IMMIGRATION POLICY AS AN OPTION

The impact of population growth flowing mostly into one urban setting is well known to us. It impacts everything from housing affordability to traffic congestion, to the value of commercial real estate. Toronto's population is expected to increase into the millions over the coming decade. We keep talking about housing supply to address housing affordability. However, supply is a finite consideration because density of land use can only go so far. Another more variant option is to disperse demand. New immigrants flowing into dense urban centres such as Toronto and Vancouver exacerbate the housing affordability problem. Perhaps it is time to re-consider immigration policy whereby other locations throughout Canada can pickup demand and benefit from economic gain of population growth over the long term. For example, a new immigrant family would be required to reside in an area of the country other than Toronto/Vancouver for at least the first 7 years of living in Canada. The government would need to introduce stimulus depending on what area of the country immigrants go but the cost of this may be less than the cost to the public due to a lack of affordability. #recg #housingaffordability #immigration #economicoutlook #canada #housing #politicsandlaw #growth