Do Canada's Immigration Targets Make Sense?

The Missing Middle with Mike Moffatt and Cara Stern

Last week the federal government introduced a cap on international student visas. Going forward they will be distributed to the provinces on a per-capita basis. That got us thinking about Canada’s immigration policies in general. Canada’s openness to immigrants has always been one of Canada's great strengths. Our temporary immigration programs have some unique problems that are really tough to solve, but what about Canada’s permanent immigration system? How does it work? And do we have the right targets for Canada’s success?

In this 15-minute episode of the Missing Middle Podcast, Smart Prosperity Institute economist Mike Moffatt and journalist Cara Stern about the permanent and temporary streams of Canadian immigration, providing a lens through which to view the broader impact of the Trudeau government's targets on Canada's future growth and diversity.

Hosted by Mike Moffatt & Cara Stern

Produced by Meredith Martin

This podcast is funded by the Neptis Foundation and brought to you by the Smart Prosperity Institute.

Kapitler

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. What’s the difference between a permanent resident and temporary immigration? (00:00:55)

3. An immigration target of 500k doesn’t mean 500k newcomers (00:01:46)

4. 2:25 Is a target of 500,000 new immigrants per year a lot? (00:02:25)

5. Do we know where people are mostly coming from? (00:04:00)

6. Why do we need constant growth into the country? (00:04:48)

7. Why don’t we pause immigration to let housing catch up? (00:05:50)

8. Questions about Canada’s points system? (00:07:40)

9. Is there an optimal immigration target? (00:08:40)

10. The target is announced only two months in advance! (00:09:15)

11. Government ministries operate in silos (00:10:30)

12. Did the government fail to forecast and plan properly? (00:11:57)

13. Is it possible to target population growth to housing starts? (00:13:40)

14. The solution is longer term planning (00:14:13)