Toronto Has the Third Worst Traffic in the World! Fallout from Massive Immigration
WOW! Toronto has for some time preened itself as a “world class city.” Well, it now has the worst traffic gridlock in North America, and the third worst in the world.The costs to motorists, both in terms of wasted time and nerves is heavy. The CP 24 (January 11, 2024), of course, doesn’t explain why. It’s simple — mass immigration, 125,000 yearly over two decades with almost no new roads built, and, all the while, the war on car and crippling of existing roads with bicycle lanes and lanes often arbitrarily blocked off with cones and no construction in sight. “Toronto has topped the list of the most congested cities in North America, beating out both New York and Mexico City, according to new traffic data released by navigation and location technology company TomTom.
The company, which released its annual traffic index on Thursday, ranked Toronto third on a list of the most congested cities in the world, falling behind only London and Dublin. According to the index, it takes Toronto commuters an average of 29 minutes to complete a 10-kilometre trip, 50 seconds longer than it took just last year. Toronto’s drivers have only a slightly better commute compared to Dublin, where it takes 29 minutes and 30 seconds to go 10 kilometres. In London, the city identified in the index as having the worst traffic globally, it takes 37 minutes, 20 seconds to travel that distance.
Torontonians lost an average 98 hours in 2023 due to rush-hour traffic.”
Toronto Residents Are Fleeing Diversity in Record Numbers While Mass Immigration Floods the City
Toronto prides itself as being a “world class city” and loudly proclaims the joys of diversity. In fact many residents in record numbers, disagree. Many longtime residents know better. Last year, a record 78,100 people left the city (up from 73,500 the year before). A quarter of these are leaving the country. People are fed up with beggars, homeless encampments, impossible traffic gridlock, lunatics stabbing complete strangers on the subway and the confusion and disorientation of “diversity.”
Those leaving are being replacement with hordes of Trudeau’s immigrants almost all from the Third World — the politics of replacement at work.
As a personal example, on Tuesday, it took me two and a half hours in mid afternoon to drive less than a mile from Church and Queen St. to the Gardiner Expressway. There was no snow or ice or accidents, Road construction, lanes blocked off with cones but no work being done, University Avenue, a four lane road in each direction, reduced in some places to one lane by construction, and other blockages.
Toronto Residents Are Leaving At A Record Pace, Immigration Takes Over Growth
Greater Toronto experienced a massive population boom, but that may be peaking soon. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows Toronto CMA’s population was booming in 2022. Drilling down into the numbers reveals the growth was just immigration. The artificial growth trend obfuscates the record outflow of residents from the region. The headline data looks great, but people might be seeing more opportunity elsewhere.
Greater Toronto’s Population Added Over 138,000 People In 2022
Much like the rest of Canada, Greater Toronto’s population has been surging in growth. The latest estimate puts Toronto CMA at 6.69 million people in 2022, up 2.1% (+138,240) from last year. About half (49.5%) of that growth was in the City of Toronto, which would have been an impressive number itself.
Immigration Is The Primary Driver of Toronto’s Population
Immigration is the primary driver of this trend, as Canada catches up on a backlog. Greater Toronto welcomed 159,679 immigrants in 2022, up 103% (+80,830) from the year before. Depending on how you look at it, two things stand out—the growth rate and the number of people.
Greater Toronto Has Seen A Record Immigrant Inflow
The annual number of immigrants that arrived in Canada and settled in the Greater Toronto region.
Year
Immigrants
2002
123,066
2003
86,798
2004
101,809
2005
103,176
2006
107,084
2007
90,501
2008
89,479
2009
82,739
2010
90,961
2011
82,227
2012
78,391
2013
83,620
2014
79,616
2015
71,207
2016
91,673
2017
75,061
2018
102,740
2019
106,700
2020
96,775
2021
78,849
2022
159,679
Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.
Doubling the volume of immigrants in the region seems like an odd trend, and it was. As mentioned earlier, a backlog left the prior year’s number of immigrants at a multi-year low. The growth is a bit of a base effect, though it’s still a huge number.
The second thing you might have noticed—there were more immigrants than total growth. No, it’s not due to deaths—Toronto residents are picking up and moving at a record pace.
Over 78,000 Greater Toronto Residents Fled To Another Part of Ontario
Net intraprovincial migration is the balance of people that left Toronto CMA for another part of Ontario. The net outflow was 78,100 people in 2022, following a 73,500 person outflow the year before. An outflow means more people left for other parts of Ontario than arrived. In this case, by the tens of thousands—the most in at least a generation.
Greater Toronto Residents Are Leaving In Record Volumes
The net flow of Greater Toronto residents to other parts of Ontario (intraprovincial migration), and other parts of Canada interprovincial migration). Negative numbers mean more people left than arrived in Toronto CMA. InterprovincialIntraprovincial200220062010201420182022-80,000-70,000-60,000-50,000-40,000-30,000-20,000-10,000010,000People
Year
Interprovincial
Intraprovincial
2002
2,414
-23,190
2003
192
-25,623
2004
-2,255
-26,163
2005
-2,906
-23,843
2006
-6,523
-19,617
2007
-7,474
-13,882
2008
-6,650
-15,399
2009
-6,427
-12,310
2010
-1,144
-19,583
2011
126
-16,153
2012
-3,391
-20,324
2013
-4,471
-19,879
2014
-4,811
-21,391
2015
-1,486
-25,070
2016
6,833
-34,227
2017
7,431
-47,969
2018
4,897
-48,280
2019
2,718
-46,549
2020
1,550
-56,305
2021
-10,136
-73,511
2022
-21,388
-78,077
Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.
Toronto Is No Longer A Place Where Other Canadians Seek Opportunity
Remember when Toronto was a hub for people from other provinces across Canada? Those days are long gone as net interprovincial migration turned deeply negative. INTER is the net flow of people between Toronto CMA and other provinces. The net was an outflow of 21,400 people in 2022, more than double the previous year. The region had a positive flow as recently as 2019, only turning negative as the low rate bubble took off.
Over 1 In 4 Canadians That Left Canada Were Toronto Residents
Emigration, the act of permanently leaving Canada, takes serious commitment. However, thousands of people from Greater Toronto were up to the task. Toronto CMA saw 12,625 people emigrate to another country, up 38.1% from the previous year. Greater Toronto represented roughly 1 in 4 people leaving Canada.
Greater Toronto’s emigrants hit the highest level since 2017. Though it’s worth remembering other countries also have application backlogs. Don’t be too surprised if emigration volumes continue to rise over the next few years.
What does this all mean? Like we mention when discussing provincial migration, this is mostly a sentiment indicator. Toronto’s population is growing and that means a boost to the economy, at least at the aggregate level. However, aggregate boosts can hide a drop in quality of life by just adding more economic units. Sorry, we mean human capital stock, the accepted political term.
Residents leaving in large numbers is a big concern that usually slips under the radar. Immigrants tend to land in hubs based on lagging data showing opportunity. Residents can spot an erosion in opportunity or decline in quality of life as it occurs. As they start seeing a better opportunity elsewhere, so do their peers. It’s only a matter of time before immigrants begin to see it elsewhere too.
Canada to welcome 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025 as minister moves to hand-pick more newcomers
[This is insane. This self-hating, White hating tyrant Trudeau cannot replace the European founding/settler people(et les quebecois de souche) fast enough. Over 85% of the engineered flood will come from the Third World. This is genocide on the instalment plan! “Skills shortage?” Why not train Canadians? What skills are lacking — more cab drivers in Brampton or Surrey. Greedy businesses was cheap labour! How will 500,000 more affect our already broken medical system or housing shortage or traffic gridlock in the GTA and the Lower Mainland of BC. This is the Great Replacement at work. — Paul Fromm]
Ottawa will use new power to hand-pick new immigrants to meet Canada’s skill shortages, raise intake of sponsorship of parents and grandparents and begin issuing temporary visas for spouses while their permanent residence applications are in process.
The federal government will use new power to hand-pick immigrants to address Canada’s skill shortages, increase the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, and begin issuing temporary visas for spouses while their permanent-residence applications are being processed.
Those are some of the highlights of Canada’s latest immigration plan — announced Tuesday — which will see this country look to bring in 465,000 new permanent residents next year, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. (Toronto Star, November 1, 2022)
Latest Stats Can Figures Show The Great Replacement of YOU Speeds Ahead Under Trudeau
Stats Canada reports that from 2016-2021, 1.3-million immigrants poured into Canada, most from Asia & the Middle East under Trudeau’s Woke wrecking crew. And you wonder why housing is impossibly expensive, our health systems stressed & traffic gridlock hopeless in the GTA & Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
The European founding/settler people of Canada are being replaced by cold blooded government policy.
Vancouver Voters Turn Down Tax Grab to Pay for Feds Immigration Follies
Without a halt to immigration, there can be little Improvement in traffic gridlock. Results announced July 2 showed that voters in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia said a resounding “No” to a proposed .5% sales tax increase to pay for a planned $7.5-billion improvement of the region’s wretched transportation infrastructure. It would have “included a major east-west subway line across Vancouver, a light rail network for Surrey extending to Langley, a replacement bridge across the Fraser River, 11 new rapid bus lines in the suburbs, and a third harbour ferry.” (Globe and Mail, July 2, 2015) The 700,000 voters who sent in their ballots voted 62% against this planned cash grab.
Almost unmentioned in the debate was the key cause of the worsening traffic gridlock — mass immigration. Forty years of failure to improve transportation infrastructure and 25 years of mass immigration have crowded Vancouver and Toronto to the bursting point. There is no point spending more local money in a futile attempt to catch up if the federal government insists on importing masses of immigrants, mostly from the Third World, in these times of high unemployment.
If the Federal Government wants to import 265,000 plus immigrants a year, they must bear the cost — in the tens of billions of dollars — to improve the infrastructure stressed by the decisions they’ve imposed.
Re: “The People have a right to say no” (National Post, July 4 , 2015), the strong no voice – 62 per cent – of people in the Lower Mainland of B.C. to a sales tax increase proposal to fund transit improvement was the right choice. A tax increase would have helped fund successive government’s failed immigration policies.
Almost absent from the debate was any discussion of the major cause of chronic gridlock in Vancouver and the GTA – massive immigration enabled by the federal government. Immigration is surrounded with feel good slogans – “diversity” “growing the economy.” Seldom addressed are the costs – among them strain on infrastructure.
Yes, municipal and provincial governments have failed to maintain the infrastructure to accommodate the huge flood of immigrants. However, if the feds insist on massive immigration 265,000 yearly in times of high unemployment, most of it heading for Vancouver or Toronto, they should pay the costs of upgrading the infrastructure to accommodate these people.
Vancouverites rightly rejected being further taxed to help correct the gridlock mess the feds have caused. Even had all the improvements planned over the next decade come to pass, gridlock would remain as all parties seem addicted to massive immigration. Any gains would soon be erased by the constant immigrant flood.
WHY METRO VANCOUVER SHOULD VOTE NO IN THE TRANSIT PLEBISCITEResidents of Metro Vancouver should vote “NO” in a plebiscite in March on a proposal to increase the sales tax. The money generated by the increase is to help pay for over $7 Billion in transportation improvements. According to the Mayors in Metro Vancouver, those “improvements” will relieve the congestion caused by adding 1 million people to Metro by 2040.
The Mayors have stated that they have no “PLAN B”, implying that there is no alternative. But it is very clear that there is one : The Mayors should unite to call for a dramatic cut to unnecessary immigration. It has been responsible for over 83% of Metro’s huge population increase since 1991 when Canada’s mass immigration policy began. It will soon be responsible for close to 100% of the 1 million population increase. Metro Vancouver’s population in 1991 was 1.6 million. It is now over 2.5 million. If the immigration madness continues, it will be 3.5 million in 2040.
Residents should vote “NO” for the following reasons :
There is no point to having 3.5 million people living here by 2040. Canada’s average yearly intake of 250,000 immigrants per year is corrupt and abnormal. It is a policy, not a constitutional requirement. It could be changed easily. Our federal government has never provided any justification for this intake. If there is no justification for the high intake, then there is no justification for huge unnecessary infrastructure expenditures that result from the intake. If Metro prevents the congestion, then Metro won’t need a “Congestion Improvement Tax”. If there were ever a time for Metro politicians to show some backbone, this is it.
Instead, the Mayors are trying to deceive the public by not saying why the area needs all the extra infrastructure. Two sample ballots that Metro Vancouver has published demonstrate the deceit. The first one began with this statement : “One million more people will live and work in Metro Vancouver by 2040. The region’s mayors worked together to develop a plan to reduce congestion on roads and bridges and to provide more transit to communities across the region.” To be blunt, this means that the Mayors didn’t have the guts to stand up to Ottawa and now they want residents to pay for their gutlessness.
The second sample ballot, the one that residents will use, says nothing about an additional 1 million people living in Metro Vancouver. The obvious question is “WHY?” The clear answer is that the Mayors and Councillors do not want Metro to ask who these 1 million people are and why they are coming here. The answer to “Who are these people” is unnecessary immigrants. The answer to “Why are they coming here?” is that all of our federal parties are equally gutless and scared that if they stand up for the majority of Canadians, they will lose their share of the immigrant vote.
None of the conventional reasons given for immigration such as the supposed necessity to deal with an aging population or the supposed need to stimulate the area’s economy are true. The federal government’s own research has shown that Canada should not use immigration to solve problems caused by an aging population. It has also shown that immigration provides no significant stimulus to the economy. In fact, recent research of thousands of income tax returns demonstrates that immigrants are taking close to $30 Billion per year more in benefits out of the economy that they are contributing in taxes.
Municipalities like to plead that they don’t have power over matters such as immigration. Yet, they often grovel to Ottawa for other things and manage to get concessions by doing so. The point is that now is an even more important time to get concessions and to avoid a senseless 1 million increase in Metro Vancouver’s population and the accompanying massive expenditures.
Municipalities should also stop pretending that their Green strategies will solve problems created by a massive population increase here. The truth is that Ottawa’s senseless high immigration policy will negate all the gains that might be achieved by Green strategies. For example, Vancouver boasts that it will become the Greenest City in the world. Meanwhile, it is clear-cutting huge areas of single-family detached houses in order to make room for high rise condos. The new people need resources such as water, heat and food. These demands will create huge new environmental pressures—as well as huge amounts of waste. In 2014, Metro shipped about 170,000 tonnes of garbage to places like Washington State. Annually, it generates about 900,000 tonnes of garbage, including single-family waste. What will these Green hypocrites say in 2040 when a new federal government wants to increase Metro Vancouver’s population by another 1 million?
The current municipal cast in Metro Vancouver does not seem capable of understanding that there are limits to an area’s ability to absorb people.
Metro Vancouver, Southern Ontario and many other urban areas in Canada reached that limit years ago. Canada desperately needs governments to develop some backbone and to stabilize our population.
Immigration Reformers Link GTA Traffic Gridlock to Massive Immigration
PORT CREDIT, January 17, 2015. A dozen immigration reformers braved cold winds this afternoon to call for major cuts to immigration to help ease traffic gridlock in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Members of Immigration Watch Canada and the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee displayed a banner “Fight Gridlock — Cut Immigration” on the pedestrian walkway above the Queen Elizabeth Way inbound to Toronto. Heavy traffic slowed right down. Many motorists honked or gave the thumbs up of approval. Some took pictures on their cellphones and tweeted or texted to their friends. One sorehead gave the group the finger.
The immigration reformers also leafletted several nearby parking lots and have vowed further protests
Traffic gridlock, GTA voters say, is their number one issue.
A statement circulated by the protesters proclaimed:
“Traffic gridlock, GTA voters say, is their number one issue.
Little surprise. The GTA has longer commute times than Los Angeles or Atlanta. Traffic gridlock costs us big time. Economists say it costs Ontario’s economy $7-billion a year! To say nothing of the wear and tear on nerves to say nothing of the wear on your car. How many times do you have to hit the brake when creeping along the QEW or the 401?
Every year, rush hour starts a little earlier. We’re now in gridlock at 3:00. How many more years will it be before it is 2:00!
Traffic gridlock is the result of Canada’s irresponsible immigration policies. Each year 125,000 immigrants flock to the GTA. Yet, our infrastructure — with the exception of the 407 — has hardly changed since 1970! What worked well 40 years ago is choking and doesn’t work today.
To add the roads and transit needed to alleviate traffic gridlock will take years and billions of dollars.
In the meantime, if the federal government keeps the immigration doors wide open and keeps flooding the GTA, even if we build new roads, the gridlock will continue.
This is not anti-immigrant. It is common sense.
Traffic gridlock is one of the many hidden costs of immigration. Anyway, with 6.3% unemployment — 1.5-million Canadians unemployed, another 900,000 involuntarily in part-time jobs — there is just no economic justification for immigration.
SPEAK UP: Call or write your MP, your councillor and mayor.
Insist that they represent you and work to FIGHT TRAFFIC GRIDLOCK by CUTTING IMMIGRATION.
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