Canada is buckling under record immigration

Every so often policy wonks or talking heads hyperventilate about Canada’s need for more people. The growth boosters take the crude numbers for Canada’s land surface area (about 9.1 million square kilometers) and divide it by Canada’s population (34 million) and conclude that there’s a desperate shortage of people, a paltry 3.3 per square kilometer...

Such ecological illiteracy in an era when we are allegedly all becoming more aware about the human impact on the environment is stunning. The best explanation that I can think of for the media promoting such ideas is that the media tend to be owned by those who benefit from growth. Most Canadians do not...

With our current low birth rate (averaging 1.6 children per woman), population growth is driven by immigration...

When one considers the parts of Canada that are realistically capable of supporting a large population, they are already densely populated...

 There have been at least three reports that specifically looked at population growth in Canada from an environmental perspective (Science Council of Canada’s report No. 25 in 1976; a now declassified confidential report to the Privy Council in 1991 called The Environment: Marriage Between Earth and Mankind; and the Healey report of 1997 on the ecosystems of the Fraser River basin in British Columbia). All documented the stress that population growth is putting on Canada’s agricultural land and ecosystems. The collapse of the cod fishery and the increasing decimation of Canada’s biodiversity support their conclusions.

Canada should set an example to the world by stabilizing its own population and supporting ethical family planning efforts in its foreign aid...

... 78% of those surveyed thought an increase in population would worsen the preservation of farmland, 76% thought it would worsen access to nature, 76% thought it would worsen housing affordability, while 73%, 66%, and 66%, respectively, thought it would worsen a healthy environment, quality of life, and efforts to address climate change.

Additionally, 61% said they would be upset with more crowded cities and towns in their community; 82% percent thought that a large city was not the best place to live, and 54% thought that quality of life in cities had declined in the last forty years, in contrast to 20% who thought it had gotten better...

The CSS survey did not inform responders that immigration is responsible for over 95% of recent population growth in Canada...

l recent surveys show that Canadians are stressed by the changes and pressures that immigration-driven population growth is imposing on their communities.... l recent surveys show that Canadians are stressed by the changes and pressures that immigration-driven population growth is imposing on their communities...

As one commentator sarcastically wrote in response to PIC’s June tweet about Canada reaching the 40 million milestone with a growth rate exceeding that of almost all countries in the world: "Yay! We beat Africa! Third World status is within our reach!"...