In 2023, Canada’s population increased by 1.2 million people. In 2022, by 825,000.
“These are staggering numbers when you consider that prior to this, you would have to go back to 1949, when Newfoundland joined the federation, to see our country’s population increase by more than 600,000 in one year,” a report by National Bank economists noted this week.
These economists join the chorus of those calling for Canada to reduce its immigration levels. In recent weeks and months, economists, academics, business leaders, think tanks and pundits have all publicly argued that high immigration is making housing unaffordable and straining Canada’s healthcare system.
Less frequently discussed is the extent to which homelessness — a direct offshoot of unaffordable and insufficient housing — and related issues like mental illness and drug addiction are straining Canada’s charities and public organizations. Organizations like religious institutions, transit systems and libraries are being forced to shelter and care for the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted.
At Canadian Affairs, we have noticed this trend because we have been reporting on it.
In November, we reported that official estimates put the size of Canada’s homeless population at 235,000 people in 2023. Given the difficulties of counting the homeless, experts expect the actual count is much higher.
In December, we reported that many places of worship in the Greater Toronto Area are cutting back on core services — such as religious services and funerals for congregants — in order to shelter 1,370 asylum seekers for whom there is inadequate capacity in government shelters. Some of these organizations are draining their own meager financial reserves to shoulder these costs.
In January, we reported that the Toronto Transit Commission is increasingly having to deal with mental health and homelessness, even though it lacks the institutional capacity to do so.
As a result, when it passed its 2024 budget last month, the TTC included $28.2 million in new funding for its security, community safety and well-being program. This funding will enable the TTC to add 20 Streets to Homes outreach workers, 20 community safety ambassadors, 50 temporary security guards and six shelter bus operators, who move homeless people sheltering in subway systems to city-run shelters.
In June 2023, The Walrus magazine reported that libraries in Edmonton, Halifax, Winnipeg and elsewhere are having to integrate social work into their activities. Staff are being trained to administer naloxone and manage violent, disruptive or threatening incidents. “Today, library leaders are recognizing that these public places may have reached the limits of their capacity,” the article says.
To be clear, Canadian Affairs is not against these organizations adapting their services to respond to changing social circumstances. Communities and the organizations that stitch them together should care for their least fortunate members.
But there are costs to doing so — costs that threaten to undermine the very ability of these institutions to operate. The more that places of worship, transit systems and libraries are burdened with caring for the homeless and mentally ill, the more difficult it will be for them to get other patrons to come through their doors. This risks creating a vicious cycle of lower attendance, declining revenue and deteriorating services.
The root of the problem starts upstream of these institutions, and must be fixed upstream. It is fundamentally a responsibility of the federal and provincial governments to ensure population growth is managed responsibly. These governments must ensure that the needs of today’s Canadians are attended to first — before attending to the needs of foreigners or future generations.
Here, the government has failed.
And not for lack of knowledge. Economics 101 tells us that an increase in demand will lead to a sharp increase in price if supply remains inelastic. It was foreseeable that Canada’s sudden and significant increase in population would make housing unaffordable and push some Canadians into homelessness, given the sclerotic nature of Canada’s housing sector.
Indeed, public servants at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada warned senior leaders two years ago that large increases in immigration could affect housing affordability and services, according to internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press.
There is no real mystery about a key cause of this crisis. What is mysterious is that the Liberals did not heed those expert warnings then.
Perhaps now that there are thousands of Canadians on the streets, and more staring down that reality, the party will start paying closer attention.
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