For years, economists and policy experts from British Columbia have been urging the federal government to engage in a national conversation about immigration, a topic often considered taboo in Canadian political discourse. Their warnings about the potential consequences of increasing low-skill foreign workers, international students, and transnational wealth were raised approximately a decade ago, but these concerns were largely ignored by what some describe as the Laurentian elite.
The Unheeded Report
In his book "Borderline Chaos: How Canada Got Immigration Right, and Then Wrong," author Tony Keller, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, details a critical moment in 2016. Then-immigration minister John McCallum convened a meeting with 11 labor economists to discuss various immigration issues, including the proposed increases in temporary workers and international students. The economists subsequently produced a comprehensive report, but according to Keller, this document was completely disregarded by the Liberal government to such an extent that the authors questioned whether it had even been read.
"That was unfortunate. The eggheads could have saved the government, and the country, a whole lot of grief," Keller writes in his book, which is based on his Max Bell lectures organized by McGill University. Instead, Canada embarked on what Keller describes as a "decade-long experiment" in dramatically increasing migration levels.
The Experiment and Its Consequences
Keller identifies the Trudeau government as the principal investigator of this migration experiment, with assistance and enablement from provincial governments, the business community, and the higher education sector. He notes that this initiative faced little opposition, with most potential critics remaining silent. "They were opposed by essentially nobody. Those who suspected things were going wrong mostly held their tongues. The experiment was not a success," Keller observes.
While Keller acknowledges that many who should have recognized the detrimental aspects of Trudeau's strategies remained quiet, he gives credit to those who did speak out. These individuals attempted to raise alarms about the government's decision to double the number of immigrants and, more significantly, quadruple the volume of low-skill workers and international students, while also virtually opening borders to substantial foreign capital.
Voices from the West Coast
Despite the risks of being labeled xenophobic, racist, or nativist by the Liberals and their allies, at least a dozen notable figures responsibly challenged the Canadian taboo against criticizing federal immigration policy. Among them were some of the labor economists consulted by McCallum a decade earlier, including:
- David Green from the University of British Columbia
- Christopher Worswick from Carleton University
- Mikal Skuterud from the University of Waterloo
In 2016, Green, Worswick, and UBC's Greg Riddell published a significant article in Policy Options that was highlighted by Postmedia. They expressed criticism of then-immigration minister Ahmed Hussen, who was promoting his "ambitious plan" to drastically increase migration rates to stimulate economic growth. The economists cautioned that "immigration cannot be relied upon as a source of higher per capita incomes," offering an early warning about the limitations of migration-driven economic strategies.
These experts from British Columbia and elsewhere attempted to provide evidence-based perspectives on immigration policy, but their insights were overlooked as the government pursued its migration expansion. The consequences of this disregard have contributed to current public sentiment, with two out of three Canadians now expressing the view that migration rates are too high, according to recent surveys.
