this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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Canada's population is about to hit 40 million (www150.statcan.gc.ca)
submitted 2 years ago by andykm to c/canada
31 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The population of Canada is expected to hit 40 million within the next day or two, according to StatCan's modelling.

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[–] grte 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

I am very pro-immigration with the caveat that I absolutely don't think Canada is matching it's housing strategy with it's immigration strategy. We live in one of the largest, emptiest countries in the world and can absolutely find room to bring many people in. And bringing many people in would allow us to create a productive capacity that would allow us to decouple from the US economy and control our own fate in a way we don't right now.

That said, all that space means nothing without housing for people to live in, so the government needs to get back into the business of building public housing. We can look to the example of Vienna, Austria on how to create high quality, desirable public housing that people want to live in. Simply providing incentives to private industry hoping they will solve the problem has failed again and again. This is a problem where we need to make and execute a plan.

[–] EhForumUser 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

We live in one of the largest, emptiest countries in the world and can absolutely find room to bring many people in.

The Canadian government has crown land that is offered for free to those willing to settle those empty spaces. It is not that we can't find room, but that people don't want to occupy the space.

[–] monkeedude1212 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario; people don't want to live out in the boonies in the middle of nowhere, they like amenities like "restaurants" and "clothing stores". Maybe even a super market that can stock a few international ingredients from home.

Who is going to build all that infrastructure to prop up a new town before the residents move in?

Free crown land costs you nothing because just trying to live there means you'll be doing some of the developing.

Affordable housing isn't even an immigration problem, it also gets tied to birth rates as a population spike.

This is just a failure of the free market to address the needs of the populace, and is evidence that housing either needs to be provided by the government like any other see public service, or a public competitor needs to exist to drive prices down.

[–] EhForumUser 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This is just a failure of the free market to address the needs of the populace

Yes, the failure of the free market to exist is understandably a problem. For example:

  • Municipal planning and zoning severely restricts where and what types of housing can be built.
  • Controls on immigration keeps out the immigrants who would actually see establishing new communities as a better life. In modern Canada, for all practical purposes we only let in rich immigrants who feel like they have better things to do.
  • Controls on immigration in other countries means it is difficult for us to leave.
  • Market manipulation (e.g. copyright) directs resources in bizarre ways, often away from people who need housing.

The list goes on and on.

I don't know if I consider myself a free market type. I think smart regulation can be useful. But our specific attempt to avoid a free market is certainly broken, at least when optimizing for allowing housing for all. No doubt a free market would bring improvement over what we currently have for those in need of somewhere to live.

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