The post-pandemic wage suppression policy was not just expressed in immigration policy, but also in monetary and fiscal policy. The idea that we must aggressively crush wage growth to tame inflation is a sacred cow from the late 70's. Like most sacred cows, it needs to be slayed.
We had a pandemic where millions were thrown out of work while housing prices exploded. And the big idea is to bring in a million temporary workers, cut spending, and raise interest rates in order to crush wages? On what planet does that logic apply?
The way to accommodate a million new immigrants is through aggressive government spending. Houses and schools and hospitals and roads and power plants need to be built to absorb the influx of newcomers. This provides demand for businesses and workers. This keeps GDP per capita stable and builds out the supports for future growth. This is how Canada absorbed previous large waves of immigration.
Instead, we cut spending and raised interest rates, which suppresses investment and growth. The burden of accommodating immigrants fell upon households and individuals. Wages were held down, housing costs exploded, and hospital ERs filled up. This is what falling GDP per capita looks like. This is ultimately what sunk the Trudeau government. You can't run a pro-impoverishment policy and expect to be rewarded.
Canada can accommodate lots of immigration (as we have in the past), but we have to stop being so fucking cheap. Don't throw current citizens under the bus.
Thank you for the very accurate term "pro-impoverishment policy"; this should be picked up by the mainstream and forever tied to Justin Trudeau as part of his miserable legacy.
Regarding last two sentences, which I think are also good, these tie directly into repealing in their entirety promptly all of the laws and regulations passed by the Trudeau's "Liberal" government, since they result in the pro-impoverishment policies, throwing under the bus both current citizens and immigrants.
The blame for the Liberals’ botched immigration policy can’t be laid solely at the feet of the “stakeholders” they consulted. The Liberals were predisposed to hear that message, which aligned with the trendy popular progressive sentiments that informed most areas of Trudeau’s policies. It was much the same with things like deficit spending, increasing the size of the public sector, bail reform, and fixating on social justice issues in trade agreements.
On a different point, I think your guest is incorrect about the effects of turning off the supply of temporary foreign labor. It’s not going to increase real wages across the board, and wouldn’t lead to a 1 for 1 replacement with Canadian workers. Wages would definitely increase with scarcer labor. However, that’s either going to be inflationary or require a push for higher worker productivity. That productivity looks like more automation (e.g. self checkouts at stores and ordering kiosks at restaurants), or fewer workers working harder. You’ll frequently see the latter in high wage countries like Denmark - a busy 20 table restaurant with one server and one cook. Student workers would probably make out better, but the lowest skilled workers probably won’t - they just can’t generate the value to justify higher real wages.
Jen, you make a point about folks who have been here five or ten years and have followed the rules and that we cannot turn our back on them.
Agreed....... as long as .....
If they have been here that long then they have been renewing properly their immigration status - right? If so, then I absolutely agree with you. If they haven't been renewing that status then they do not have the right to stay here. So, announce clearly that the lack of status is terrifically important and that delinquent paperwork can be cleared up by doing, A, B, etc. then those that have not gotten proper paperwork updated need to be removed from Canada.
The post-pandemic wage suppression policy was not just expressed in immigration policy, but also in monetary and fiscal policy. The idea that we must aggressively crush wage growth to tame inflation is a sacred cow from the late 70's. Like most sacred cows, it needs to be slayed.
We had a pandemic where millions were thrown out of work while housing prices exploded. And the big idea is to bring in a million temporary workers, cut spending, and raise interest rates in order to crush wages? On what planet does that logic apply?
The way to accommodate a million new immigrants is through aggressive government spending. Houses and schools and hospitals and roads and power plants need to be built to absorb the influx of newcomers. This provides demand for businesses and workers. This keeps GDP per capita stable and builds out the supports for future growth. This is how Canada absorbed previous large waves of immigration.
Instead, we cut spending and raised interest rates, which suppresses investment and growth. The burden of accommodating immigrants fell upon households and individuals. Wages were held down, housing costs exploded, and hospital ERs filled up. This is what falling GDP per capita looks like. This is ultimately what sunk the Trudeau government. You can't run a pro-impoverishment policy and expect to be rewarded.
Canada can accommodate lots of immigration (as we have in the past), but we have to stop being so fucking cheap. Don't throw current citizens under the bus.
Thank you for the very accurate term "pro-impoverishment policy"; this should be picked up by the mainstream and forever tied to Justin Trudeau as part of his miserable legacy.
Regarding last two sentences, which I think are also good, these tie directly into repealing in their entirety promptly all of the laws and regulations passed by the Trudeau's "Liberal" government, since they result in the pro-impoverishment policies, throwing under the bus both current citizens and immigrants.
To be fair, that's been the policy of many Canadian governments for over the past 30 years.
Yes, but from what I observed mostly "Liberals".
The blame for the Liberals’ botched immigration policy can’t be laid solely at the feet of the “stakeholders” they consulted. The Liberals were predisposed to hear that message, which aligned with the trendy popular progressive sentiments that informed most areas of Trudeau’s policies. It was much the same with things like deficit spending, increasing the size of the public sector, bail reform, and fixating on social justice issues in trade agreements.
On a different point, I think your guest is incorrect about the effects of turning off the supply of temporary foreign labor. It’s not going to increase real wages across the board, and wouldn’t lead to a 1 for 1 replacement with Canadian workers. Wages would definitely increase with scarcer labor. However, that’s either going to be inflationary or require a push for higher worker productivity. That productivity looks like more automation (e.g. self checkouts at stores and ordering kiosks at restaurants), or fewer workers working harder. You’ll frequently see the latter in high wage countries like Denmark - a busy 20 table restaurant with one server and one cook. Student workers would probably make out better, but the lowest skilled workers probably won’t - they just can’t generate the value to justify higher real wages.
Jen, you make a point about folks who have been here five or ten years and have followed the rules and that we cannot turn our back on them.
Agreed....... as long as .....
If they have been here that long then they have been renewing properly their immigration status - right? If so, then I absolutely agree with you. If they haven't been renewing that status then they do not have the right to stay here. So, announce clearly that the lack of status is terrifically important and that delinquent paperwork can be cleared up by doing, A, B, etc. then those that have not gotten proper paperwork updated need to be removed from Canada.
Canada did not break anything, the play actor PM broke immigration.