Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
National

Canada passes 40 million population milestone amid immigration push

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 16 Jun, 2023 05:22 PM
  • Canada passes 40 million population milestone amid immigration push

OTTAWA — Canada's population has reached more than 40 million, Statistics Canada said.

The milestone comes amid a wave of new immigrants as part of Ottawa's promise to bring in 500,000 people a year by 2025.

The 40-million mark came faster than expected, Statistics Canada said, as the country added 1.1 million people in 2022, most of them permanent and temporary immigrants.

That's more than twice the federal government's plan to welcome more than 430,000 new permanent residents last year.

Last year was the first year Canada's population grew by more than a million people in a 12-month period, Statistics Canada said, with 95.9 per cent of that growth through international migration.

Canada's population passed 30 million in 1997, also amid increasing immigration levels.

By comparison, the U.S. population is around 335 million.

Statistics Canada said that if current immigration levels remain, Canada's population could hit 50 million in two decades. And by 2041, two in five Canadians could be born abroad.

Ontario is Canada's most populous province with almost 15.6 million people, while Quebec comes a distant second at 8.8 million.

Michael Donnelly, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said immigration is imperative to Canada for a number of reasons, including the need to increase the working population.

"The people who are working today are paying for the pensions of people retired today," he said. Canada needs newcomers who will fill labour shortages, contribute to the economy and Canada's public pension program.

But a growing population also brings challenges when it comes to infrastructure and housing. Last year, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said the country needed to build 3.5 million more homes than it is on track for in order to restore housing affordability.

"In effect we don't have enough housing for all the demand, and we need to add a lot more," said Nathanael Lauster, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia who studies population and demographics.

Lauster said immigration can actually help alleviate the issue because "one of multiple constraints holding housing back is labour supply."

MORE National ARTICLES

Shots fired in Port Coquitlam

Shots fired in Port Coquitlam
On Tuesday, at 1:44 am, Coquitlam RCMP received multiple reports of shots being fired in the 2000-block of Shaughnessy Place, Port Coquitlam. Officers immediately responded and located the victim residence. No one was physically injured during the incident. 

Shots fired in Port Coquitlam

BC port strike vote

BC port strike vote
Both the union and the Maritime Employers Association -- which represents 49 private-sector employers at more than 30 B-C ports -- have agreed that June 24th is the earliest any job action could occur.

BC port strike vote

Eyes on the weather as fierce wildfire rages, forces evacuations in northeastern B.C.

Eyes on the weather as fierce wildfire rages, forces evacuations in northeastern B.C.
The extreme fire activity prompted the District of Tumbler Ridge to skip an evacuation alert Thursday and jump right to an order requiring all 2,400 residents to get out immediately and seek refuge in Dawson Creek or Fort St. John.  

Eyes on the weather as fierce wildfire rages, forces evacuations in northeastern B.C.

'These are the rules': Canada to deport Sikh family to India

'These are the rules': Canada to deport Sikh family to India
Hardeep Singh Chahal, his pregnant wife Kamaldeep Kaur and their three-year-old daughter, who live in Penticton, were given deportation orders last month for reasons withheld for privacy reasons, the Houston Today newspaper reported.

'These are the rules': Canada to deport Sikh family to India

Canada invites 4,800 candidates for Express Entry draw in June

Canada invites 4,800 candidates for Express Entry draw in June
The 14th draw of the country's flagship economic immigration management system on Thursday follows the most recent draw on May 24 in which 4,800 candidates with a minimum CRS score of 488 were invited.

Canada invites 4,800 candidates for Express Entry draw in June

Jobless at 5.2 per cent: Statistics Canada

Jobless at 5.2 per cent: Statistics Canada
The jobless rate rose to 5.2 per cent in May, ending a streak of eight months of job gains. T-D director of economics James Orlando says the question now is whether this is a one-off, or the start of a trend.  

Jobless at 5.2 per cent: Statistics Canada