<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nIn March 2020, he announced a target of one million new permanent residents by 2022. Then in October, he bumped this up to 1.2 million from 2021 to 2023. This is more than triple the U.S. per capita immigration rate which has nearly nine times Canada\u2019s population. (That doesn\u2019t include the flow of illegal immigration into the U.S.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
t<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The ravages of the pandemic have resulted in prudence elsewhere. The U.S. reduced its visa approvals a year ago, Australia lowered its immigration target to 160,000 (with 28 million people compared to Canada\u2019s 37.7 million), and New Zealand said its priority was to train people already in the country for available jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By contrast, Mendicino announced that of the 400,000 allowed in per year, the breakdown would be 232,000 immigrants in the economic class, or employable people; 103,500 in the family class (mostly parents and grandparents); and 65,000 refugees and protected persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such levels are unjustifiable by many measures. Canada\u2019s unemployment rate is high, at 8.1 per cent, compared to 6.1 per cent in the U.S, and 5.6 per cent in Australia. Canada\u2019s economic recovery is more fragile and will take longer, according to forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. The U.S. is vaccinating its way back quickly to an estimated 6.4 per cent growth in 2021 and Canada is forecast for 5 per cent growth this year, but that\u2019s impossible given the lockdowns and border closings due to Ottawa\u2019s ongoing vaccine procurement failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides, the very notion trotted out by the immigration minister that the economy grows because of immigration is fallacious. Plopping lots of people into an economy may increase the GDP but not if they are grandparents, unskilled, cannot find work, or are underemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To analyze the benefits of immigration, it\u2019s important to look at the GDP per capita figures. This metric makes it obvious that Canadian immigration has served mostly to cut the pie into smaller pieces for everybody: Canada\u2019s GDP ranks ninth in size, but its GDP per capita is only 18th, less than the U.S. GDP per capita at fifth place, or Australia\u2019s at 9th place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Other reasons this aggressiveness is inappropriate is because the U.S. recovery may not flow northward as border closures continue, or the likelihood that new entrants will be unable to find jobs or, if they do, will displace workers already here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other negatives include the reality that 1.2 million newcomers will overcrowd Canada\u2019s cities and increase the cost of services, and the cost of housing which is already unaffordable to Canada\u2019s middle class. And why would Ottawa allow more elderly persons into a country that is aging rapidly and increasingly struggling with health-care costs for older persons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trudeau\u2019s immigration scheme is unlikely to yield anywhere near the numbers sought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that the GDP per capita is lower than Canada\u2019s peers demonstrates that this is not about wealth creation. It does nothing to address Canada\u2019s soaring debt ratio or to create jobs for Canadians. This immigration reach is about vote-getting in immigrant enclaves, and simply another accelerated policy to redistribute Canada\u2019s wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read and sign up for Diane\u2019s newsletter on America at<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diane Francis: Trudeau’s immigration scheme is just another way to redistribute Canada’s wealth Plopping lots of people into an economy may increase GDP, but not if they’re grandparents, unskilled, can’t find work or are underemployed Diane Francis 126 Comments Article content It\u2019s hard to imagine a bigger bungle by the Trudeau government than the vaccine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1593,1592,1595,1594,165],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2160,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions\/2160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital\/financialpost\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/vw0514immigration.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288\")