I was at the No Frills on Upper James when I saw a woman, who appeared to be of Indian background, sitting outside with a sign asking for money to help pay her rent.
( Before I continue, she had a heavy Indian accent, which leads me to believe this was not her country of birth )
My first reaction was that newcomers already have access to various settlement programs and forms of government support. But then I started thinking about the bigger picture. What if the enormous population growth Canada has allowed is now beginning to hurt the very newcomers it was supposed to help?
When housing supply doesn’t keep pace with population growth, rents rise. When more people are competing for entry-level jobs, employment becomes harder to find. When food, transportation and basic necessities become more expensive, everybody at the lower end of the income scale gets squeezed, whether they were born here or arrived last year.
And that brings me to the larger problem.
Ontario Works caseloads are climbing. Food-bank use across Canada has essentially doubled since 2019. Ontario food-bank visits have increased by more than 120%. Here in Hamilton, food-bank use has risen dramatically, homelessness remains extremely high, and encampments have become a far more visible part of everyday life.
Canadians are struggling to pay rent, buy groceries, find affordable housing and secure decent-paying jobs.
My own daughter attended Mohawk College and estimated that 80 to 90% of one of her classes was made up of students of Indian background. I’m not blaming those students for applying. I’m questioning how Canada’s immigration and college systems were allowed to become so heavily dependent on enormous numbers of international students, especially when international students pay colleges several times what Canadian students do.
And I’m not just talking about international students. I’m talking about the total number of permanent immigrants, temporary workers, international students, refugees and asylum seekers entering Canada.
Immigration obviously didn’t cause every homeless person, every food-bank visit or every Ontario Works case.
But the question is still completely legitimate:
If welfare caseloads are increasing, food banks are breaking records, homelessness is rising, housing is unaffordable, healthcare is overwhelmed and Canadians are already struggling, why is the government continually increasing the population faster than Canada could build the housing, infrastructure and services needed to support it?
Immigration should benefit Canada, and it should also give newcomers a genuine chance to succeed once they arrive.
The number of people entering this country should be based on how many people Canada can realistically house, employ and support.
Build the capacity first.
Then set the immigration numbers.
Because bringing people into an affordability crisis and expecting both Canadians and newcomers to somehow absorb the consequences isn’t compassionate or intelligent policy.
At some point, we have to acknowledge that this is a real issue and one that can no longer be brushed aside.
I would imagine that many people who dismiss these concerns are simply fortunate enough not to be feeling the effects personally. But when someone is financially secure, comfortable and largely insulated from the consequences, it becomes very easy to tell everyone else that there is no problem. In my opinion, there is something deeply self-absorbed about that.
Canada cannot keep expanding its population while housing, healthcare, employment opportunities, social assistance and food-bank systems are already under this much pressure.
In my opinion, Canada needs to temporarily close, or at the very least drastically restrict, new admissions until we get these problems under control and build the capacity to properly support the people who are already here, both Canadian-born and newcomers alike.
That isn’t about hostility toward immigrants. It’s about recognizing that no system can absorb unlimited pressure without eventually failing the very people it is supposed to serve.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Canada should significantly reduce immigration until housing, healthcare, employment and affordability catch up? – Kristopher Hunter, Hamilton
What’s your opinions ?
- AI content to block out the eyes *