So we have a housing crisis on the Lower Mainland and in Victoria.
Here are some facts that explain why.
The federal government has continued its expansion of immigration (increased to 300,000 annually), and tourist (1.4 million 10 year visas issued to Chinese nationals since 2014) and foreign student (over 300,000 with one third from mainland China) access to Canada.
The number of temporary residents in Canada known as “non-permanent residents” has more than doubled in a decade and is now over 890,000, with roughly 140,000 of them residing in metro Vancouver
On top of that there is a critical mass of over 70,000 well healed mainland China immigrant families in Vancouver that will continue to pull in seemingly endless Chinese capital into the Vancouver region.
Victoria’s immigrant population is over 65,000, which is approximately 20 per cent of the total population of the Victoria metropolitan area. About 7,700 of them came here between 2011 and 2016.
No wonder we have a housing problem. Any efforts being made by municipal and provincial governments to deal with it are being counteracted by Ottawa’s immigration policies and practices.
Ottawa, we have a major immigration and housing problem in south west British Columbia, and the problem is being caused by the Trudeau government.
Bruce Filan
Oak Bay