milton, ontario
Canada’s population is surging with immigrants. Statistics Canada’s most recent data show that it grew by 430,635 people in just the third quarter of 2023. That is more than 1 percent of the national population, and the second-largest quarter growth rate in the nation’s history.
For a nation with an official population of less than 40 million, millions more people pouring in has serious ramifications. Yet the government’s current immigration targets for 2024, 2025 and 2026 intend to maintain and exceed this growth.
In addition, the government has lost count of just how many people it is bringing in, and many remain long after their visas have expired. Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at cibc Capital Markets, reported that the number of nonpermanent residents (nprs) “widely quoted and used for planning purposes undercounts the actual number of nprs residing in Canada by close to 1 million.”
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported in September 2023 that if immigration targets are met and current building rates continue, Canada will be short 3.5 million dwellings by 2030.
Housing affordability in Canada is at its worst in 41 years. At the end of the third quarter, the Bank of Canada reported that households spend 55.2 percent of their income on housing. The average two-bedroom apartment in Toronto costs $3,413 per month, an increase of 7.1 percent from just one year ago.
In addition to a housing shortage, there is also a shortage of jobs. Statistics Canada reported that in the third quarter, job vacancies shrank as the labor force grew: Two job seekers are being added for every job filled. Many positions currently available are concentrated in sales and services, which are typically minimum-wage jobs. Meanwhile, inflation and high interest rates continue to ravage the economy as a whole.
Bank of Canada deputy governor Toni Gravelle has admitted that immigration policies and resulting housing demands are major causes of inflation.
Yet the government still wants to accelerate immigration.
Even with the population boom, which means more overall workers, Canada’s gross domestic product is barely growing. Rather than producing goods or services, many immigrants are only consuming them, thanks to government welfare programs.
“The Canadian economy on a per-capita basis is flat on its back,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Rosenberg Research. A growing population “can create this mirage of economic prosperity, but in the end that’s what it is, a mirage.”
These policies are overloading Canada’s economy and society, putting it on track for economic and social collapse. Bible prophecy foretold this, and the hard data is confirming it.
The late Herbert W. Armstrong showed in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy that prophecies about Ephraim apply to British Commonwealth nations, including Canada.
In the book of Hosea, God foretold the government policies we’re witnessing in Canada today, and their consequences. Hosea 7:8-9 state, “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.” Look hard at Canada’s worsening economic conditions and see if its economic strength isn’t being devoured. Much of this is due to out-of-control immigration, advanced by a government that thinks like a “silly dove without heart” (verse 11).
This is happening not because a different political party is needed but because the nation has rebelled against God (verses 10-14). To learn more, request your free copy of Hosea—Reaping the Whirlwind, by Gerald Flurry.