GOLDSTEIN: Liberal immigration policy sabotaging Liberal housing policy

Federal Housing Minister, Sean Fraser's recent statement during an interview with The Canadian Press signals a refreshed housing strategy to be unveiled by the Trudeau government in 2024, leading to questions about the success and effectiveness of past plans. Since coming to power in 2015, the Liberals have frequently developed new housing strategies. In 2017, they rolled out their National Housing Strategy initially designed as a $40 billion ten-year plan which has since grown to over $82 billion, running until March 2028, with the aim of providing more Canadians with homes.

Issues arise, however, with the clash between housing and immigration policies, potentially causing the necessity for the upcoming revised housing plan. As former immigration minister, Fraser proudly unveiled an aggressive proposal to increase Canada's yearly immigration targets to 465,000 permanent residents this year, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. This move places significant pressure on Canada's housing market, affecting affordability.

Subsequent policy plans show the target for 2026 to be another 500,000 permanent residents, a huge jump from the 272,000 in 2015 when the Liberals first took power. Furthermore, Canada plans on accepting a record 900,000 international students this year, a major increase from the 352,000 in 2015, as revealed by current Immigration Minister Marc Miller. The addition of 220,000 temporary foreign workers last year, a rise of 68% from 2021, also contributes to the burden, according to a Globe and Mail analysis of federal data.

The consequence of these immigration policies is a massive population boost, as reported by Statistics Canada earlier this month. Despite the housing crisis escalated by Liberal's immigration policies, the main focus lies on issues within the international student and temporary worker programs rather than their abrupt increase of immigrants. On immigration, the Liberals sternly argue for the necessity of more immigrants for developing more housing. However, several critics have highlighted the logical inconsistency in this argument.

Multiple banks like TD Bank, National Bank of Canada, and Bank of Montreal have warned about the housing deficit that could arise due to high immigration rates, unsustainable infrastructure, and increasing housing demand unable to keep pace with supply. Toni Gravelle, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada also acknowledged the issues in a recent address.

While high interest rates, provincial and municipal housing policies, and federal immigration policies are among the factors contributing to Canada's affordable housing shortage, the Liberals maintain on their belief of needing high immigration levels to counter low domestic birth rates and meet future workforce needs. However, as new housing collaborations with municipalities are announced by the Trudeau government, it's worth remembering that the current high immigration policies could be counteracting these efforts.