Juno News - Carney calls Toronto “genius” for immigrant majority

00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Mark Carney applauded Toronto's immigrant population now surpassing its native-born

00:00:10.040 population, saying it's a model for the rest of Canada. Alberta is lifting some of the restrictions

00:00:15.040 on Canada's quote, universal healthcare system by introducing a hybrid model, allowing the private

00:00:20.680 sector to alleviate some of the backlog faced in the province. Two NDP MPs were the difference

00:00:26.020 between Canada being thrown into a Christmas election as they abstain from voting on Carney's

00:00:30.540 2025 federal budget. Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, November 19th, and this is the True North Daily

00:00:35.820 Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux. I'm Alex Zoltam. We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.

00:00:41.500 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.

00:00:48.920 Prime Minister Mark Carney is applauding Toronto's growing immigrant population,

00:00:52.800 calling the city a model for Canada's future. In an interview published Thursday by Toronto Life,

00:00:58.260 Carney highlighted that more than half of the Greater Toronto Area's residents were born outside of

00:01:02.860 Canada. Virtually half of the people in the Greater GTA were born outside this country. You wouldn't 0.93

00:01:10.460 know. You wouldn't know because they quickly become Canadian, were enriched by them. And that's true of

00:01:16.500 our country as a whole. It's always been true of our country. And of course, you know, Toronto is centre

00:01:20.880 of finance, of culture, of business, huge entrepreneurship here. So there's so many

00:01:28.860 things that make Toronto unique, relatively unique, the sum of them all being together in one place,

00:01:36.880 I guess. But the nature of it and the genius of Toronto is the genius of Canada.

00:01:42.360 According to the 2021 census, 46.6% of Toronto's population was foreign born. Government labour

00:01:50.980 data from the same year showed immigrants accounted for 49% of the city's employed residents.

00:01:56.660 Carney framed the demographic shift as a strength, arguing that immigration continues to benefit

00:02:01.240 Canada socially and economically. The comments come as the federal government maintains high

00:02:06.000 immigration targets, a policy that has sparked debate amid rising concerns over housing affordability

00:02:10.840 and infrastructure pressure in major cities. Carney was slammed by Conservative leader Pierre

00:02:15.360 Pallievre during the lead-up to April's federal election for appointing Mark Wiseman, a mass immigration 0.99

00:02:20.680 advocate and co-founder of the Century Initiative, to his Canada-US Relations Council. So Alex,

00:02:26.400 what do these comments tell us about Carney's vision for Canada and how does it compare against

00:02:30.540 former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?

00:02:32.820 Oh wow, there's a lot to unpack here. First of all, I just think that right off the top,

00:02:38.800 it's necessary to point out how illogical it is to say that Toronto represents the best of Canada

00:02:44.240 because half of the city is not Canadian. There's something kind of absurd about that on its face. 0.66

00:02:50.160 And in regards to your question, I think it speaks to the fact that Carney's vision for Canada is very

00:02:55.200 much the same post-national, I would say exuberantly pro-immigration policy as we had with Justin Trudeau.

00:03:02.320 What 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.

00:03:11.120 The rhetoric and the policies just simply don't match up. And we see this a lot with Mark Carney.

00:03:15.320 For instance, you know, Carney publicly launched Toronto's immigrant majority as a Canadian success story,

00:03:20.080 but he is also saying that he wants to cap temporary residents at 5%, down from 7.3% under Justin Trudeau.

00:03:27.940 This suggests to me, anyway, that Mark Carney is trying to thread a very narrow political needle on this issue.

00:03:35.620 Specifically, he's appealing to immigrant communities, which he needs as a voting bloc,

00:03:39.960 while at the same time reassuring the broader public that he's going to reduce immigration,

00:03:43.880 because as we can all tell, the infrastructure is just simply not keeping up with the level of demand

00:03:50.060 due to all of the immigration and immigrants coming into the country.

00:03:53.780 The tension between what he says and what he does becomes, in my opinion, even more sharp

00:03:58.980 when you look at it through the growing extortion crisis that's affecting many parts of Canada,

00:04:03.540 particularly in BC and also in parts of Ontario, including the greater Toronto area.

00:04:08.240 Carney is saying that you can hardly tell that more than 50% of Toronto, or close to 50% anyway,

00:04:13.660 is an immigrant community, but you certainly can tell when you're dealing with an extortion crisis 1.00

00:04:18.200 that is affecting almost exclusively people in the immigrant diaspora,

00:04:22.860 specifically the South Asian diaspora.

00:04:24.840 And I don't want to racialize the issue, but that's simply the reality on the ground.

00:04:28.760 So in short, I would say Carney may be using this pro-immigration rhetoric to shore up support

00:04:32.740 with that voting bloc that he needs, but his policy record and his muted response

00:04:36.980 on safeguarding those communities from the actual threats that they're facing

00:04:40.320 belied the fact that he continues to think that immigration is this incredible success story.

00:04:45.980 I find the comments both disingenuous and not in keeping with his own policy proposals.

00:04:53.920 Alberta is poised to revolutionize healthcare with a new model that would allow doctors to work

00:04:58.080 in both the public and private systems concurrently, according to a leaked draft legislation.

00:05:02.920 This groundbreaking shift, a first in Canada, directly addresses the crisis of long wait times

00:05:07.640 and poor access by finally opening the door to private sector solutions.

00:05:11.380 The Globe and Mail first reported that draft amendments dated November 5th would create three

00:05:15.440 categories of physicians, including a new class of, quote, flexibly participating doctors

00:05:20.480 allowed to bill privately while working in the publicly funded system.

00:05:24.120 The draft also outlines new disclosure requirements for private billing

00:05:27.240 and establishes government authority to restrict which services may be offered outside the public stream.

00:05:32.380 The, quote, flexibly participating physician would reportedly not be required

00:05:36.060 to notify the government which specific service they intend to offer publicly versus privately.

00:05:40.240 The Globe and Mail also reported that the draft creates distinct streams of fully public physicians,

00:05:45.540 fully private physicians, and a new category of doctors who may choose on a case-by-case basis

00:05:50.040 whether to bill the public system or charge patients privately.

00:05:53.200 The potential legislation would also require doctors providing privately billed care

00:05:56.880 to give patients written disclosure of costs, confirm the service may be available

00:06:01.100 at no charge in the public system, and to obtain written consent before proceeding.

00:06:05.360 The documents come as pressure for systemic reform in the healthcare industry grows nationwide.

00:06:10.260 Recent polling and research from Canadian think tanks show rising interest in private healthcare

00:06:14.600 options, especially amongst younger Canadians.

00:06:17.340 So, Isaac, other countries with universal healthcare systems, which often rank higher than Canada

00:06:21.600 in various comparisons, do integrate the private sector into their system.

00:06:25.880 What are some of these countries?

00:06:27.460 What are they doing differently from Canada?

00:06:29.380 And how does it work or not work?

00:06:31.000 Yeah, Alex.

00:06:32.080 So, countries that outrank Canada when it comes to healthcare but still have universal coverage

00:06:37.380 tend to do two things differently.

00:06:39.940 First, they separate who pays from who provides, and they give patients real choice backed by competition.

00:06:45.560 Let's start with Switzerland, which is a recent example that think tanks have been exploring.

00:06:50.140 There, everyone has to buy basic health insurance, but it's delivered through dozens of tightly regulated

00:06:55.380 private insurers rather than a single government payer.

00:06:58.320 Those insurers all have to cover the same generous basket of medically necessary services, but they

00:07:03.700 compete on service, networks, and efficiency.

00:07:06.520 On the delivery side, most Swiss hospitals are actually private, either for-profit or not-for-profit,

00:07:12.240 but they're funded on equal footing with public facilities through an activity-based model.

00:07:16.660 In practice, money follows the patient, not the bureaucracy.

00:07:20.020 If a private hospital can treat you faster and at the same price, it gets the contract.

00:07:24.140 That mix has led to more doctors per capita, more hospital beds, and far shorter wait times

00:07:29.460 than Canadians see, even though Switzerland spends almost the exact same share of GDP on

00:07:34.280 healthcare as we do.

00:07:35.720 You see similar patterns in places like the Netherlands, France, the UK, and Sweden, all

00:07:40.660 ranking ahead of Canada.

00:07:41.880 They keep a tax-funded or social insurance guarantee, that meaning no one is turned away

00:07:46.600 for lack of money, but they don't try to run everything through a single government monopoly.

00:07:51.220 In the UK and Sweden, for example, a relatively small share of people carry private insurance

00:07:56.280 or pay out-of-pocket to use independent hospitals and clinics alongside the public system.

00:08:01.640 Those parallel options are still working under national rules, but they add capacity and

00:08:05.880 give patients an escape hatch when public queues get too long.

00:08:09.600 That extra pressure forces the public side to up its game instead of taking patients for

00:08:13.980 granted.

00:08:16.140 Continental systems like the Dutch or French models take it a step further.

00:08:19.480 They rely almost entirely on independent providers paid by multiple insurers, and governments

00:08:24.360 set the rules, subsidize premiums, and protect low-income patients, but day-to-day care is

00:08:29.060 delivered in a more competitive environment.

00:08:31.300 If you're unhappy with delays or service, you can change insurer or provider, something

00:08:35.240 Canadians simply can't do within our single-payer model.

00:08:39.040 By contrast, Canada largely bans people from using private insurance for core medically necessary

00:08:44.140 services, and provinces fund hospitals through big budgets rather than paying for treatment.

00:08:50.000 That tends to cap capacity and ration care through wait times instead of price.

00:08:54.120 It also means fresh investment and innovation from the private sector has a hard time getting

00:08:58.200 into the system at all, even when Canadians are clearly willing to explore alternatives.

00:09:02.560 So the key difference isn't that other universal systems are more American, it's that they treat

00:09:07.780 universal coverage as a goal, everybody gets care, but use private insurers and private hospitals

00:09:13.900 and patient choice as tools to reach that goal.

00:09:16.340 Canada has clung to a rigid single-payer monopoly, and the result is what we're seeing now.

00:09:21.380 Some of the highest spending in the developed world, some of the longest waits, and growing

00:09:25.200 pressure to copy the mixed public-private models that have been working better almost everywhere

00:09:29.620 else.

00:09:33.880 Mark Carney's Liberals managed to push through their 2025 budget in the House of Commons late

00:09:38.380 on Monday thanks to some MPs who abstained from the final 170-168 vote.

00:09:43.560 For example, two NDP MPs abstained from voting, however, even if they voted no, it would not

00:09:48.120 have likely resulted in a different outcome, as a tie would have been subject to a tiebreaker

00:09:52.260 from the Liberal Speaker of the House.

00:09:54.220 Two Conservatives also abstained, while the rest voted against.

00:09:58.160 Conservative MP Matt Genereau, who had previously announced his impending resignation next spring,

00:10:02.420 was not present, nor did he cast a vote.

00:10:04.840 Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs did not vote, who was on approved medical leave after surgery.

00:10:10.340 So in final, the Liberal budget passed, surviving the final hurdle after two earlier confidence

00:10:15.080 motions on the budget bill.

00:10:16.420 Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a post to X, quote, tonight, the House of Commons has

00:10:20.680 voted to pass Budget 2025.

00:10:22.940 It's time to work together to deliver on this plan, to protect our communities, empower

00:10:27.160 Canadians with new opportunities, and build Canada strong.

00:10:30.620 While two NDP MPs, Gord Johns and Laurie Idlut, abstained, the other five did vote against the

00:10:35.900 budget.

00:10:36.900 NDP interim leader Don Davies told reporters after the vote, quote, we have decided to put

00:10:41.860 the interests of our country first, to vote against the budget, but to help prevent an

00:10:46.520 election.

00:10:47.520 All Bloc Québécois MPs voted nay.

00:10:50.200 However, Green Party leader Elizabeth May voted in favour, following her pledge earlier

00:10:55.440 in the day to support the Carney government's budget to prevent an election, citing climate

00:10:59.420 promises.

00:11:00.600 So Alex, we've been talking about this budget for a while now, but aside from the $78.3 billion

00:11:05.960 deficit, what are some of the key criticisms against it?

00:11:08.860 Well, Isaac, there are very few things that are guaranteed in life, and one of them is

00:11:13.160 not being able to please everyone.

00:11:15.520 But what makes this budget sort of exceptional is the fact that it has managed to displease

00:11:20.260 virtually everyone.

00:11:22.580 It has been criticized across the board by every opposition party, by most of Canada's

00:11:28.020 major stakeholders, including actually even members of Mark Carney's own Liberal Party.

00:11:33.460 Notably, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith called it fiscally irresponsible.

00:11:38.300 The Conservatives, of course, called it fiscally over-responsible, citing overspending.

00:11:42.040 The NDP were concerned over job cuts to the public sector.

00:11:45.120 I believe that the job cuts are quite substantive.

00:11:47.680 They're 15% in some cases.

00:11:50.820 The Bloc Québécois said that there was underspending on key areas.

00:11:54.680 Environmentalists said that there was insufficient green transitioning focus.

00:11:59.300 Public polls also showed that there were split views with the muddled messaging in the budget,

00:12:04.360 and economists were probably the most critical, and that includes the Parliamentary Budget

00:12:08.340 Office itself.

00:12:10.100 Their biggest concern, and I think it's a valid one, is that Canada's debt burden is not necessarily

00:12:15.960 being reported on as honestly as it could be.

00:12:18.820 Let's just put it that way.

00:12:20.100 The PBO's report accused the government of overinflating capital investments by approximately

00:12:24.880 $94 billion through an overly expansive definition that reclassifies operating expenses as capital

00:12:30.980 spending.

00:12:31.420 This goes against what we consider to be standard accounting practices throughout the rest of

00:12:37.280 the world, specifically in developed countries.

00:12:40.380 countries.

00:12:41.380 Also, there isn't a lot of action in terms of bold strategies to produce productivity, specifically

00:12:47.760 when it comes to innovation or competitiveness.

00:12:50.480 That's especially concerning given that Canada's economic growth is so anemic as to almost be

00:12:55.200 non-existent.

00:12:56.200 It's currently at a modest 1.1%, which is one of the weakest growth rates in the G20.

00:13:01.940 And it is also seen as feeling short on ambitions with band-aid solutions and extra bureaucracy

00:13:06.380 instead of reforms to unleash industry.

00:13:09.380 A good example might be the housing accelerator plan, which has resulted in very few new housing

00:13:14.480 projects.

00:13:15.480 Housing builds in Canada are actually down.

00:13:17.820 And this goes back to our first conversation that we were having, Isaac, about immigration

00:13:22.320 levels.

00:13:23.320 Mark Carney, I don't believe that his budget provides what Canada needs in order to have its infrastructure

00:13:31.700 keep up with the increasing demand that is present in Canada due to these massive immigration

00:13:38.540 numbers.

00:13:39.540 And so I would say, yeah, again, across the board, virtually everybody is opposed to this

00:13:43.640 budget.

00:13:44.640 And I'm not surprised that it passed through the House of Commons, which is such a slim

00:13:47.940 vote.

00:13:49.740 That's it for today, folks.

00:13:50.740 Thanks for tuning in.

00:13:52.740 You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and

00:13:57.840 Spotify.

00:13:58.840 Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit us with a 5-star rating and please leave a review.

00:14:03.840 Hopefully, thanks to everybody.

00:14:12.080 Thank you for joining us

00:14:13.680 today.

Juno News - November 19, 2025

Carney calls Toronto “genius” for immigrant majority

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