- Proposal text
-Canada needs to reduce population growth to modest levels (i.e., cut immigration, Temporary Foreign-Workers & foreign students, refugees are separate).--Canada’s population growth has been the highest in the G7 (double the US rate in 2019) because-Canada drastically increased immigration after 2015, likely to meet the goal of 100 million in 2100,-based on the corporate funded Century Initiative. This is not environmentally or economically- sustainable.
-Canada's population should only grow by the minimum or modest amount necessary to meet our-demographic and economic needs (under 0.5%).- Type of Proposal
- Public policy that the party would represent
- Objective / Benefit
-Raise 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.- 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 environmentlists 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
- 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
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Conversation with Mr. John Boddy
I would like to thank Brian Graff and the other participants for their work on this policy, and also that it was accepted as a policy. I regret that i was unable to participate in the online meeting, but my computer camera does not have the audio working and I do not know how to fix it.
It gives me great pleasure that the GPC now has a population policy - this is, I think, a necessary policy for any Green party. Population planning is needed more than ever.
Having been a "Green" from the 1990's, I see this Population Policy as a strong return to our roots as well as correcting a a long overdue omission. Thanks to all who helped, you make me proud to be Green.
John Boddy
Hi John:
Thanks for the positive words.
But it is not yet official Green Party Policy. I amended the proposal to respond to comments and to make it clearer and also follow the more formal "Whereas... Be it resolved" format.
It still needs to be voted on, and further amendments can still be made if they will make it better and more likely to pass.
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