Angry in the Great White North
First fix things at home
Thursday, May 11, 2006 at 02:28 PM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

From the Toronto Star:

Liberal MP Blair Wilson called Canada's aging demographics a "ticking time bomb" and faulted [Immigration Minister Monte] Solberg for not having a plan to deal with it.

"We need more people to come into Canada to balance that out, to support those people who will soon be into retirement," said Wilson (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country).

"The solution is sitting here right in front of you ... what's your game plan to get these 800,000 people into Canada?"

Idiot. Those 800,000 people have been stuck in limbo because of the Liberal government's cynical approach to immigration. Generate large numbers of applicants to brag about immigration policy, without doing anything to get these people into the country.

The solution is not to deal with the backlog. Introducing new families into Canada does not solve the problem if you bring grandma and granddad along with the the kids and grandkids. Unemployment in Canada was pegged at 6.4% in April. In the same month, the United States reported unemployment at 4.7% -- clearly the United States has a greater capacity to absorb new immigrants than Canada does.

To be fair, the backlog must be dealt with -- these people applied in good faith. New applications, however, should be rejected out of hand untilt he backlog is cleared.

But what of the ticking time bomb? That is not a problem to be dealt with immigration. Immigrants to Canada simply find out what Canadians already know -- Canada is not a family friendly place. They aren't going to have any more children than other Canadians, not as long as they have to pay the same taxes. You want to support an older generation? Then you need a younger generation. To do that, you need to make children an attractive option for potential parents, not a burden. The choice in childcare program is a great start, since it is directly tied to the number of children. Another idea is to allow wage earners to split taxable income over all members of a family, rewarding having large families.

The point is that importing more people into an environment that penalizes children (thanks to years of Liberal rule) makes the problem worse, not better. There is a short improvement in the labour force, but then those people join the ranks of those waiting to cash in on government pension, and because of the inherent cost of children, they will not have had many of their own, ensuring that the problem reaches further into the future.

Donate to the AGWN Legal Fund
Main Story

Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords