Number of immigrants coming to Canada since 1852. (Stats Canada graph does not include recent rise in temporary foreign workers)

Babies or immigrants? Canada searches for way forward
February 9, 2012. 6:48 am

Unlike the U.S. and France, Canada’s growth is not mainly through babies being born

Posted by:
Douglas Todd

Canada’s population is surging despite far fewer children being born in the country. The bulk of the nation’s fast growth relies on foreign newcomers.

Statistics Canada’s census figures released Wednesday reveal children born in Canada account for only one-third of the country’s growth of almost six per cent since 2006, the highest rate of all G8 countries.

With Canadian women having fewer babies, and the large baby boom generation beginning to die off in two decades, Statistics Canada projects in-migration will become an even more powerful engine in the future – accounting for four-fifths of all population growth in 2031.

Number of immigrants coming to Canada since 1852. (Stats Canada graph does not include recent rise in temporary foreign workers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d924WJKIfy8

Canadian Immigration Reform

PaxCanadiana

Is Canada is in the midst of a housing bubble.  Some say yes, others say no.  I find myself in the camp of the former.  There are several factors at play that cause me to think so.

One is housing prices are outpacing income growth compelling many young Canadians to delay home ownership.  This leaves one wondering where the demand is coming from needed to buoy and inflate Canadian real estate prices since a significant segment of the real estate market – first time home buyers – are being priced out of it.

Another red flag is the low key interest rate issued by Canada’s central bank, the Bank of Canada.  A key low interest rate allows Canada’s charted banks and other lending institutions to offer low prime interest rates to their customers.  This means cheap money that can be borrowed to finance the purchase of a house and other large ticket items.  And it appears the Bank of Canada intends to keep the key interest rate low at 1% continuing a 16 month trend into the first quarter of 2012.

Immigration is not helping our wages

Low interest rates discourages saving and encourages spending.  This is because inflation decreases the purchasing power of money over time so you’re better off spending your money in the short term instead of parking it in a low interest savings account where it will be losing value if the rate being offered is below inflation.  Couple this with stagnant incomes for over 30 years it should come to no surprise to learn that Canadians have reached record levels of household debt much of it found in the mortgages Canadians are carrying.  Canadian household debt levels are even greater than those in the U. S. and the U.K. yet somehow our economy is in better shape than those two countries, or so we’re told.

So we have a situation in Canada where housing prices are rising faster than the average Canadian’s ability to meet those prices in an economic environment of low interest rates and record levels of household debt while inflation current rests at 2.3%.  This is all feasible, however, so long as interest rates stay low and housing prices keep rising.

Fight described

By Jeff Labine, tbnewsawtch.com

Joan McDonnell told a murder trial jury that she remembered her neighbour and friend Bill Atkins grab Andre Wareham and wrestled him to the ground.

Andre Wareham

McDonnell took the stand Wednesday at the Superior Court of Justice in Thunder Bay as the Crown continued to present its case in the second-degree murder trial against Andre Wareham. The court learned that McDonnell lived in the same apartment building as both the victim Atkins and now accused Wareham.

Wareham faces second-degree murder charges in connection to the death of Atkins.

She said the fight broke out after Atkins asked Wareham where he could get marijuana. Wareham told him he wouldn’t help him.

That’s when Atkins became mad and grabbed Wareham, she said.

“(Atkins) just grabbed a hold of (Wareham) and threw him against the wall,” McDonnell told the court.

“They were sort of wrestling. I told them to stop fighting. They weren’t hitting with fists just grabbing.”

McDonnell told the court that she was a friend of Atkins and his mother and that they would often spend time together.

Two charged with second-degree murder in London

LONDON, Ont. — Police in London, Ont., say they have arrested a second man in connection with a fatal shooting in the city’s core.

Said Hadbai, 20, was gunned down shortly after 2 a.m. on Dec. 27.

Police say Drai Anthony O’Hara-Salmon, 19, who was wanted on a charge of second-degree murder, was arrested in Oshawa on Tuesday.

He’s to appear in court in London on Wednesday.

Jermaine Anthony Phillips, 18, is also charged with second-degree murder, along with other firearms-related offences.