In Canada, high immigration numbers are (falsely) blamed for high housing prices and low availability of housing.
The truth is quite different- in Toronto and Vancouver, the two largest housing markets in Canada, there are tens of thousands of vacant existing homes and unsold new projects, the result of speculators “land banking” ( or in some cases laundering money) and the government insuring most mortgages, at no risk to the lender, driving prices way up.
Except…the housing markets in those two metropolis areas is in a severe downturn, with sales volumes down up to 50% and prices down 20+% from the 2022 peak. Rents have come down too.
Nevertheless, the mantra is “build, baby, build!”, accepting the myth that more supply equals lower prices, and reducing immigration numbers will reduce competition for housing, creating more downward pressure on housing prices.The permanent resident visa quotas were reduced from 500k/yr to about 350k/yr. The recent Carney budget had half a billion allotted to build “affordable” housing, with the impossible target of half a million units built per year.
The person in the article apparently entered Canada on a student visa, and then remained under a work visa. His chosen industry has been severely affected by tariffs, and he will now have to choose between returning to his home country or remaining illegally in Canada.
Canada doesn’t have an ICE Gestapo terrorizing its populace, but once someone is discovered to be in the country illegally, they are deported.
Meanwhile, Canada accepts more refugees than the US, and we have a tenth of the US population.
= new reply since forum marked as read