 50%), but it certainly would remain under the current Rule 7. For historical comparability, Statistics Canada will keep a CSD that no longer meets criteria in a CMA for one census period so in theory the earliest that you might see Burlington removed is 2026 if it doesn't qualify in the 2021 Census.

In theory a CSD could meet the criteria to be included in two CMAs, but I don't believe Burlington yet meets any of the rules for inclusion in the Toronto CMA. You're welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, though.

Good information ... that noise is my brain thinking