Isaac Lamoureux and Alex Zoltan discuss Prime Minister Mark Carney's comments praising Toronto's growing immigrant population, and what they suggest about his vision for Canada's immigration policy. They discuss the tension between what Carney says and what he does, and the reality on the ground.
00:00:00.000Prime Minister Mark Carney applauded Toronto's immigrant population now surpassing its native-born
00:00:10.040population, saying it's a model for the rest of Canada. Alberta is lifting some of the restrictions
00:00:15.040on Canada's quote, universal healthcare system by introducing a hybrid model, allowing the private
00:00:20.680sector to alleviate some of the backlog faced in the province. Two NDP MPs were the difference
00:00:26.020between Canada being thrown into a Christmas election as they abstain from voting on Carney's
00:00:30.5402025 federal budget. Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, November 19th, and this is the True North Daily
00:00:35.820Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux. I'm Alex Zoltam. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:41.500Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:48.920Prime Minister Mark Carney is applauding Toronto's growing immigrant population,
00:00:52.800calling the city a model for Canada's future. In an interview published Thursday by Toronto Life,
00:00:58.260Carney highlighted that more than half of the Greater Toronto Area's residents were born outside of
00:01:02.860Canada. Virtually half of the people in the Greater GTA were born outside this country. You wouldn't
00:01:10.460know. You wouldn't know because they quickly become Canadian, were enriched by them. And that's true of
00:01:16.500our country as a whole. It's always been true of our country. And of course, you know, Toronto is centre
00:01:20.880of finance, of culture, of business, huge entrepreneurship here. So there's so many
00:01:28.860things that make Toronto unique, relatively unique, the sum of them all being together in one place,
00:01:36.880I guess. But the nature of it and the genius of Toronto is the genius of Canada.
00:01:42.360According to the 2021 census, 46.6% of Toronto's population was foreign born. Government labour
00:01:50.980data from the same year showed immigrants accounted for 49% of the city's employed residents.
00:01:56.660Carney framed the demographic shift as a strength, arguing that immigration continues to benefit
00:02:01.240Canada socially and economically. The comments come as the federal government maintains high
00:02:06.000immigration targets, a policy that has sparked debate amid rising concerns over housing affordability
00:02:10.840and infrastructure pressure in major cities. Carney was slammed by Conservative leader Pierre
00:02:15.360Pallievre during the lead-up to April's federal election for appointing Mark Wiseman, a mass immigration
00:02:20.680advocate and co-founder of the Century Initiative, to his Canada-US Relations Council. So Alex,
00:02:26.400what do these comments tell us about Carney's vision for Canada and how does it compare against
00:02:30.540former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?
00:02:32.820Oh wow, there's a lot to unpack here. First of all, I just think that right off the top,
00:02:38.800it's necessary to point out how illogical it is to say that Toronto represents the best of Canada
00:02:44.240because half of the city is not Canadian. There's something kind of absurd about that on its face.
00:02:50.160And in regards to your question, I think it speaks to the fact that Carney's vision for Canada is very
00:02:55.200much the same post-national, I would say exuberantly pro-immigration policy as we had with Justin Trudeau.
00:03:02.320What makes Carney's position, though, a little bit, I would say, more difficult to stomach is the fact that it's so far removed from his actual policies.
00:03:11.120The rhetoric and the policies just simply don't match up. And we see this a lot with Mark Carney.
00:03:15.320For instance, you know, Carney publicly launched Toronto's immigrant majority as a Canadian success story,
00:03:20.080but he is also saying that he wants to cap temporary residents at 5%, down from 7.3% under Justin Trudeau.
00:03:27.940This suggests to me, anyway, that Mark Carney is trying to thread a very narrow political needle on this issue.
00:03:35.620Specifically, he's appealing to immigrant communities, which he needs as a voting bloc,
00:03:39.960while at the same time reassuring the broader public that he's going to reduce immigration,
00:03:43.880because as we can all tell, the infrastructure is just simply not keeping up with the level of demand
00:03:50.060due to all of the immigration and immigrants coming into the country.
00:03:53.780The tension between what he says and what he does becomes, in my opinion, even more sharp
00:03:58.980when you look at it through the growing extortion crisis that's affecting many parts of Canada,
00:04:03.540particularly in BC and also in parts of Ontario, including the greater Toronto area.
00:04:08.240Carney is saying that you can hardly tell that more than 50% of Toronto, or close to 50% anyway,
00:04:13.660is an immigrant community, but you certainly can tell when you're dealing with an extortion crisis
00:04:18.200that is affecting almost exclusively people in the immigrant diaspora,
00:04:22.860specifically the South Asian diaspora.
00:04:24.840And I don't want to racialize the issue, but that's simply the reality on the ground.
00:04:28.760So in short, I would say Carney may be using this pro-immigration rhetoric to shore up support
00:04:32.740with that voting bloc that he needs, but his policy record and his muted response
00:04:36.980on safeguarding those communities from the actual threats that they're facing
00:04:40.320belied the fact that he continues to think that immigration is this incredible success story.
00:04:45.980I find the comments both disingenuous and not in keeping with his own policy proposals.
00:04:53.920Alberta is poised to revolutionize healthcare with a new model that would allow doctors to work
00:04:58.080in both the public and private systems concurrently, according to a leaked draft legislation.
00:05:02.920This groundbreaking shift, a first in Canada, directly addresses the crisis of long wait times
00:05:07.640and poor access by finally opening the door to private sector solutions.
00:05:11.380The Globe and Mail first reported that draft amendments dated November 5th would create three
00:05:15.440categories of physicians, including a new class of, quote, flexibly participating doctors
00:05:20.480allowed to bill privately while working in the publicly funded system.
00:05:24.120The draft also outlines new disclosure requirements for private billing
00:05:27.240and establishes government authority to restrict which services may be offered outside the public stream.
00:05:32.380The, quote, flexibly participating physician would reportedly not be required
00:05:36.060to notify the government which specific service they intend to offer publicly versus privately.
00:05:40.240The Globe and Mail also reported that the draft creates distinct streams of fully public physicians,
00:05:45.540fully private physicians, and a new category of doctors who may choose on a case-by-case basis
00:05:50.040whether to bill the public system or charge patients privately.
00:05:53.200The potential legislation would also require doctors providing privately billed care
00:05:56.880to give patients written disclosure of costs, confirm the service may be available
00:06:01.100at no charge in the public system, and to obtain written consent before proceeding.
00:06:05.360The documents come as pressure for systemic reform in the healthcare industry grows nationwide.
00:06:10.260Recent polling and research from Canadian think tanks show rising interest in private healthcare
00:06:14.600options, especially amongst younger Canadians.
00:06:17.340So, Isaac, other countries with universal healthcare systems, which often rank higher than Canada
00:06:21.600in various comparisons, do integrate the private sector into their system.