Reduce immigration

I was just reminded recently that (the federal government) says it will admit 1.5 million immigrants to Canada over the next three years.

That is clearly a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Has the Canadian housing shortage and cost of housing not been a case of contention for the past few years? One of the biggest drivers of (increasing) housing prices is supply and demand. So how does adding half a million people annually who will require housing help reduce the demand and lower the cost?

Another close to crisis issue Canadians are dealing with is the shortage of doctors, nurses and the dismal overall state of our healthcare system. Many Canadians don’t even have a GP due to the shortage. Government officials can claim it isn’t so all they want but anyone who has needed to see a medical specialist and who gets in line for surgery knows all to well it can take well over a year from the beginning of the process to the surgery date. Issues like hip and knee replacements and torn cartilage repair might not be a (urgent) but they can affect mobility, quality of life and the ability to work, not to mention the mental strain people endure living in pain for a prolonged period.

The federal government doesn’t know where these people plan to settle. Consider for a moment how it would affect Kelowna should 1% of the 500,000 immigrants per year chose our area. That would be an additional 5,000 per year needing housing and medical services.

How would that affect the availability and cost of housing and already long lines for medical services. I would think it would have a negative impact.

I can appreciate the need to increase the Canadian population and immigration will achieve that. But it should be done in an orderly manner with a realistic plan in place and clearly, as of today, our federal government does not have that plan. Please don’t try to tell me that all these immigrants will be qualified tradespeople and doctors because that hasn’t been the case up to now.

I forgot to mention the overcrowded schools. Many schools have use portables and a large portion of immigrant children will need to be taught English, which will further burden the education system. but that along with everything else that goes in hand with increasing the population can be the topic of a discussion for another day.

Does it not make sense to hold off on large scale immigration until we have the housing, medical services and infrastructure in place for our existing population before the government choses to add more pressure on an already overburdened system?

Our current federal government is managing by crisis (to crisis,) and many are of their own making. It isn’t doing a particularly good job.

It’s time for a change, maybe a common sense approach?

Guy Bissonnette, Lake Country