The Case for 100 Million Canadians (thewalrus.ca)

submitted 1 month ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 month ago

We've neglected our infrastructure for decades. Both the physical stuff like housing, transit, community centers, and sewers; but also the human side, like doctors, nurses, and skilled trades.

Once we get ourselves to the point where everyone has a doc, people can get around easily, and schools have enough space/teachers, we'll be ready to invite a significant number of people in.

[-] Mavvik@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago

The article discusses this issue specifically and provides a pretty balanced perspective on it. I don't personally blame immigration for the issues we see today and there is a compelling argument that immigration could help us out of these problems, but it really does require adequate government investment in the sectors that need labour (like healthcare)

[-] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

I wish Carney had straight-up promised that governments would build affordable housing instead of relying on private enterprise doing it.

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

The problem is that our governments are shit planners. They've allocated funds poorly, failed to train enough healthcare workers, failed to expand transit, financialized housing, and basically just paid attention to the next election cycle.

The article kinda mentions that, but doesn't go into it. Recently, politicians used immigration as a stopgap to cover for our terrible productivity and aging demographics (don't forget post secondary funding!).

Do you trust the current crop of politicians to suddenly find competence and be able to pull off a smooth doubling of our population when they screwed up the 30% increase of the past free decades?

I don't.