Johan Ibrahim Adrián

Why everyone wants to LEAVE Canada Intro ​ Less than a decade ago, Canada stood on solid ground. In 2015, the country’s economy was steadily recovering from the global financial crisis, the unemployment rate hovered at a manageable 6.9%, and inflation remained low at just 1.13%. While the housing market was growing, homeownership was still within reach for middle-class families. Additionally, immigration policies were widely accepted and recognized as a key driver of economic and cultural prosperity. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party swept to power on October 19, 2015, promising “real change” to a country eager for a new direction. Pledging to make housing more affordable, rebuild the middle class, and foster a more inclusive society, Trudeau ignited a wave of hope. For many, it felt like the dawn of a new era—the Canadian dream within grasp. Nearly a decade later, the reality is entirely different. Inflation surged to a staggering 6.8% in 2022 before slightly easing, driving up the cost of essentials and straining household budgets. Housing prices have soared by over 80%, making homeownership unattainable for many. And even immigration, once a success story, now sees many newcomers leaving due to high costs and limited opportunities. A land that once symbolized optimism and progress has unraveled into discontent, leaving Canadians to ask: What went wrong? #A feeling of general dissatisfaction Among the many reasons driving people to leave Canada, the main one seems to be the rising cost of living, particularly in high-profile cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where rent prices average $2700 for a one-bedroom apartment A quick look at the comments random Canadian inhabitants leave on social media regarding these issues is enough to summarize the current state of discontent: “I’m 35, I can’t find a partner, I can’t buy a condo, I can’t walk around at night, I can't get a family doctor and 30% of my income goes to taxes! Every day I ask myself: Why am I here?” A recent census reveals that “126,340 people left Canada for the U.S. in 2022, a 70% increase over a decade ago,” and the total number of Canadians living abroad is around the 4-million mark. But there are many other considerations. Canada’s long, hard, harsh winters, with below-zero temperatures and several months of heavy snowfall, also drive many people towards warmer zones. The country’s healthcare system (even when free and publicly funded) is starting to displease Canadians with its long wait times for medical services and a low doctor-to-population ratio that makes it difficult for people to find a family doctor and access healthcare when they need it. On the other hand, immigrants already residing in the country are also starting to leave. A recent study by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) conducted a survey on 15,383 verified adult newcomers to Canada and revealed some concerning trends: Skilled immigrants at risk of leaving: ●​ 32% of immigrants in the Canadian Experience Class are likely to leave Canada within two years. Thirty 0% of immigrants who have been in Canada for five or more years are considering leaving. ●​ 23% of those in their first five years of settlement also foresee departing. Economic factors driving departure: ●​ ●​ ●​ ●​ ●​ Housing costs (79%) General economic concerns (54%) 79% of newcomers think Canada is worse than expected for affordable housing access. 51% feel Canada falls short as a place to get ahead financially. 61% believe their current income doesn't match their credentials and experience. Let’s take a deeper look at the most serious problems. #The Immigration/housing issue ​ Immigration is the cornerstone on which Canada was built. Once based on race, as they were trying to create an ideal “white man’s country,” the immigration policies moved to a merit-based immigration system in 1967. This system prioritizes the skills, education, and language proficiency of every immigrant and evaluates them to select only those individuals able to contribute to society. The system's early success positioned Canada as a top nation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Practically every migrant was an “economic migrant:” an individual ready to join the workforce and grow the economy. However, as these workers began bringing their non-productive family members for reunification, these new migrants started to be perceived and accounted for as an economic burden for the country: unproductive consumers of welfare benefits had risen from 21% of immigrants to an alarming 36%. This led the government to tighten entry requirements in 1995, reducing the percentage of family-based immigrants. ​ Public opinion was positively shifted, and by 2018, two-thirds of Canadians viewed immigration as beneficial for the national interests. But a myriad of new problems appeared. The aging workforce started to become an evident demographic Crisis. By 1971, Canada had seven working-age individuals for every senior, but by 2012, that ratio had fallen to four. Should this trend remain without any interventions, by 2036, only two workers would be supporting each retiree. Sean Fraser, Canada’s former Minister of Immigration, emphasized the urgency of addressing this issue and headed an ambitious and radical immigration plan in 2022. The government set aggressive incremental objectives to welcome 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025, aiming to attract at least 60% of economic migrants. This seemed brilliant on paper, but in the real world, migrants found a different and more complex reality. Immigration offices were already overwhelmed, working on a backlog of at least 2 million applications. On the other hand, the ones inside started to experience a growing housing crisis that started making things worse. By this point, things started to look like a chicken-and-egg situation; in the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “One of the limits on creating more housing is the challenge of having enough construction workers.” The increase in the number of temporary residents (such as international students and temporary workers, which doubled from 1.4 million in 2022 to 2.8 million in 2024) is another side of the problem. Combine this accelerated growth with the housing shortages, and you get a predictable shift in the general public opinion. Trudeau’s decision to appoint Sean Fraser, the former Minister of Immigration, as the new Minister of Housing didn’t help to make things better, as many Canadians still hold the guy accountable for the current immigration crisis. #Taxes and inflation Canada's taxes are often considered to be too high by its citizens, adding an additional layer of difficulty to everyday living and discouraging entrepreneurship and foreign investment in the country. ​ As for 2024, Canadians are subject to federal income taxes that range from 15% on the first $55,000 and can reach up to 33% of any income portion over $246,000. This applies to any kind of income the individual may receive after various deductions, credits, and exemptions imposed by law have been applied to their earnings. Everything is taxed in Canada; depending on your specific economic activity, you might be subjected to personal Income taxes, corporate taxes, regional taxes, sales taxes, luxury taxes, etc. The more you earn, the more you are taxed. But this doesn't end here. Income taxes are levied both at the federal and provincial levels. This means that a Canadian taxpayer must deal with two sets of income tax brackets: federal tax brackets, applied uniformly across the country, and provincial or territorial tax brackets, which vary depending on the taxpayer's specific territory of residence. On the side of entrepreneurship, the situation isn’t any better. The Canadian government is introducing aggressive tax changes affecting small businesses: effective June 25, 2024, the inclusion rate for capital gains was increased from 50% to a staggering 66.67% for corporations, affecting entrepreneurs' investment decisions and after-tax profits. The inflation rate (1.8% by December 2024) is also impacting consumer behavior, creating a decrease in the general spending in small businesses. A total of 56% of Canadians are decreasing their spending because inflationary pressure directly affects entrepreneurs' revenue streams. # The Skyrocketing Insecurity and the Opioids Epidemic Big urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver used to offer a sense of safety for their residents; the peace of mind of knowing you could walk the streets alone, even late at night, without exposing yourself to any kind of insecurity. But that peace of mind has started to wane in recent years. This decline in public safety was pushed forward since the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to raising people’s awareness of a dangerous cocktail of economic collapse: housing unaffordability, insufficient income, and rising poverty. All these factors have been slowly turning once-quiet streets into dangerous neighborhoods, thrown into oblivion by open drug use and decriminalization policies around opioids. It seems that the government’s good intentions, aimed at curbing deaths by substance overdoses, have led to a proliferation of public drug use and the security issues that stem directly from it. Areas like Hastings Street in British Columbia are sad proof of this thesis. According to official numbers published by Canada’s government, since 2016, the country has faced over 49,000 opioid-related deaths, over 45,000 opioid-related hospitalizations, and over 187,000 opioid-related emergency department visits, with the majority of opioid-related deaths occurring in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. These deaths are primarily attributed to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that happens to be 50 times more powerful than heroin. Several state-funded initiatives to tackle the problem have focused on trying to reduce the number of deaths by overdose by introducing “safe consumption sites” where drug users can receive and use illegal drugs under professional supervision since 2003, but they have fallen short of offering a sustainable solution to the wider problem. The situation has reached dystopic overtones, such as the emergence of activist organizations such as the Drug Users Liberation Front (DURF) advocating for the distribution of free, illegally-purchased, tested drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as a desperate effort to offer a supply of “safe,” unaltered drugs to heavy users. Outro The general panorama in Canada is that of a nation with weak and inefficient leadership that’s not effectively using the citizens’ money coming from the ever-increasing toll of taxes to improve social services, solve the rampant housing crisis, or even maintain clean, safe public spaces. As uncertainty grows, so does the search for alternatives beyond the country’s borders. Canadians are starting to explore other countries, hoping to find places that align more closely with that old promise of a secure and stable place to call home. Sources:​ ●​ https://inclusion.ca/article/reducing-number-of-newcomers-to-canada-misses-the-real-iss ue-of-current-immigrants-looking-to-leave/#:~:text=Economic%20Concerns%20Driving% 20Desire%20to,the%20economy%20generally%20(54%25). ​ https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-regulations-order-in-council-pc - ●​ https://theconversation.com/canadas-merit-based-immigration-system-is-no-magic-bullet -90923 ​ https://unherd.com/newsroom/canadians-turn-on-trudeau-over-immigration/ ●​ https://www.environicsinstitute.org/projects/project-details/focus-canada-fall-2018---cana dian-public-opinion-on-immigration-refugees-and-the-usa ●​ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8rjzr7vexmo ●​ Canadian Public Opinion About Immigration and Refugees ●​ https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sean-fraser-immigration-numbers- ●​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIPBEilFdvQ ●​ https://theconversation.com/canada-at-a-crossroads-understanding-the-shifting-sands-of -immigration-attitudes-232579 ●​ https://globalnews.ca/news/-/anti-immigration-protests-canada/ ●​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txyjmNXcWiU ●​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqARh8dp6Ww ●​ https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadians-moving-to-the-us-hits-10-year-high- ●​ https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220413/dq220413b-eng.htm ●​ https://www.lawsonlundell.com/the-business-law-blog/canadas-new-entrepreneurs-incen tive-a-look-at-the-draft-legislation ●​ https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/canada/corporate/taxes-on-corporate-income ●​ https://wtcca.com/blog/corporate-tax-rates-and-small-business-tax-rates-in-canada/ ●​ https://news.constantcontact.com/--Canadas-Small-Businesses-Bracing-ForChallenging-Holiday-Season-Amid-Inflation-Concerns,-New-Study-Shows ●​ https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/overdose/decriminalization ●​ https://turbotax.intuit.ca/tips/an-overview-of-federal-tax-rates-286 ●​ Free Heroin, Cocaine & Meth Are Being Distributed to Stop Overdoses ●​ https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/--ottawa-s-opioid-crisis-highly-addi ctive-fentanyl-ravages-canadian-capital ●​ https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/opioids/federal-actions/overview.html