The Banks
On Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-11/trudeau-botched-immigration-surge-canada-s-top-bank-economists-say?srnd=premium-canada. Banks and their double speak: the immigration surge has caused inflation, among numerous economic problems but no details on how interest rates control the surge, nor they solve the issues.
Lots of lines of Newspeak: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to dramatically increase immigration — and allow a flood of temporary workers and international students — without providing proper support has created a laundry list of economic problems, including higher inflation and weak productivity, chief economists at Canada’s biggest banks said Thursday during a wide-ranging panel discussion in Toronto.
More workers = less productivity, even though those workers are supposed to fill employment positions already in existence. Keep surge at the back of mind.
Obviously, I already have a bias because I don’t believe the Statscan figures.
And, suggest the Banks don’t either: Canada accepted about 455,000 new permanent residents in the year to Oct. 1 while bringing in more than 800,000 non-permanent residents, a category that includes temporary workers, foreign students and refugees. With a population growth rate of 3.2%, it’s growing faster than any Group of Seven nation, China or India.
455 000 new permanent residences by October, 20223 is quite a DROP from the 1 000 000 we had by June, last year: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/3861-40-million-strong-canada-reaches-new-population-milestone. Unless, the government announcement of 40 000 000 new Canadians was deliberately misleading, and really a composite of both Temporary and permanent residents: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230322/dq230322f-eng.htm.
To quote: Canada's population was estimated at 39,566,248 on January 1, 2023, after a record population growth of 1,050,110 people from January 1, 2022, to January 1, 2023.
And, evidence for my belief, numbers can be made to said anything and we don’t have 40 million people and are, in fact, losing people.
So, annoying not being able to trust anything.
Anyhow, the Bank article articulated the most obvious reason why FOREIGN STUDENTS are not staying here, probably why not as many are even coming : The problem is worsened in provinces that have restricted funding to post-secondary institutions, forcing the schools to make up the lost revenue with international students, Shenfeld said. The result is community colleges with “branch plants” full of international students in Toronto office buildings, he said. “It’s just really a tuition-making machine.
Education as economic industry is NOT an attractive reason for students to come here, even our own to stay. Money is the incentive for schools, not intellectual development. What is the appeal for Students then to go to them? I find the whole thing tawdry, no disrespect to Teachers. I think our Teachers quite good, but short changed.
Anyhow
An economist also said this: Canada has tended to rely on immigration to stanch complaints from businesses about their difficulty hiring, several economists said. While that’s understandable, “in a way we made it too easy for businesses to hire,” said Jean-Francois Perrault, chief economist at Bank of Nova Scotia. He pointed to the US, which has much tougher immigration policies and higher productivity. “Immigration policy made it cheaper to bring people in rather than investing.
The presumption is, then, the Americans don’t have Temporary Residents and begs the question why we get so many apparently, yet why so few want to stay?
Because it’s too expensive?
And, a lot is demanded of them despite the fact they have no investment in the country?
And, no training time is considered in the measurement of their productivity?
Nor, is the fact greatest profit is the ethos of Banks, so, when they complain of the population surge, the most obvious point to me is the institutions are not getting those Temporary Foreigners as customers. Sounds counter-intuitive? Lot easier to say they cannot control the crowds then admit they just aren’t there.
IMO. No disrespect to Trudeau, this mess began in 2008 when we first got involved with Ukraine.