Canadian Immigration: The Real Newcomer Numbers

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The federal government has touted record numbers of immigrants arriving in Canada, but the more than 431,000 it cites is less than half the number of newcomers who arrived in the country last year.

Combined with non-permanent residents, the number of new arrivals in 2022 was an estimated 955,000, representing “an unprecedented increase in housing demand in a single year that is not currently fully reflected in official figures,” according to a Jan. 25 report CIBC report.

The number of international arrivals in 2023 could reach one million, the report said.

This huge number is acting like a wrecking ball on the Canadian economy.

The selective sharing of information distorts reality — that is, the federal government has divided these arrivals into multiple categories to reduce the visible impact of overall migration into the country and avoid a backlash when the true costs become apparent.

According to Statistics Canada data, this mass migration to Canada is the largest movement of people outside of war, famine, or societal collapse in history.

Of the large numbers that have arrived in the country, the main category of newcomers is recorded through traditional immigration, where individuals arrive with their families. That number reached an all-time high of 431,645 in 2022 and is the number selectively reported and distributed by the government, not including the actual total from other avenues.

Statistics Canada releases quarterly population estimates and the total number of people entering the country is significantly higher than what is reported as “immigrants”, showing that the population increased by 866,000 from new arrivals in 2021/2022.

The CIBC reports that even these astronomical figures do not include Ukrainian arrivals, which currently top 145,000. To date, Canada has approved 514,020 applications and the total number of Ukrainian applications submitted was 805,626.

Other categories include temporary foreign workers, refugees, illegal immigrants and foreign students, all accessing our resources and infrastructure. Government records for 2022 count over 92,700 arrivals in the total asylum applicant category. On Roxham Road in Quebec alone, almost 40,000 people crossed the road illegally in 2022, three times as many as in 2021.

The impact and cost of this volume coming into the country on our infrastructure and social programs is staggering.

A recent interview with Immigration Secretary Sean Fraser mentioned a government plan to hire 1,200 new government employees to process and accommodate 1.2 million new arrivals in 2023.

Quebec, aware of the threat posed to its province by large numbers of newcomers, has imposed a moratorium of 50,000 per year. This equates to 1.2 million fewer people arriving in Quebec, a 4 percent increase in our current population arriving in the English provinces in 2023. Fraser pointed out that 80 percent are in the major cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Mississauga, plus Brampton, the fastest-growing city.

Part of the unspoken fear in Quebec concerns how newcomers will no doubt dilute much-cherished French culture. In contrast to the US melting pot concept of everyone becoming an American, the elder Trudeau in Canada created the concept of the division of cultures. However, a multicultural mosaic, in which each ethnic group retains its own cultural identity, creates challenges where some communities become mini-nations unto themselves.

The government has tried to justify all of this as a way to solve the “labor shortage” and the “ageing worker crisis”. Despite constantly linking new arrivals to labor demand, Ottawa has never produced a definitive account of what the actual demands are in either scenario, so this perspective seems a weak explanation. Statistics Canada’s 2022 Labor Force Survey shows a population increase of 32,000, although the population report shows 866,000, making it appear that Statistics Canada is manipulating the numbers for policy purposes.

In addition, the Labor Force Survey shows that the December 2022 workforce of 55+ created 86,000 jobs over the past year. That doesn’t sound like a senior drain from the workforce, let alone the fact that many seniors can’t afford to retire due to the high cost of living. With the average rent in Canada rising to $2,024 a month, half of seniors earning less than $32,200 adjusted for inflation (median) today can’t afford it in any of the major top 10 cities of Canada unless they own their own home.

The truth is that most of the brain drain has occurred, starting with the baby boomers in 1946 and ending with those born in 1964. We’re already two-thirds of the baby boomer generation behind us, with just six years to go. The justification for the need for mass migration to accommodate an aging workforce is being overstated.

Compared to the 866,000 people who immigrated to Canada, there was an overall increase in employment of 494,000. What happened to the other 500,000 who arrived?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.