Indeed population growth can't hurt but the CMA has grown by about 100k ppl (~6.9%) since the busy years 2018/2019 where traffic was ~8.2 million. This year traffic will be in the 7.5-7.6 million range so a good ways to make up the gap. This summer Westjet made some adds in destinations and frequency that have potential to drive connecting traffic so will give that some time to play out and if they are satisfied with things perhaps next summer could see more presence. Routes like Abbotsford moving from defunct Swoop to mainline will naturally help connectivity.
Is anyone concerned about KLM with their tightening of flight movements out of Amsterdam? They have been good with YEG but always worried where the next casualties will be of that situation.