Usually, countries are often looking to downsize due to an overgrowth of the population, but former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada has other thoughts on the matter: “We need people – a lot more”.
Mulroney has always been big on the topic of population growth, in fact, he tripled the size of the population in Canada via immigration, during his term. Now he is looking towards a bigger and better future for Canada as he wishes the population to grow by 100 million by the year 2100. He mentioned his vision for Canada while speaking at a forum which was held by the Globe and Mail and Century Initiative.
Century Initiatives Thoughts on the Matter
Century Initiative had already brainstormed a few similar ideas with regards to population growth in Canada. The former prime minister merely affirmed these ideas. Canada has an extremely low birth rate at the moment, and it’s definitely not enough to keep the population percentage up. The combination of a low birth rate and current skilled workers getting older by the day, is surely pressurizing for the future of the county’s economic state. It’s not a good sign as more and more baby boomers are reaching their retirement age.
This is why Canada is looking towards increasing their immigration rate, as this will solve most of the problems that the country is destined to face. In 2019, the plan to bring in more immigrants was well on its way with it contributing to a total of 80 percent of the population growth in Canada. The plan was put on hold due to Covid-19 regulations on travel, whereas 1,2 million immigrants were supposed to join the country from 2021 to 2023. Century Initiative says that there must be something the country can do to meet the expectations of the predicted statistics.
“This business-as-usual approach to population growth will not create the economically vibrant, socially generous future Canadians want and expect,” the Century Initiative report says.
Why the figure 100 million?
Century Initiative is looking at the bigger picture. What will happen in the entire world by 2100? The overall population of the world has grown by 11.2 billion, due to increases in continents like Africa and Asia. The US also seems to rapidly be growing, as their estimated population is 450 million.
In the bigger picture, Canada has a population of 49.7 million people, also ranked 48 in the world with regards to population count. Women aren’t having as many babies as expected. Each woman is supposed to produce around 2-3 children in her lifetime in order to keep Canadas population steady. Canada will have an older generation and due to this, economic growth is expected to halve.
With a vision of 100 million people in Canada, it can claim it’s rank at 27 with regards to population status. The economy will also be growing at a faster pace, that is, 2,6 percent annual GDP growth.
