IMMIGRATION: Bank Gives Grim Warning About Open Borders & Economy
This bad news for Trudeau is also a warning flag for America
There is a reason that Milton Friedman said a country could have open borders or a welfare state, but not both. And hard reality is finally catching up to fantasy in Canada.
Canada is a country roughly one tenth the size of the United States. So whenever you are considering the American equivalent of Canadian population scale, just add a zero.
Trudeau has taken great pride in setting up Canada as the world’s first post-nation state, where borders mean nothing, and unlimited immigration is encouraged — even if that means profound unintended consequences on the nation as a whole.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
From Jan 2022 to Jan 2023, Canada’s population grew by 1.05 million people, to 39.57 million. By June 2023, it surpassed 40 million. Their government has a population clock, similar to America’s debt clock. And as of this writing, the government figures for the population stands at 40,794,682.
Here’s a picture to help visualize it.
As in Biden’s America, this number is driven almost entirely by immigration. Biden’s numbers are even almost to scale with Canada’s population percentage totals if you add that ‘zero’ at the end.
Consider Canada the canary in the coal mine. The Bank of Canada — their answer to the Fed — is sounding an alarm. The problem everyone on the right predicted, and everyone on the left called a lie is catching up with them.
As it turns out, open borders puts one hell of a burden on the economy.
The heads of Canada’s major financial institutions gathered last week and offered uniform criticism of how the Canadian government has handled the massive wave of immigration.
‘I think there’s some urgency to bring these numbers of students and temporary workers into better balance with the arithmetic of our home-building strategy … The numbers just don’t add up,’ said Avery Shenfeld, the chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets.
The Canadian Press recently reported that government employees issued an internal warning in 2022 that continued rapid population bumps could exert pressure on the country’s socialized healthcare system and affordable housing.
[…]
Economists describe a population trap as a situation in which living standards cannot improve because the population is expanding too rapidly and all excess funds become tied up with maintaining the market’s capital-to-labor ratio.
The health of Canada’s economy has been in a state of flux for years, predating the current migration trends.
However, some say current conditions have pushed the unsteady economy to the brink of collapse, an issue Justin Trudeau is contending with as he faces approval numbers in free fall and the possibility of an ouster come the next election. — DailyMail
One of the economists in the meeting put it in simple terms. The government is making it ‘too easy’ to hire foreigners, and ‘cheaper to bring people in, rather than investing’.
If you thought this affordability crisis was bad now, just wait until it hits levels Canadians are already starting to get pressed by.
The only people to really benefit is anyone looking for cheap labour.
