Immigration

In a 2005 study, Statscan reported that “Canada's population is ageing fast and senior citizens would outnumber children in about a decade, according to new population projections.”

This alarming projection isn’t news to any of us as this phenomenon of population aging has already been well documented by the media. However, what we often fail to appreciate is the lack of action on the part of current and past governments to deal with this issue, the only major achievement being the CPP reform under Martin.

What I am getting to, of course, is immigration.

At the moment, we are at a crossroad. The working population is about to dramatically drop, while data shows that the level of immigration has remained relatively constant, climbing only slightly from around 200 to 230 thousand per year. The combination of these two factors makes a labour shortage ten to fifteen years from now inevitable, which will have dire consequences on our economy and quality of life.

The only solution to this imminent crisis is to substantially increase our immigration levels, but as I said, nothing is being done. Unfortunately, we only have a few years left to steer ourselves back on course before the disaster becomes inevitable. A few politicians have already raised the flag, including ex-Liberal leadership candidate Maurizio Bevilacqua who pledged to double immigration levels to half a million per year, but their voices are being muffled by louder issues such as global warming and the war in Afghanistan.

It’s also important to recognize that the solution goes farther than sending a notice to our immigration officials telling them to let in a few more hundred thousand people every year. Even now, at the height of our oil boom, many new Canadians are having difficulties finding work. And while this can be attributed to a variety of sources, the main responsibility lies with Federal government, which makes the lives of many immigrants nightmarish by refusing to recognize their credentials.

We all understand that the only way to curb the imminent labour shortage is to increase immigration levels, yet this would become extremely undesirable in the short term if Federal government’s refusal to recognize foreign credentials made it impossible for those new immigrants to find work. The government must recognize this and take prompt action, because time really is counted.