Collaborative Proposal Creation
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Proposal text
WHEREAS Canada’s population growth has been the highest in the G7 (double the US rate in 2019) because Canada drastically increased immigration rates after 2015, likely to meet the goal of 100 million in 2100, based on the corporate-funded Century Initiative (target of 500,000 immigrants/year, or 1.25% of population) . This is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable.
BE IT RESOLVED that Canada needs to reduce population growth to modest levels (i.e., cut permanent economic immigration, Temporary Foreign Workers & foreign students, after the numbers of refugees and family class immigrants have been determined).
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Canada's population should only grow by the minimum or modest amount necessary to meet our demographic and economic needs (maximum 0.5% of population).
Type of Proposal
Public policy that the party would represent
Objective / Benefit
Canada must have an immigration policy that is compassionate, but when people move to Canada, their environmental foot increases, including raising increasing Canada's GHG emissions, increasing our dependence on resource extraction, and increasing urban sprawl and loss of wildlife habitat.
While GDP is a flawed measure, we need to aise Canada's GDP/capita, reduce the cost of living, and be greener (saving farmland, lower emissions, etc.) by cutting immigration to pre-2015 levels or closer to US levels. Canadian might want our country to be more generous than our neighbour, but there is no justification for canada to grow at a rate double that of the US, or more.
Our immigration policy to be designed to reassure Canadians that it:
Is environmentally sustainable
Will not increase unemployment
Will not lead to underemployment
Will not be inflationary
Will not increase home prices or rents
Will not lower GDP/capita, particularly for people already here with permanent status/citizenship.
Will not mean major personal sacrifices by Canadians or see us fall farther behind the US on GDP/capita or their expectation of a middle class lifestyle
Will not add to inequality/make the rich richer at the expense of the rest of us.
If your proposal replaces an existing policy or policies, which one does it replace?
N/A
List any supporting evidence for your proposal
Traditionally, environmentalists were opposed to population growth and the idea of perpetual economic growth - read "Limits to Growth" for example, or the work of environmentalists like Herman E Daly who proposed that eventually we had to have a "steady state economy".
Yet, Canadian elites in business, media and government seem to think that bigger is better. Canada has a low birth rate rate, but so does the US and most other developed countries and even Japan and Italy are shrinking. Yet, the trudeau government has taken immigration policy to an extreme - doubling the already high 250,000 immigrants in 2015 under Harper to 500,000 in 2025, and in fact, we brought in 1.05 million in 2022. This seems in line with the goals of the Century Initiative, a bank and corporate funded group founded by Dominic Barton, thar want Canada to have 100 million people in 2100 - on the basis that bigger is better. Yet, global population will peak at 9.7 billion around 2064 then drop by a billion by 2100.
Does this proposal affect any particular group and what efforts have been made to consult with the group or groups?
N/A
Jurisdiction: Is this proposal under federal jurisdiction?
Yes
Please indicate the language the proposal is being submitted in.
English
This proposal is being evaluated
Posted on the Continuous Motion Development Vote tab for member review prior to the all-member vote.
Amendments (1)
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Created at
16/06/2024 -
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Conversation with Mr. John Boddy
I wrote the following as a draft proposal for the Green Party of Ontario, it was not formally submitted, just used for discussion. I will write it out here for your consideration as you may be able to adopt some of it for the GPC
"Draft proposal for a Green Party of Ontario policy on Population"
Whereas human population levels have a large impact on the environment and society.
Whereas biology proves that we cannot endlessly increase a population without it ending in ecological collapse or population collapse.
Whereas climate change has created a very uncertain future.
Whereas many countries in the world function very well with stable population levels and aging populations (e.g. Japan).
Whereas the belief in endless population growth is a relic of the colonial past and the "settler" mentality that sought to subdue the land and the aboriginal peoples.
Whereas the argument that Canada and Ontario needs to increase the population to offset the effects of an aging population is a false argument because it ignores the fact that these new younger Canadians will also some day grow old, thus creating a never ending cycle of population increases.
Whereas the federal government plans to increase the population of Canada to about 75 million people by approximately 2075.
Whereas this means that the population of the GTHA is projected to increase from about 7 million to 14 million people over the next 50 years.
Whereas population levels also have a large impact on the amount of carbon pollution, water pollution, air pollution, the loss of agricultural land, the loss of forest cover and wetlands.
Whereas population levels also have an impact on urban sprawl, over-crowded cities, traffic congestion.
Whereas a too rapid increase in population causes a shortage of critical infrastructure such as transit, highways, healthcare, long-term care homes, and other municipal services such as waste-water treatment.
Whereas a too rapid increase in population causes a housing shortage leading to rent increases and house price increases that outstrip wage growth, lowering the standard of living.
Whereas all the statistical evidence shows that increasing the human population does not increase the quality of life, or standard of living, does not reduce poverty, does not create a more equitable society.
Be it resolved that the Green party of Ontario
Enact a study to determine the optimum population level for each bio-region and city in Ontario, taking into account the environment, climate change, the optimum standard of living and quality of life.
Enact a plan to set targets for the maximum population level for each bio-region and city.
Enact legislation giving Ontario control over immigration levels....
Enact an educational campaign to promote a sustainable development economic and population model, where the colonial and "settler" ideas of endless population growth are finally seen as anachronistic.
That is a lot of "Whereas" clauses... usually best to keep it shorter, but you obviously get the reasoning.
I think the resolution is fine for this year and its a little too late for major changes. I assume we will go through the same process again in the next year or two, and the resolution is designed to be moderate and not cause a backlash from people in the party who might see it as being xenophobic or not-progressive.
There is also the provincial level of the party.
Let's get the resolution passed without much change or distractions since the party really has no policy on population growth, which to me is unforgivable in a party with environmentalism as a core value.
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