Whoever established that this country has to grow at such a fast pace?
Why? What is the incentive behind this? to show that the economy is growing?
Using people as props for fake economic growth is the opposite of progressive values. Canada has to stop looking at immigrants as 'factors of GDP growth' and instead has to look as to whether it can house people and provide all the basic needs of its people first. You can not save the entire world when your house is burning
How about we start asking how immigrants and all people here live better? How about we make sure that this country is the place immigrants expect? Instead of having to come and find out that expectations had nothing to do with reality, that what was promised does not exist, such as: housing, health care, education, food security and so on
ICELAND
Why does Iceland for example do so well and they don't have ' aggressive immigration targets to grow the population'? What does Canada lack that it can't be like Iceland? The answer is absolutely nothing. In fact, if anything we should be ahead of Iceland, we have far more resources, far more opportunities, far better geographically positioned and the list goes on.
I want to touch on 4 points:
I want Liberal politicians to repeat three times:
"There is a shortage of 3.5 Million Homes"
"There is a shortage of 3.5 Million Homes"
"There is a shortage of 3.5 Million Homes"
Get it? As in there's a need for 3.5 million homes to be built to restore of affordability.
Let's talk in practical terms - Affordability means that working people can actually 'afford life'. Forget about building wealth, and planning for retirement ... we're talking about "affording life"
You simply CAN NOT bring more people into this.
It is time for the liberal government to stop using migrants to prop up their GDP figures and growth at the expense of the lives and dreams of people. It simply inhumane. Your current plan is NOT working, in fact it hasn't worked for a long time now.
How's your latest physician visit been? IF you've been able to even see a physician.
I am going to bet on 'not so great' I am going on "I didn't get the care I need" "I self-medicated from the 'over the counter aisle' " and "I waited 8 hours in an ER before giving up and going home, now I have a permanent disability" or "I went to Mexico to see a specialist because by the time a physician would have seen me, I would have been dead or suffer a permanent disability "
The current health care situation is unnaceptable
If that is not a red flag, I don't know what is.
Immigrants are coming and many are leaving. I want you to really think this through, here we have people who invested many years of time, and savings, full of hopes left everything behind, and despite that all, chose to pack up and leave or move elsewhere. That disconnect is both a disgrace to immigrants and to Canada.
Should be this the country that the best and brightest want to live in or should it be the country that only those who are desperate enough want to stay?
I think that is the question that we all should be asking about the future of migration. I for one, Canada place is to be the #1 place the best and brightest want to move to, not the 13th and declining
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Lately, for the past 5 years, I have been back and forth from Mexico to Canada. I have been regretting that I bet my future here, I have been agonizing because after building all my adult life here, I no longer see a good future here. I have moved from Alberta to Quebec, to Ontario and it seems there's no escape to the misery.
But this country wasn't like this before.
I moved here because I knew that in Canada I could be a landscaper and make a living, I could even work at a coffee shop and afford my own little apartment. Well, that at least used to be the Canada I knew, and now? Now even office workers, healthcare professionals can no longer afford their own little place.
For years I thought I was alone, I thought well Mexico is a nice country to live as well, perhaps because I was Mexican from a middle class family, perhaps because every one I know in Mexico has their own place, are doing well economically? perhaps because I see more and more Canadians moving to Mexico?
But then, I started opening up. I started talking to other migrants, at an uber, at a work place, at a coffee shop and it shocked me at the amount of people that told me "I don't want to be here anymore" "I no longer see a future here" and many of these came from countries that are in clear distress, places like Lebanon or Argentina. And it really has to dawn on you if someone from a country that is literally on the brink of total financial ruin, with inflation above 100% and not to mention a lack of personal security wants to go back to that? is moving back to that? from Canada? Really? Yes, really.
If we are TRULY to commit to environmental targets, knowing that living in this country makes you one of the top ten contributors per capita to global warming, why would you add more population to it?
Anyone who is truly committed to Global targets on lowering emissions would agree that increasing the population of Canada is an environmentally unfriendly thing to do.
USING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AS SOURCE OF CHEAP LABOUR
THE COUNTRY THAT WANTS IMMIGRANTS BUT CAN'T HOUSE THEM
IMMIGRANTS ( AND CANADIANS ) LEAVING CANADA AT A RECORD RATE
Time to stop playing with people's lives. It is time to stop treating human lives, dreams, and aspirations as mere pieces for a nice, yet deceptive, GDP Growth Chart
It is time to match expectations with realities and advise potential newcomers of what they can expect in today's Canada. A notice of transparency that will include the following points:
LACK OF DECENT HOUSING
- You will almost certainly live in crowded accommodations and will not be able to own your own home, most likely ever.
- You might sleep under a bridge or a trashcan, even when it's -20c.
UNDEREMPLOYMENT / DISCRIMINATION
- You will probably be under-employed and will likely not be able to convert your credentials. At least not in the first few years.
- You're likely to face discrimination and unemployment if your background is African, South East Asian, or Middle Eastern.
LACK OF HEALTH CARE HEALTH CARE
- You will most likely have no Family Doctor, at best you will face long wait times to see someone at a walk-in clinic at worst you'll be sent home, sick.
- Don't expect to see a medical specialist, unless you are prepared to wait months or years.