Highlights:

  • Canada is fast approaching a demographic emergency.
  • The lack of children in Canada also has a profound effect on individuals’ sense of well-being.
  • The Liberal government’s incoherent immigration plan hinders, rather than solves, Canada’s demographic problems.

Canada is facing multiple problems. One of the problems however, that cannot be easily resolved is our alarmingly low birth rate, the lowest in Canada’s history.  It is 1.4 children for each woman of child bearing age when 2.1 children is the replacement level. As a result, we have an ageing population, without enough taxpayers. Canada is fast approaching a population emergency, which is an unfolding crisis that we can no longer ignore.

Reasons for the Lack of Children

There are numerous reasons why people today are reluctant to have children.  These include:

  • Canada, at one time, was a largely agricultural nation, which required children to help with the farm work. Canadians now mainly live in cities, where children are seen as a financial burden and an economic liability, rather than a benefit.
  • The culture has been changed by the sexual revolution of the 1960’s and the development of the birth control pill. Personal fulfillment, including sexual fulfillment, is now prioritized in many lives, regardless of the harm it causes others.  Sex has become disconnected from children, without any moral considerations, and is regarded as recreation only, minus responsibility.
  • McGill Professor Emeritus, Philip Carl Salzman, argues that work now defines one’s status and value, not families.  The more prestigious the work, the higher the status of the individual. A mother and father, in contrast, are not paid for raising a family, and, therefore, their efforts are not highly regarded.  Contemporary society requires an individual to concentrate and prioritize work in order to achieve fulfillment and recognition. Children distract and interfere with these efforts, and therefore, are an impediment in one’s life.
  • Religion no longer has wide support in society. As a result, religious tenets are not observed, as evidenced by the abortion and euthanasia statistics. In our secular world, children in the womb are being erased at a phenomenal rate. Approximately 100,000 abortions occur annually in Canada. Since the abortion law was widened in 1969, Canadians have killed over four million of their future citizens who had no opportunity to contribute to Canadian life in regard to its future prosperity, and intellectual and social development.  This limits Canada’s future and contributes to its bleak prospects.

 Lack of Children Creates Other Problems

The lack of children in Canada is far more than a demographic problem.  It also has a profound effect on individuals’ sense of well-being.  A Statistics Canada survey, released in May 17, 2022, found that in 2016, 75% of Canadians reported being hopeful about the future.  In 2021-2022, this has decreased to 64%.  The most hopeful individuals, according to this survey, are those in a family environment.  That is, 70% of those living in households with children were hopeful and those with a strong sense of belonging to a community had a score of 78%.

Children help to bring meaning and purpose to one’s life and help connect the individual to the community. Consequently, those turning away from family life and children lose their sense of connectiveness to the past, to others, and to the community, and deprive themselves of a hopeful outlook.

Immigration as a Solution

To compensate for this troubling decrease in births, the Trudeau government has tried to fill the gap by increasing immigration to 432,000 in 2022 and 451,000 in 2024 – a sizeable increase over the customary immigration of approximately 356,000 immigrants annually. With his usual incompetency, however, Trudeau has opted to increase immigration by emphasizing family reunification, not Canada’s economic needs.  Family reunification does not help the economy since not all immigrants are able to work because they are too young or too old or can’t speak English or French.  Nonetheless, they require social services and also receive pensions.  Even among workers between 25 and 54 years of age, the employment rate of new immigrants (less than 10 years living in Canada) is almost 10 points less than those who are Canadian-born, and eight points less than immigrants with 10 years’ or more experience in Canada.  This is a problem that Canada must solve by prescribing extensive re-training services to immigrants in order to ensure that they adjust and contribute to the economy.

In this regard, too many provincial professional organizations have restrictive regulations that prevent qualified foreign trained professionals such as nurses, physicians, teachers and engineers from entering their professions after their arrival here.  This must change.

What Canada especially needs is skilled labour, which should be one of the main requirements of our immigration policy.  Skilled labour is the backbone of this country: plumbers, electricians, carpenters, heavy equipment operators, etc. are in short supply. We have sufficient people trained in technology, but require more foreign skilled labour. If we think we have labour shortages now, wait until 2030 when Canada’s labour force drops below 3/5 of our population!

This depressing lack of skilled workers means that Canada’s future is bleak.  Without them, we cannot possibly continue with our present standard of living – pensions, social services, medical care, maintenance of infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), museums, universities, transportation subsidies, etc. All will be detrimentally affected. We already have too many jobs unfilled because of too few working people.  It is urgent that we change our policies to bring in more immigrants who are skilled in the trades, as well as small business entrepreneurs who will invest in this country.

The settling of immigrants in Canada costs money in increased housing, schooling, medical care, education, etc. – but it pays off in the future.  Similarly, if we are willing to pay such costs for immigrants, we should also be willing to pay the costs of helping and encouraging women to give birth to their babies rather than aborting them. Supporting life from conception to birth and after, should be a major consideration if we want to increase our labour force and provide Canada with a future.  Canada simply can no longer afford these deaths of our future citizens.