On Thursday, Chrystia Freeland was asked whether Canada has an immigration problem. In her response, she suggested Canada has a housing problem.
Canada, she argued, is the most welcoming country in the world for newcomers and enjoys an economic and competitive advantage as a result. But “if we want to be a country that welcomes new Canadians — and I strongly believe that’s the right thing for all of us,” she said, “we have to build more homes faster.”
The question for the finance minister was prompted by reporting by the Canadian Press that found senior public servants at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada were briefed in 2022 about a “misalignment between population growth and housing supply.” Such a divergence between demand and supply tends to drive up prices for housing.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada’s history of welcoming immigrants is an economic advantage. The housing crisis risks eroding that advantage. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
But how the problem is framed — as a matter of too much immigration or too little housing, or some combination of the two — matters a lot. While it might seem like a straightforward issue of supply and demand, the question of immigration and housing defies the desire for simple answers.
As much as population growth is a factor in the cost of housing in Canada, it may be oversimplifying matters to consider it a problem of “immigration” writ large, rather than a problem with specific elements of the immigration system. It’s possible, for instance, that the federal government needs to review the exponential growth in the arrival of non-permanent residents — specifically international students and temporary foreign workers.
“When we look at the past 30 years, we can see that the inflow of new [permanent residents] has long been a significant driver of population growth. In the last year or so, inflows of [non-permanent residents] have become more pronounced and now account for a larger share of population growth,” Toni Gravelle, deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, noted in a speech last month.
Big questions about international students and workers
Immigration Minister Marc Miller has taken some steps to impose restraint on student visas. But it’s not clear that he’s done enough.
“When it comes to international students, there is some work to be done there, whether it’s on reforming the post-graduate work permits that these people get or really controlling the volume,” Miller said an interview that will air Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live.
At the same time, universities and colleges might blanch if the federal government tried to significantly restrict such a lucrative stream of enrolment — and likely would argue that they are otherwise underfunded.
In his December speech, Gravelle also raised an interesting question about the distribution of temporary work permits — specifically, whether enough are going to the sorts of workers who might help this country build more houses.
“While Canada is welcoming more newcomers than ever, only about three per cent of [non-permanent workers] work in construction,” he said. “By comparison, roughly eight per cent of the overall employed population works in construction.”
If immigration could be better harnessed to accelerate home building, supply might actually help us meet demand.
The housing shortage and the Canadian consensus
When Freeland said this week that Canada has the “social capital” to welcome immigrants, she wasn’t wrong. For more than two decades, the number of Canadians who believe there is “too much” immigration to this country have been in the minority, according to polling by Environics.
But that consensus has wobbled markedly over the past year — and that is the larger concern hanging over this debate.
When Environics asked in 2022, 69 per cent of respondents disagreed with the idea that there was too much immigration to Canada, while 27 per cent agreed. By last September, disagreement was down to 51 per cent and agreement was up to 44 per cent.
A rental availability sign showing no vacancy stands outside an apartment building in Vancouver, British Columbia on Monday, November 21, 2022. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
If there is any good news in that finding, it’s that the drop in enthusiasm does not seem to be based in social or cultural concerns about newcomers; among those who agreed there was too much immigration, the share who said immigration represented a threat to Canadian or Quebec culture actually dropped from 24 per cent to eight per cent. Seventy-four per cent of all respondents also still agreed that the “economic impact of immigration is positive.”
Instead, the new doubts seem almost entirely attributable to concerns about housing; those saying immigrants drive up housing prices or lead to a shortage of housing for other Canadians jumped from 15 per cent to 38 per cent.
Solving the housing problem is therefore doubly important. Canadians need to be able to live comfortably — and social cohesion could be threatened if they can’t.
The danger of scapegoating immigration
While attention turned this week to immigration and its potentially negative impact on the cost and availability of housing, a report by Desjardins released on Wednesday warned that a “sharp drop‑off” in non-permanent residents “could deepen the recession expected in early 2024.”
That underlines the difficult balancing act and trade-offs at play. The Liberals can be sure they won’t be applauded if their efforts to make housing more affordable end up being blamed for causing an economic downturn.
If one accepts the premise that higher immigration is a net-positive — economically and socially — and even a public policy imperative for Canada, then significantly curtailing immigration for the sake of the housing market risks swapping one problem for another.
But there also remains the risk that immigration will be unfairly scapegoated for a problem that would be better pinned on federal, provincial and municipal governments that have failed to ensure enough houses get built in Canada.
As unfortunate as it might be that housing concerns are creating doubts about immigration, it would be worse still if blaming immigration became a handy excuse for governments to avoid necessary investments in social housing or changes to local zoning. There would still be a case for taking such action even if this country suddenly reduced immigration to zero.
In an ideal scenario, Canada would have both markedly higher immigration and more plentiful housing. And it would be a mistake to assume the current problem can simply be blamed on one or the other.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
