editorial: high immigration fuels canada’s housing crisis
while canadians continue to worry about the availabilit...
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while canadians continue to worry about the availability of affordable housing, the trudeau government announced wednesday it will continue its current policy of boosting immigration levels to record highs through 2026.
its existing plan, announced a year ago, of admitting 465,000 new permanent residents to canada this year, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025, will now be extended to another 500,000 admissions in 2026.
next year’s target of 485,000 new permanent residents will consist of 281,135 economic immigrants, 114,000 in family class, 76,115 refugees and 13,750 humanitarian admissions.
for 2025 and 2026, 500,000 new permanent residents will be admitted annually — 301,250 economic immigrants, 118,000 in family class, 72,750 refugees and 8,000 humanitarian admissions.
while prime minister justin trudeau’s government has long argued higher immigration levels are needed to boost economic growth because of canada’s low birth rate, its pursuit of high immigration policies flies in the face of growing public concerns about the lack of affordable housing.
a nanos poll in september showed most canadians surveyed — 53% — believe canada’s current immigration levels are too high, compared to 34% who approve of them and 8% who think they should be higher. the remaining 6% were unsure.
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an environics poll released this week found stronger support for immigration — with 51% of those surveyed disagreeing with the statement “there’s too much immigration to canada” compared to 44% who agreed.
but opposition to current immigration levels rose dramatically by 17 percentage points in one year, while support dropped by 18 percentage points — both huge reversals.
in recent months the td bank, bmo and national bank of canada, among others, have all warned the federal government that its policy of high immigration is exacerbating canada’s housing shortage.
as the national bank put it:
“the federal government’s decision to open the immigration floodgates during the most aggressive monetary tightening cycle in a generation has created a record imbalance between housing and demand … as housing affordability pressures continue to mount across the country, we believe ottawa should consider revising its immigration targets to allow supply to catch up with demand.”
while canadians have always welcomed immigration, there are clearly growing public concerns about federal immigration policy.
but on this issue, as on so many others, the trudeau liberals just aren’t listening.
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