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[GandiBaat]

Agree. Canada is losing a battle against the US. At my company, we approach it by paying the USA salary but in CAD. So, if one would make 200K USD, he would get an offer for 200k CAD.

Well, it also hurts that after a certain point, you are putting a lot of money in taxes.

The problem is not very simple. Liberals are being blamed for one particular reason. They caused the crisis. Conservatives just use it. Would they be better? In my opinion, no. As a matter of fact, I think they would be worse.

I have not been around for very long, but the more I look into it, the more I believe that the problem is the massive number of contradictions that Canada is build upon. Things like Housing and Greenbelt. Things like Socialist system and not enough money to pay for it all. Things like most refugee friendly immigration policy and not having a system to actually make best use of these folks. Things like they want economy like US without being USA.

This is why they have such weird things. Inviting trained doctors but they could not practice due to local regulation. This is why they have massive amount of land but not enough land with bylaws that will allow construction of mass housing complexes.

I believe Canadians have not been truthful to themselves for a very long time. It worked well when they were 20 million. It will come crashing down when they will be 100 million.

I once was having a discussion with a mayoral candidate. He told me this: Canadian want affordable housing but they do not want housing prices to fall. Canadians want housing but everyone will be up in arms if a piece of woodland is changed from Crown property into residential land. They say "Where will Elks go?". I could see frustration in him. I would be frustrated too.

 

[KenshiMK1]

Well, it also hurts that after a certain point, you are putting a lot of money in taxes.

Maximize RRSP -> TFSA -> First home buyer SA. But yes, taxes are very high in Canada.

I once was having a discussion with a mayoral candidate. He told me this: Canadian want affordable housing but they do not want housing prices to fall. Canadians want housing but everyone will be up in arms if a piece of woodland is changed from Crown property into residential land. They say "Where will Elks go?". I could see frustration in him. I would be frustrated too.

Agree. Unfortunately, that's the reality. However, when it comes down to housing issue, it's also about housing becoming a bubble and everyone just pouring their investments in there. If it falls right now, many people will lose their life savings.

Personally, I don't think things will drastically change. Number of students could be limited. Number of PRs could be limited. In the short run, we will see real estate dropping. Once that happens, there are 100s of investors (if not 1000s) that will just buy off the property. Opening a country that is fairly small for foreign investment resulted in the current situation.

Personally, I wouldn't move to Canada in 2023. The 5/10 year outlook is not that great, in my opinion. I hope that I am wrong.

 

[abhiram.kumar]

The problem is not very simple. Liberals are being blamed for one particular reason. They caused the crisis. Conservatives just use it. Would they be better? In my opinion, no. As a matter of fact, I think they would be worse.

O'Toole wasn't a bad leader; he just lost support from Conservative. Conservatives lost; Liberals didn't win.

All of the issues that Canada currently faces is the result of Canadian policies for God knows how long. Personally, I hated conservatives. No one here knows or went through that but I barely got my PR. Conservatives just cancelled all of the applications. Right now, PR takes 6 month, right? When I applied, it took a year and everyone was surprised; it would take regular person 2 years easily. When Trudeau came, man, I was happy. A young charismatic leader that said that housing is getting unaffordable and HE WILL TACKLE the problem. Won that election with flying colors. I was on the streets with my friends and we were happy. 10 years later... Well.... He has to go.

The housing shortage is not because of the liberals but they are solely responsible for actively making the situation worse. I’ve spoken to a lot of immigrants who came before 2015 and all of them have claimed that housing in Canada was never this expensive. 10 to 15 years back, only housing in proper Toronto and Vancouver were out of reach for most median income earners. Now, the entirety of southern Ontario and lower mainland BC are out of reach for most median income earners. Cheap interest rates have fuelled a lot of speculative borrowing but the most critical factor worsening this crisis is excessive population growth through temporary migrants. Provinces and municipalities have their arms tied because they do not control the borders, the Federal government does and they’re inviting more people than what the provinces can actually accommodate. There will always be a shortage because the Federal government pulls out arbitrary numbers for immigration and does not have a cap on temporary migrants. Canada actually builds more homes per capita than any other G7 nation but that figure is meaningless when every year, the population grows at an even greater pace. Home construction takes years and homes are not something that can be wished into existence with a magic lamp despite what the liberals think. Now, there may be some financially illiterate boomer Canadians and Immigrants who think being paper rich through home equity is a good thing, but they fail to realise that when a significant percentage of the population begins to spend 70 to 80% of their paycheque on housing, the economic catastrophe it will cause Canada will be the likes of nothing they’ve ever seen before. There will be widespread closures of several businesses and that will lead to ripple effects in the economy. If the liberals are smart enough to see where this is headed, they’ll do something significant about it. They have to cause they’re already toast.

 

[GandiBaat]

Personally, I wouldn't move to Canada in 2023. The 5/10 year outlook is not that great, in my opinion. I hope that I am wrong.

The question is seldom great or not. Its almost always "is it better".

 

[GandiBaat]

Cheap interest rates have fuelled a lot of speculative borrowing but the most critical factor worsening this crisis is excessive population growth through temporary migrants.

You .... know, you can take the ENTIRE resident population of Canada, whole 40 million of them, multiply them by 3 times and they all can live cosily in BC with avg density not even close to most of western European countries.

The only reason you have housing crisis in Canada because Canadians (who vote) want it this way. Thats all. There is no lack of land, there is no lack of building materials and labour could be automatized and if anything fails, imported temporarily.

But any political party who tries to do so... they will fail. If Canada tries to do anything, Quebec will leave Canada.

So its about time we stop hearing these folks who bitch about housing. They WANT it this way only. And its not from now, it has always been this way. Housing prices going up has been a very popular thing in Canada because it made locals rich. It made their retirements possible.

Thing is, like everything else Canadians will deny it. Truth is their biggest allergy.

Want me to really blow your mind? There are two diametrically opposite districts in Vancouver Island (where I live), Oak Bay and Langford. One has a very very efficient municipal other is sluggish and always complains about lack of man power. One processes building permits in days and weeks. Other in years. One of them is super rich with lot of tax money, another is not. You will never guess which one is which.

 

[GandiBaat]

The housing shortage is not because of the liberals but they are solely responsible for actively making the situation worse. I’ve spoken to a lot of immigrants who came before 2015 and all of them have claimed that housing in Canada was never this expensive. 10 to 15 years back, only housing in proper Toronto and Vancouver were out of reach for most median income earners. Now, the entirety of southern Ontario and lower mainland BC are out of reach for most median income earners. Cheap interest rates have fuelled a lot of speculative borrowing but the most critical factor worsening this crisis is excessive population growth through temporary migrants. Provinces and municipalities have their arms tied because they do not control the borders, the Federal government does and they’re inviting more people than what the provinces can actually accommodate. There will always be a shortage because the Federal government pulls out arbitrary numbers for immigration and does not have a cap on temporary migrants. Canada actually builds more homes per capita than any other G7 nation but that figure is meaningless when every year, the population grows at an even greater pace. Home construction takes years and homes are not something that can be wished into existence with a magic lamp despite what the liberals think. Now, there may be some financially illiterate boomer Canadians and Immigrants who think being paper rich through home equity is a good thing, but they fail to realise that when a significant percentage of the population begins to spend 70 to 80% of their paycheque on housing, the economic catastrophe it will cause Canada will be the likes of nothing they’ve ever seen before. There will be widespread closures of several businesses and that will lead to ripple effects in the economy. If the liberals are smart enough to see where this is headed, they’ll do something significant about it. They have to cause they’re already toast.

All of this is wrong.

 

[Shravan_Kumar]

With 4300 ITAs already sent this week, I predict a 300-500 ITA draw for Transportation or Agriculture

Good call. Very much possible.

 

[KenshiMK1]

The question is seldom great or not. Its almost always "is it better".

Is it? Hard to say.

 

[KenshiMK1]

The only reason you have housing crisis in Canada because Canadians (who vote) want it this way. Thats all. There is no lack of land, there is no lack of building materials and labour could be automatized and if anything fails, imported temporarily.

There are several groups of Canadians. One group is what you described. They are older folks with properties. They don't want to lose money. They vote for anything that makes their small bungalow cost 1+ mill. Another group is younger folks. They don't see an opportunity to buy a house/condo. The problem is that they don't vote; they raise their frustrations on Reddit.

There is enough labor in Canada. As a matter of fact, there has been a round of layoffs among constructions folks. Many projects are halted because of the increased interest rates.

 

[KenshiMK1]

I’ve spoken to a lot of immigrants who came before 2015 and all of them have claimed that housing in Canada was never this expensive. 10 to 15 years back, only housing in proper Toronto and Vancouver were out of reach for most median income earners.

Can't speak about Vancouver but you could buy a place in Toronto on median salary back in 2013. I bought my place for 400K. My salary was 80K. SWE back in 2012 would start at 50-60K at regular companies. There was a time when salaries went through the roof but housing didn't. That was in 2014-2015. Then housing started to catch up super fast and bypassing it.

Agree on the rest. Except the last sentence. I don't know if Liberals will do anything about it. They can mess it up even further, let Conservatives come to power and then elections after that use the same tactics; blame everything on conservatives. In the end of the day, regular folks will be suffering. I haven't been to Toronto in almost a year and I was shocked to see the city in its current conditions. Maybe, that's normal for all large cities in North America; don't know. I just know that it wasn't like it.

 

[imransyed]

The biggest benefactors of the student visa program and TFW program are McDonalds, Tims and Walmarts. People working in these businesses have barely seen any wage growth because they’re easily replaceable by an endless stream of students and TFWs. They also have the least incentive to automate or innovate because they have easy access to cheap labour. It’s awful for the local working class population and the students who come in.

Canadian Govt does not advertise but Canadian colleges and universities are public institutions and they send teams to India to talk to high schools, Jr. colleges and education consultants. How do I know this? Because when I was in high school in Mumbai, India, University of Waterloo sent their marketing and sales team to my school. I checked with friends from other schools and the same team apparently went all over town marketing their university and Canada.
Now UoW doing this is fine, but even then they were nudging the immigrant friendly policies of Canada. So yes, not directly but Canadian Govt. does do marketing of immigration around the world.
Btw, this was back in 2009.
Education consultants get commission from these colleges for every student they enrol. This is a fact. York U is the new player in town, this I know from extremely personal experience. Highest commission per admit apparently, they are building a new building in Markham, GTA. Does the govt not know about this? They absolutely do.
But in the end, its the unassuming TFW whose life gets destroyed and sadly no matter how much "who's to blame" fixes that. I also agree that these tiktok influencers have really distorted the reality.

Canada is the land of oligopolies. TFWs are to suppress wages. Innovation and advancement does not feel like a general ambition here, like you said, but I feel this is by design. There is no lack of funds or incentive. There is an absolute lack of intent.
Profitability "now" is supreme. Employers have tasted blood, and they have the pockets to lobby and keep the flow going. The fault of lack of innovation does not fall on newcomers, but on corporates and the government again. I guess this is what Capitalism is after all.

I share your views on minimum wage workers "costing" the government more than higher earners. But the system right now is moving towards lowering the general quality of life to make Canadian oligopolies perpetually profitable while making sure insane asset prices are sustained forever. Voters (boomers, small business owners) are happy and corpos are happy. Rest of the country becomes poorer. Middle class is lost. A bubble or a pyramid scheme basically forms that breaks down if immigration inflow slows or stops.

Edit: KenshiMK1 said it better.

 

[imransyed]

At the same time, I feel bad when I read posts from someone like @imransyed who very clearly regrets his decision to come to Canada. The worst part is there is absolutely nothing I can advise that will fix the situation.

Well actually, thank you for not advising. Thank you for not telling me to "just move to Alberta or Sask."
And thank you for seeing that the Canada you as an immigrant came to in 2015 is long gone. Many refuse to see this for one reason or the other.
How often are you blamed for "pulling up the ladder behind you"?

 

[abhiram.kumar]

Canadian Govt does not advertise but Canadian colleges and universities are public institutions and they send teams to India to talk to high schools, Jr. colleges and education consultants. How do I know this? Because when I was in high school in Mumbai, India, University of Waterloo sent their marketing and sales team to my school. I checked with friends from other schools and the same team apparently went all over town marketing their university and Canada.
Now UoW doing this is fine, but even then they were nudging the immigrant friendly policies of Canada. So yes, not directly but Canadian Govt. does do marketing of immigration around the world.
Btw, this was back in 2009.
Education consultants get commission from these colleges for every student they enrol. This is a fact. York U is the new player in town, this I know from extremely personal experience. Highest commission per admit apparently, they are building a new building in Markham, GTA. Does the govt not know about this? They absolutely do.
But in the end, its the unassuming TFW whose life gets destroyed and sadly no matter how much "who's to blame" fixes that. I also agree that these tiktok influencers have really distorted the reality.

Canada is the land of oligopolies. TFWs are to suppress wages. Innovation and advancement does not feel like a general ambition here, like you said, but I feel this is by design. There is no lack of funds or incentive. There is an absolute lack of intent.
Profitability "now" is supreme. Employers have tasted blood, and they have the pockets to lobby and keep the flow going. The fault of lack of innovation does not fall on newcomers, but on corporates and the government again. I guess this is what Capitalism is after all.

I share your views on minimum wage workers "costing" the government more than higher earners. But the system right now is moving towards lowering the general quality of life to make Canadian oligopolies perpetually profitable while making sure insane asset prices are sustained forever. Voters (boomers, small business owners) are happy and corpos are happy. Rest of the country becomes poorer. Middle class is lost. A bubble or a pyramid scheme basically forms that breaks down if immigration inflow slows or stops.

Edit: KenshiMK1 said it better.

Oligopolies won’t be profitable any longer when you wipe out the purchasing power of 60-80% of the population . It’s a catch 22 situation for them. Like I said before and like several economists have said before, if a country reaches a point where a significant percentage of its population spends 60 to 70% of their paycheque on housing, it will lead to economic destruction. Why? All western economies are consumer economies. They require people to buy crap. The moment that stops, they will collapse. I’m pretty sure the Canadian government has already been warned about what this could cause if it were to be allowed to get worse. Entire industries could collapse in Canada. The economically illiterate boomers and Canadians who fantasize about being paper rich have zero knowledge about the economic consequences.

 

[imransyed]

Oligopolies won’t be profitable any longer when you wipe out the purchasing power of 60-80% of the population . It’s a catch 22 situation for them. Like I said before and like several economists have said before, if a country reaches a point where a significant percentage of its population spends 60 to 70% of their paycheque on housing, it will lead to economic destruction. Why? All western economies are consumer economies. They require people to buy crap. The moment that stops, they will collapse. I’m pretty sure the Canadian government has already been warned about what this could cause if it were to be allowed to get worse. Entire industries could collapse in Canada. The economically illiterate boomers and Canadians who fantasize about being paper rich have zero knowledge about the economic consequences.

Yeah I share the same views. Most house equity millionaires are so so so dumb.

And those realtors and real estate investors on YouTube/tiktok spew crap that makes me question their IQ. These people in general wouldn't be able to hold a decent above median pay jobs in a normal economy! And in Canada they make more than the highest earners here on this forum.
I know this coz I'm living with a millionaire like this one whose kids are all real estate or mortgage agents. Anecdotal yes, but probably not far from reality.

The only reason an engineer or a researcher or a business owner earned less than a house investor with ballooning equity was low interest rates. Rising interest rate is the great equaliser, when the tide recedes, it reveals who was swimming naked all along.
Now the real estate and mortgage agents are jobless but also extremely skill-less. Karma.

I know two business owners as of now. One is owns a restaurant and the other owns a phone repair centre. Restaurant is on verge of bankruptcy despite good number of customers.

Phone repair guy's business is booming.

 

[Lord_Tony]

OINP seem to have messed up, I hear they have sent 1000s of NOI in the Job offer stream and have created a ruckus, I have received 5 phone calls in the last 3 days from friends, colleagues, former colleagues who have questions either how they proceed or they have been asked by someone else. I saw posts in FB in the Kubeir group here in forums begging folks on how to get these sponsorship details from ITES employers.
- To those who I spoke with I had to tell sorry as far as I understand that job offer PNP stream is like a employer sponsorship. I know in my company there is a strict no policy from the country HR head on these Province Sponsorships, they have very similar restriction on LMIA also.
- I'm curious to know if any regular F500 or large ITES employer do give employees such sponsorships?
- The reason I ask is, from my experience working 20+ years in these ITES firms I strongly doubt HR/legal/Immigration department personnel in these companies will log into the OINP portal with an employer login and fill in all those details for the sake of an employee. At most they give a letter and try to get away.
I feel OINP is either scamming poor applicants or smoking weed.