sentences:  While Montreal was the largest Canadian city and the centre of commerce in the country, the diocese thrived.In recent decades, however, as these attributes have shifted to Toronto, the English-Canadian population in the diocese has shrunk dramatically, forcing the merger and the closure of parishes.The diocese's original membership of 25,000 150 years ago has shrunk by over one-third, even as the total population in the civil region has expanded from about 70,000 to over 3,000,000—a 9000% decrease in its proportional importance.