Immigration: The most disappointing debate in Canada
I have to say despite Trump, growing nationalism and all the other stuff that is going on - the rapidity of how the conversation around immigration shifted in 2025 across Canada is the most depressing. While it is definitely influenced by the US, it has taken on a life of its own in Canada.
In New Brunswick, in just two years we went from only 20% wanting fewer immigrants to nearly half the population (Narrative Research). And that is not the worst across the country.
It is depressing just how quick the ignorant are to traffic in outright falsehoods and how quick experts are to use legitimate or somewhat legitimate data to extrapolate or insinuate false equivalencies.
For example, people in my orbit are saying things like the government recklessly increased the population from 37 million to 41 million and “that doesn’t include the millions of temporary workers”. No, that does include the millions of temporary workers and students and shame on you for saying otherwise. Another common theme across social media is that immigrants get $80,000 per year from the government. That one I’m not even sure where it came from although it might have something to do with refugee support as we do subsidize them early on as part of our commitment to support refugee populations. Refugees accounted for 5% of total New Brunswick permanent resident admissions in 2024 and some of those were privately sponsored (not supported by government). 95% of immigrants are not refugees and the vast majority of them are working and contributing tax revenue as soon as the arrive in Canada.
Among the experts, you hear things like the UN condemned Canada for herding international students 15 to a room or something similar. So, we take a few examples of bad actors in Ontario and BC’s post-secondary education sector and we make the entire country pay for it by slashing numbers across the board. The last time I looked on a relative basis, Ontario had 60% more enrolled in PSE in Ontario compared to New Brunswick (77% more if you look on at the workforce aged 55+). It’s intellectually lazy and sloppy to look out your window and assume your weather is the same across the country. I don’t care how many Phds you have.
To reach Ontario’s level of PSE enrolment relative to workforce size, New Brunswick would need 20,000 more PSE students, not less. Let’s agree that Ontario went overboard (or tried to corner the national PSE market) but let’s not agree to cut equally.
I think we need to have a conversation about immigration and the attraction of temporary population. It’s fair to say in many locations too many streamed in and negatively impacted housing costs, access to services, etc. - not good for them and not good for Canadians. It’s fair to have a conversation about being better at integrating new population.
And, quite frankly, if a large majority of Canadians/New Brunswickers do not want to attract immigrants, politicians will respond (and are doing so now). But when the foundation on which decisions are made is faulty or overly generalized, that is when I get depressed.
And spare a thought about the newcomers too. It can’t be fun for them either to hear all this crap.
NB immigrant here. Hope you keep sounding this message, David. So many formerly great countries have gone into self-harm mode, I hope we can be the exception. Our family of new Canadians is definitely adding more to the economy than we are taking out. Suspect that is often the case.
And crap it is! I haven't been able to get AI to calculate the cost of getting the average Canadian to economic independence, but it comes up with 350,000 without including public spending on things like public schooling, medical care, transportation, public services, etc. I'm going to take a stab at it and say it's our $2.14 trillion GDP divided by 41 million people, then multiplied by 22 years to become financially independent. So, approximately $1,144,000. I think a refugee or economic immigrant is worth that much to the Canadian economy, give or take a few dollars.
Immigrants, because they are chosen, are generally better-educated and more eager to work than we spoiled Canadians are, and they often bring children with them, saving us the considerable cost of raising them to their present level. Economically, there is no reasonable argument against bringing in as many as will come. Socially, they mix and mingle incredibly fast, and their track record as peaceful 'joiners' is much better than popular opinion would have us think. Almost immediately, they contribute more to society than they cost. They don't take jobs, they create them... they don't cost us money, they generate a profit for everyone. The housing 'affordability problem' in the Atlantic provinces is not a product of immigration.
We must stop using immigration as a scapegoat for our perceived problems. We cannot sustain our present living standards, let alone improve them, without immigration. The limits to immigration are social, not economic, and we should recognize that for what it is so we can deal with it. We should say what we mean when we criticize those who have chosen Canada for their home, and air our perceived grievances in the light of day. Otherwise, we will become what we fear...poorer, and uglier.