Mass Immigration: Reverberation
Fail to plan. Plan to fail.
Why not a smart calculative approach to immigration, why mass immigration without much consideration? I suspect it is viewed as an economic driver at this point, and I don’t mean the “we have an aging population” banded. It’s well beyond that.
Why print even more money to support Canada’s sluggish economy when you can ‘import’ it and the consumption that comes with it. Just as puzzling is the complete unpreparedness, obliviousness, and lack of acknowledgment of its impact on Canadians. Economically – among other things.
Mass immigration is inflationary. Inflation is especially magnified when the driver is concentrated into areas. Canadians experience it firsthand in real estate. In 2021 Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver welcomed 29.5%, 12.2%, and 11.7% of the year’s immigrants.
Chrystia Freeland is actually correct: “The core problem with housing in Canada is that we just don’t have enough housing.”
In 2022 there were just under 220,000 dwellings completed in Canada compared to the population growth of just over one million in the same year. As immigrants have more kids, combined with the accumulating lag in construction (and/or outpacing by mass immigration) the future will hold a devastating real estate unaffordability squeeze.
But it’s not only that more Canadians won’t be able to afford a home, it’s that Canadians will have a hard time actually finding a home. There could be a shortage of millions of dwellings if the current trend continues. The homeless population is all but guaranteed to grow. This is one of Canada’s biggest economic crises in the making that is barely being talked about.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Canada needs to develop itself geographically and give people more viable cities than the five that most flock to. Considering Canada is headed towards 100M + population around 2100 ( The Century Initiative) it is unfeasible for everyone to be squeezed in nor will it be affordable. Economic dollars should be spent on building out the second-largest country on earth.
There is actually quite an appetite by Canadians to find a place outside the major cities. Almost 100,000 people left Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal in 2022 to find a more affordable place, and places to start a family. The emigration numbers are well covered by immigration which, again, drives cost. Satisfy this demand.
And then there is healthcare.
Hospitals that we needed yesterday take years to build and years to staff. Hospitals we need for tomorrow are barely being mused. It’s not a chicken and egg situation it’s a build it and they will come situation. They are already here.
Canada’s healthcare can barely handle in a timely manner the current demand on the system but with mass immigration, the demand will only skyrocket.
As I talked about it in my previous article Mass Immigration: The transformation of Canada, the racialized population growth rate is 2.9% to 4.2% compared to the Canadian population’s 0.7% and 1.5%. Not only we will need more healthcare but also more healthcare per person than before to account for family growth; newborns, kids.
Canada already has people dying while waiting for care. In 2021-22 more than 13,581 people died waiting for diagnostics, procedures, and surgeries according to a report by SecondStreet org. This is up from 11,581 the year before and a 24% increase in surgical waiting list deaths over the past four years. Those numbers are underreported and will only grow.
People shouldn’t be driven into poverty or suffering because of policy. There are more and more headlines and articles of Canadians choosing euthanasia instead of poverty; because they can’t find a home, because they can’t get care. This is not a mark of equitable performance nor a moral hazard to be accepted.
We need to build a country on success.