Canada needs to limit population to address housing crisis! New immigrants become the biggest victims
Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has stated that he wants to "limit population growth" in order to curb housing costs, while a minority Liberal government has hinted that it is considering lowering immigration levels.
In recent years, the population growth of Canada is mainly driven by new immigrants. At a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Bo Lizhi promised that his Conservative government will limit Canada's rapid population growth in the future, ensuring that population growth does not exceed the pace of new housing construction.
Boli Zhi promised to release specific figures before the next federal election, and he also expressed his hope to hold the election as soon as possible, while accusing Prime Minister Trudeau's government of increasing housing costs due to allowing too many new immigrants, which does not match the speed of housing construction.
Bo Lizhi said, 'This is not even a question of whether you support immigration, but a question of whether you support mathematics.'. “
He said, 'People need houses.'. I don't care where they come from. Whether you stay here for two days or your family has lived here for two centuries, you need a place to live. The only way to solve the housing shortage is to build houses faster than the population growth rate, which is why we have a mathematical formula that limits population growth to below housing growth. “
Bo Lizhi also hinted that he will extend the Liberal government's latest measures to restrict international student visas in order to alleviate the pressure of housing costs.
In recent years, housing prices in Canada have risen significantly, and experts say that there are multiple reasons for the housing crisis. In a report released in April, RBC economists pointed out that this crisis includes a series of factors such as interest rate fluctuations, limited housing stock, and the recent surge in immigration.
At the same time, the Liberal government is preparing its annual immigration target plan, which details how many new immigrants the federal government hopes to introduce in the next three years. At a retreat for Liberal MPs in Nanaimo, British Columbia this week, Immigration Minister Mark Miller stated that MPs discussed the issue of national immigration levels.
The minister refused to respond to whether the government would "rationally" reduce immigration levels. He told reporters in French that this is an issue that the Liberal Party must closely consider. He also stated that the government hopes to reduce the proportion of temporary residents from the current 6.1% of the total population to 5% within three years.
In January of this year, the government announced that it would set a maximum limit of 364000 student visas for a period of two years, which is 35% lower than the level in 2023. This move is in response to the rapid growth of international students in Canadian schools. Previously, the Liberal Party relaxed regulations for foreign students and immigrant workers under the pretext of addressing labor shortages, resulting in an increase in the temporary resident population from 1.4 million to 2.5 million in the past two years.
The population of Canada has now exceeded 40 million. Statistics Canada reported last year that the population grew by 2.9% in 2022, the fastest growth rate in decades, with almost all of the growth (98%) coming from immigration, including new permanent residents and temporary residents.
Source link:
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/pierre-poilievre-wants-to-cap-population-growth-to-rein-in-housing-costs/article_a181bdac-7052-11ef-acf3-c7af03379000.html