Can Canada accommodate all the immigrants it plans to accept by 2025?

Can Canada accommodate all the immigrants it plans to accept by 2025?

Canada immigration policy
ASIFCONSULTING

A comfortable life includes having a place to live. The development of enough housing for immigrants is a major concern for Canada, especially considering the government’s increased immigration goals until 2025:

The country intends to receive a record-breaking amount of immigrants over the next three years, with annual targets set at no less than 465,000 and a milestone goal of 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025, according to Canada’s most recent Immigration Levels Strategy for 2023–2025.

In other words, these lofty goals are in place to help Canada make up for the deteriorating natural labor force caused by the country’s aging population and low fertility rate. In other words, Canada needs such high immigration targets to support the country’s labor market and guarantee the health of the overall economy.

 The concern that Canada might not be able to provide for some of the most fundamental needs that an influx of newcomers would have, however, is the other side of the country’s need for immigrants. Many are worried that Canada may find it difficult to accommodate a large number of immigrants it plans to welcome between now and 2025. The ability of the country to accommodate immigrants in the event that they decide to create a new life here is another issue that worries immigrants themselves.

 

Both immigrants and native-born citizens are concerned that Canada won’t be able to meet the housing needs of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants it hopes to welcome in the next few years.

Anxiety over this matter has persisted for a while, as evidenced by tales like that of Palestinian refugee Aziza Abu Sirdana. Abu Sirdana’s need for someone to acknowledge her housing struggle came to a head at a meeting with the federal administration in early November 2022.

Abu Sirdana cut herself in front of an official from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) after spending seven months living in a refugee hostel west of Toronto in an effort to catch their attention. Abu Sirdana asked rhetorically in an interview with CTV News, “If you [the state] knew that there isn’t a place that I can remain in, why did you accept me to come [to Canada]?”

Happily, a family in Ottawa eventually responded to Abu Sirdana’s plight later that month and permitted the Gaza-born refugee to move in with them, according to a follow-up report released by CTV on November 29.

Nonetheless, there are still many uncertainties and worries about Canada’s capacity to accommodate an expanding number of new immigrants. In fact, a CBC News article from November stated that the persistent housing crisis in the nation and rising immigration “targets” have “stoked anxiety over where all these new citizens will make their homes.”

A property tax expert in British Columbia was quoted in the same piece from only two months earlier as saying, “We build roughly 265,000 homes each year, and here we are talking about 500,000 immigrants coming in per year.” Before contemplating this immigration wave, we already have insufficient supplies. This statement, regrettably, only serves to increase Canadians’ growing degree of fear that the government may find it difficult to provide immigrants with the housing they need to start comfortable new lives all across the continent.

What is Canada doing to work towards solving this housing problem?

Canada’s largest province is already taking the first steps towards addressing this housing problem in Ontario thanks to a recent $3.5+ million investment put into the building industry as part of the federal government’s housing department.
On October 6, 2022,  Ontario declared a $3.7 million investment in Merit Ontario. Thousands of job seekers are matched with construction opportunities at more than 100 different companies by Merit Ontario, an organization that “supports contractors who employ both unionized and non-unionized workers, to build their online job bank.” in excess of 300 small, medium, and large companies.
This investment will help the province “deliver on its ambitious infrastructure ambitions,” which include constructing 1.5 million houses by 2031, by “helping up to 2,500 workers start or develop well-paying careers” in the construction industry.

An effective first step towards resolving the housing issue that now afflicts this nation is efforts like the financial commitment made in Ontario last year.

Recently, some non-Canadians who wanted to buy particular residential real estate were subject to a two-year purchase ban enforced by the federal government of Canada. This action, which prohibits non-Canadian citizens or permanent residents from purchasing residential real estate in Canada, aims to lower the cost of housing in this nation for both immigrants and naturalized Canadians. In the next few years, more new Canadians will be able to own homes in Canada thanks to this purchase ban and the money invested by the Ontario government.

NoteForeign workers and international students studying in Canada are exempt from the buying ban.

In the end, even though Canada won’t be able to immediately gauge the full effects of these housing expenditures and activities, time will soon tell if such measures as those stated above are sufficient to meet Canada’s ambitious immigration ambitions between now and 2025.

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