Blazingcatfur

Canada delivered its biggest affordability measure in years—shrinking its population. That was the takeaway from a new report from BMO Capital Markets this week. The bank has repeatedly warned that promises to triple the new homes built and create affordability with supply, weren’t grounded in reality. Now that Canada is quietly acknowledging this failure, they see real affordability on the way as scaled up building meets a shrinking population.

Promising? Maybe. But the damage is done.

Reports about the death of Canada’s immigration consensus have arguably been exaggerated. But there are warning signs — both for the public’s attitude toward immigration and for the Trudeau government’s legacy.

The clearest evidence that the consensus is in some danger can be found in polling conducted by the Environ ics Institute. For 50 years, Environics has been asking Canadians whether they agree or disagree with the statement that “overall there is too much immigration in Canada.”

For nearly 25 years, starting in the late 1990s, a majority of Canadians disagreed with that statement. In 2022, the gap was particularly wide — 69 per cent disagreed, just 27 per cent agreed.