Canada needs 100,000 more immigrants a year

A former Canadian Immigration Director has stated that Canada needs to increase its annual immigration intake by 100,000 a year to match needed population targets. Robert Vineberg, former Director of Federal-Provincial Relations at Immigration Canada, is calling for policy changes in order to boost immigration numbers in most provinces.

According to Vineberg, although the major political parties agree that Canada needs to increase immigration, they are not doing enough to implement policies to make that a reality. Vineberg argues that Canada’s native labour force is declining and increasing immigration is a way to increase Canada’s population. Canada’s political parties are aiming for a 1% increase in immigration levels per year and according to Vineberg, the way to do that is to increase Canada’s immigration levels by 100,000 to 350,000 per year.

A recent study from the Fraser Institute suggested that immigration costs Canada up to $23.6 billion a year and that immigration an average of $6,051 more in benefits than they paid in taxes (according to data from the 2006 census). This study has been used for arguments to reduce immigration levels in Canada. But Vineberg says the study is faulty and statistics show that the average income of immigrants in Canada 15 years before the 2006 census was actually higher than the income of native-born Canadians.

Many provinces, including Ontario, are asking the federal government to remove limits on the number of immigrants each province is allowed to welcome through their Provincial Nominee Programs, in order to increase population and increase the labour force.

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