There are two facts in Canada which are indisputable: (1) Immigration targets are 465,000, 485,000 and 500,000 for the next three years, and (2) there is a country-wide urban housing shortage. In many quarters, that raises an obvious question about bringing more people to live in Canada when there already aren’t enough places to live.
When Bloomberg News put that question to Immigration Minister Marc Miller, here is what he said:
“We have to get away from this notion that immigrants are the major cause of housing pressures and the increase in home prices. We tend not to think in longer historical arcs or in generational terms, but if people want dental care, health care and affordable housing that they expect, the best way to do that is to get that skilled labor in this country.”
As a result, the Federal Government intends to stick to its immigration targets, at least.
“I don’t see a world in which we lower it, the need is too great,” said Miller, who’s expected to announce new targets on Nov. 1. “Whether we revise them upwards or not is something that I have to look at. But certainly I don’t think we’re in any position of wanting to lower them by any stretch of the imagination.”
You can read the entire Bloomberg report here.