Canadians are paying the price for a government that refuses to recognize the need to make tradeoffs in the face of reality.
I want you to consider the following two stories:
Number one, for the first time in history, Canada’s population grew by over 1 million people in a 12 month span. Here’s what Stats Canada said about it:
“Canada’s population was estimated at 39,566,248 on January 1, 2023, after a record population growth of 1,050,110 people from January 1, 2022, to January 1, 2023.
This marks the first 12-month period in Canada’s history where population grew by over 1 million people, and the highest annual population growth rate (+2.7%) on record since that seen for 1957 (+3.3%). This previous record population growth rate in 1957 was related to the high number of births during the post-war baby boom and the high immigration of refugees following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.”
RBC is warning this will put pressure on rent prices:
“Vacancy rates nevertheless fell to a two-decade low as high levels of in-migration and the loss of housing affordability sparked a record surge in both demand and rents.”
“With Canada’s immigration targets set at record levels and affordability poised to remain stretched, the pressure isn’t likely to let up. The bottom line: Without a significant boost in rental stock, Canada’s rental housing gap could exceed 120,000 by 2026—quadrupling the current deficit. This will tip the housing market into a greater state of imbalance and drive the optimal vacancy rate of 3% even further out of reach.”
Here’s the second story:
“Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says a new study examining the effect of development on biodiversity and species-at-risk in a massive national park could shut down part of Ontario’s plan to build housing in the area.
Guilbeault says the study will be done as soon as possible on Rouge National Urban Park in the Greater Toronto Area.
He says collaboration with Ontario has been impossible on environmental concerns over proposed housing developments.
Premier Doug Ford says the study will not slow down housing plans for nearby lands the province removed from the protected Greenbelt.”
Two incompatible ways of thinking
As provinces desperately try to keep up with population increases, eco-radical Steven Guilbeault may use federal power to block sorely-needed housing in Ontario. Apparently, Guilbeault doesn’t care that a 1 million person population increase in a single year means a massive amount of new construction is needed.
Even those who generally stay away from discussing the issue of immigration for political reasons are sounding the alarm about such a massive one-population increase. The fact is, Canada as it’s currently run cannot sustain such rapid population increases without significant negative impacts.
Now, if Canada was a low-tax, highly competitive, highly capitalistic nation that had rapid productivity increases, and if we were a country where it was cheap and easy to build massive amounts of housing, large population increases could be manageable.
Meanwhile, if population increases were kept low, we could ‘afford’ to have an anti-development set of ‘green’ policies imposed – though it would still be less than ideal.
But to simultaneously increase our population at a rapid pace while also restricting development with radical environmentalism is a recipe for disaster.
The Liberal government is refusing to acknowledge that basic tradeoffs are necessary, that choosing one set of policies means you can’t choose another.
At the present moment, Canada is governed by a political party with a very socialist mindset, an opposition to capitalism, an opposition to development, and an opposition to letting individual Canadians prosper. That same party is – without consulting Canadians – increasing our immigration rates year after year. And so, it’s no surprise that the combination of weak per capita GDP growth and high population increases are straining services and making life less and less affordable.
Now, I’m a supporter of immigration, but supporting immigration doesn’t mean having no limits or refusing to debate what an appropriate yearly level is. In fact, the quickest way to destroy support for immigration is to pursue the path the Liberals are taking Canada down now.
If we want to continue being a country with a welcoming attitude that embraces newcomers, we also need to embrace more capitalist competition, individual freedom, economic freedom, and put a huge emphasis on yearly per capita GDP growth.
Spencer Fernando
