NY Times Highlights Expanded Canadian Immigration Policy, Ignores Overpopulation Concerns

It seems that the same type of unlimited growth mindset that has taken hold in the United States has migrated up north to Canada.

A report in the New York Times published last month indicates that our northern neighbors will restructure their immigration policy to add over a million new citizens in the coming years.

“The new policy aims to attract a total of 1.45 million immigrants between 2023 and 2025 and was announced by Sean Fraser, Canada’s immigration minister, on Tuesday. It came as the country hit another demographic milestone last week, when the census agency announced that more than one in five Canadians is now an immigrant.”

The Times reports that the goal is to fill gaps in the labor market due to aging population demographics. The policy signals a significant increase from already high levels of immigration.

“The government is aiming to attract 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025, according to its Immigration Levels Plan. The number of immigrants sought for 2025 represents a 23 percent increase from Canada’s latest record of accepting 405,000 newcomers last year.”

While the article discusses assimilation and some of the other issues that occur when you engage in high immigration levels, it mostly serves as a public relations piece for the policy. No effort was made to truly evaluate whether this is a sustainable policy for the current Canadian population, their natural resource levels, and the environment.

This is all in line with a recent push among some in the United States to reach one billion Americans, which is roughly a tripling of our current population. There’s a similar push in Canada primarily pushed by an organization called the Century Initiative.

This organization is backed by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and other influential public figures in Canada. Their primary objective is to reach 100 million Canadians by 2100.

“The same mindset that would like to see one billion Americans is also pushing for 100 million Canadians, in each case, about a tripling of current populations.”

As always the pro-growth argument is accepted as the default, while concerns about overpopulation are ignored. It’s time for Canadians to start paying attention to this issue, or else their country will also fall victim to the perils of unsustainable growth.