this post was submitted on 23 May 2025
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Without immigration, Canada's population would be going down. They wouldn't need more houses.
So I mean, yeah, they're rightfully getting blamed for it.
Another part of the problem are regulations, which make houses safer, more efficient, and better all around, but they also make it harder and more expensive to build houses.
Both problems, immigration and housing regulations, are caused by the government. Housing regulations shouldn't be repealed, but they can just stop immigration. But immigrants are a cash cow, so they won't.
As I understand it, immigration is always a balancing act. We have a demographic problem in Canada. As more boomers retire there needs to be workers to take their place and pay taxes to fund services. Many critical industries are experiencing a labour shortage and those jobs need to be filled. Their isn't enough young Canadian citizens to accomplish this. Immigration can't just be stopped.
More immigrants will put pressure on the housing market, but the lack of housing is the result of decades of government complacency, as well as support for Canadian housing as an investment vehicle. The amount of houses/housing we need right now is huge. So huge that the current amount of construction workers in Canada cannot build it quickly enough. Immigrant workers will be needed. Undoing the decades of damage done to housing in Canada will take a sustained, long term, and bold effort. Does the current government have the will for that? I'm not super hopeful. Politicians have vested interests in keeping the housing market 'strong'. I hate to be fatalist, but even if the government does everything right, I don't expect the cost of housing to decrease any in the medium term.
Unfortunately, I don't have answers, besides the obvious that immigration policy needs to be nuanced and strategic.
That's my view of things anyway. I invite anyone to criticise and share knowledge on the subject.
Imo, infinite growth is not sustainable. A country can work just fine at a set population level, or even when it's going down slowly.
I bet if the Canadian govt would stop approving new visas right now, housing prices would crash.
I'm not advocating for a system with infinite growth. I don't disagree with your first point, there's nothing inherently wrong with a country having a stagnant or declining population, but that's an over simplification. You need to look at the demographics. When more people are retired and drawing on services than there are people to work and pay for those services, that isn't sustainable. If you need more care homes for the elderly, than you need more people that work at care homes, for example.
If the housing prices are what they are now, with the current supply and demand, how would stopping new immigration cause a crash in housing prices? The aricle we're commenting under says that 1/5 of construction workers are immigrants. Would you want to stop bringing in more construction workers to build housing given the current crisis? Like I said before, immigration policy is complicated and needs to be nuanced and strategic, it isn't an all or nothing situation.