Why Canada Can't Solve Its Population Problem with Immigration

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As a Canadian living in Canada I can assure you it is absolutely not over sensationalized. It's absolutely wild watching our standard of living erode in real time.

Duuuuuude I'm a Canadian and it's been brutal. My quality of life has dropped like a stone in the past 4yrs

Canadian here. Many immigrants are now leaving Canada because of how unaffordable it’s gotten

As a Canadian, its now the norm for people in their 20's to live with several roomates in a basement suite, and not having money to go out with friends.

500k per year are just permanent immigrants. If we count the students and the temporary residents (who usually find a way to stay), it's more like 1M a year.

Canada is NOT the same country I grew up in. Painfully high cost of living, laughably low wages, and oppressive taxation are crushing our quality of life, if not our spirits.

One issue you didn't address in this video, is that importing skilled workers into Canada doesn't necessarily solve the skill shortage problem, because in many cases it's virtually impossible for skilled workers to actually get jobs in Canada, in their field of expertise. There are medically trained doctors from all over the world, living in Canada, driving taxis, because they cannot get certified to practice medicine. The medical associations in Canada, in order to protect Canadian trained doctors and nurses, put all kinds of barriers to foreign trained doctors and nurses to make it next to impossible for them to get certified. This is not specific to the medical field either. Foreign trained lawyers, accountants and architects also face the same barriers in getting Canadian certification. So Canada is essentially importing all kinds of skilled workers, to work at McDonald's, or to drive cabs or become nannies.

Canadian here, recently went on a trip to the US and the job market is just a night and day difference. "Help Wanted" signs in every storefront, offering wages I can't even begin to comprehend as well as extensive benefits, on the job training and more. Contrasted to Toronto where even minimum wage work is competitive, it's honestly depressing to live in a place with such few opportunities.

I myself am a Canadian, and one thing not mentioned here is that a very large amount of recent immigrants to Canada are coming from a single country: India. As more and more immigrants come from a single place, there is less of a need for them to integrate into wider Canadian society. There are ads for rentals now that discriminate (illegally) toward favouring Indians, posted by other Indians. It might be anecdotal, but I have seen it with my own two eyes. It is also more of a social issue than a purely economic one so I can see why it wasn't mentioned. Something more economic though is also the effect of immigration on wages. The video mentions that international students are more willing to fulfill minimum wage jobs that Canadians don't want to do. Canadians don't want to work these jobs because they simply don't pay enough for the work. While flipping burgers or working a cash register isn't high skilled labour, it can still be very stressful and combine that with minimum wage (which with our cost of living is just enough to stay at home with your parents and contribute to their mortgage), it's no wonder Canadians don't want to do it. In absence of immigrants willing to work these jobs, these jobs would have to either pay more or cease to exist. TLDR: many Canadians feel as though excessive immigration is leading to wage suppression in this country, especially towards lower-skilled and minimum-wage jobs.

Don't forget to mention that Canada has infrastructure for about 30 million. Living standards are plunging, and things are bleak. It's now impossible for workers to even think of having kids because housing is so hard.

I live in Calgary, after Covid, Inflation and being the so called "one of the most affordable cites in the world" rich people from mainly China and India, Toronto, and Vancouver have moved here and caused housing prices to rise super high and we have a lot of problems with homeless, crime and drug use all over the city now.

There's never been a single shortage of skilled or unskilled labor in any 1st world country, only companies not willing to pay fair market value...

Regarding a housing pricing collapse: Various studies have shown that Canada is ~1.5 Million homes behind the G7 average of homes/population. Even if all immigration and visa's ended tomorrow, Canada is still short a Lot of homes. Prices would come down, but not nearly as much as many predict.

Canadian here, born and raised in Vancouver. Moved to Japan in 2003 and never went back. In Japan I own a house, car, small business. My friends in Canada live lives of quiet desperation and working poverty.

As a Canadian its super rough here. My girlfriend and i work 50+ a week and arent any closer to having kids or owning a home then when we started

It's not about need for skilled labor. It's about control the labor pool to reduce the cost of labor.

The comfortably habitable area of Canada is the size of a ‘middle’ European country - like Poland or Spain…both of which are in the 40 million category - where Canada is now. The fact is, most immigrants don’t move to ‘Canada’ - they move to Toronto and Vancouver. Canada could hit 100 million people and it would have two cities of 30 million. The rest of the country would be as empty as it is now.

"Skilled migrant" was used a lot in this video, but most migrants we receive are far from skilled. And the skilled ones, tend to leave to the US or go back home after facing the realities. Even worse, well-educated people born and raised in cities like Vancouver/Toronto are leaving those cities due to HCOL leaving even fewer skilled workers for employers to choose from. Thus, making it even worse for a business to setup shop here.

I have a high end tech job. Rents in Vancouver and Toronto are insane. My rent in Northern Japan is less than $200 USD a month. Never going back lol