The financial elite of this country are planning to use Canada as the subject of an experiment to test their pet theories about population and economic growth. The Century Initiative (CI) is a non-profit organization that wants Canada’s population to reach 100 million by the year 2100. Currently Canada’s population is nearing 37 million. With present trends, Canada is projected to contain approximately 50 million people by the year 2100. The Century Initiative is hoping to turbo charge that growth.

Excessive population growth is in the interest of the financial elite and not average Canadians

A quick glance at the CI’s founding team reads like a list of the cream of the crop of Canada’s banking and finance world. Among them are the likes of Dominic Barton, Managing Director of McKinsey & Co. where he advises clients in “a range of industries including banking, consumer goods, high tech and industrials.” Mr. Barton, whose interests are so clearly for the well-being of average Canadians, is also quite the globe-trotter. He’s lived in Asia for nearly a decade from 2000-2009, spending half his time as a Chairman in South Korea, followed by another stint in Shanghai. While today, Dominic Barton dictates his prerogative on Canadians from his main residence in London, U.K. Then there’s also…

• Tom Milroy, Managing Director of Generation Capital Limited and former Chief Executive Officer of BMO Capital Markets.
• Willa Black, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Cisco Canada and a former director of Public Affairs for RBC.
• Mark D. Wiseman, Global Head of Active Equities and the Chairman of Blackrock Alternative Investors.

Are you beginning to notice a common denominator?

Bankers, financiers and CEOs, oh my!

It’s not hard to see why these individuals would be the first to benefit off of a vast increase in Canada’s population. By treating Canada like some sort of multicultural Frankenstein, they hope to slap together divergent populations and then sustain their post-national experiment with the electricity of unlimited debt. More economic immigrants mean a larger pool of potential debtors. The commonly touted statistic is that newly arrived immigrants are more likely than Canadians to start small businesses or become self-employed.  However, these businesses usually require small to medium sized loans paid back at a high interest, especially if the debtor doesn’t have a prior credit history. With growing concern about rising interest rates in the country, it’s clear that the banks are hungry to sustain their coffers. This is an effort that would eventually harm newly arrived immigrants in the long run. Not to mention the potential costs that taxpayers would have to front to accommodate the population flux. A Fraser Institute Report in 2011 shows that “newcomers pay about half as much in income taxes as other Canadians but absorb nearly the same value of government services”.

The Century Initiative is a socioeconomic experiment at the national level

The reality of the situation is that there is no precedent for such a transformative population change in Canada. While the percentage growth might find historical comparisons, Canada has never been in a situation where 67 million new immigrants entered into the country over a period of 80 years. To justify the ludicrous rate of growth the Century Initiative hopes to achieve, CEO Shari Austin points to 1920s America as an example. In a 50 year period, from 1870 to 1920, the United States went from a population of 38 million to over 100 million according to the United States Census Bureau. However, when looking at the geographic distribution of the population in the United States at the time, and comparing it with Canada, a starkly different picture emerges.

In the 1920s, the US was still finalizing westward expansion and the distribution of its population was over an exponentially larger geographic area than Canada could potentially cover. The growth suggested by the Century Initiative would lead to the clustering of new arrivals into high population areas like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Infrastructure and accommodation would simply not have the time to catch up and spread outwards to adapt to such a drastic change.

Ultimately sky rocketing housing rates, deteriorating city infrastructure and lower living conditions would be the inevitable outcome of such high population densities.

America reacted to a population of 100 million with comprehensive immigration restrictions

If Austin was historically literate, she would also know that 1920s America is a poor example to use because only four years later the controversial Immigration Act of 1924 was passed. The bill, also called the Johnson-Reed Act placed national origin quotas on new immigrants and completely excluded immigrants from Asia. Although America’s population boomed in such a short period, the results were a much wider geographic distribution of peoples and an eventual reaction by the government to curb the excessive population growth.

Not the solution to an aging population

Another misconception often championed by the Century Initiative is that a population of 100 million is necessary to compensate the inevitable expenses our aging population might incur. While this is true in some respects, recent actions by the government to remove medical inadmissibility restrictions to newcomers would hamper the system even further. The medical inadmissibility policy disqualified potential immigrants who had health conditions which would unnecessarily strain our public health care system. Now that those restrictions are being stripped away, immigration could only further contribute to the country’s health care struggles. To put it plainly, there are other solutions. We only have to look to Japan for a different approach to the problem. Even Century Initiative’s own Dominic Barton admits that:

"There are two things that Canada can learn from Japan and other advanced countries faced with similar demographic challenges; first, building the necessary support systems that make it easier for families to have children (e.g., child care, tax policy) and second, maximizing workforce participation (e.g., by investing in training programs)."

Yet Japan hasn't seen a need to turn towards mass levels of immigration. Despite a more severe case of an aging population, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instead dedicated himself to healthcare reform, increasing elderly employment and gearing investment towards the population’s specific needs.

International influence is not dictated by the size of a nation’s population

In a CBC Radio interview Shari Austin suggested that a larger population would mean a greater international influence. From an economist’s limited viewpoint this would make total sense but a quick look at international politics would debunk such a claim. Take Israel for example, a nation with a population nearing 9 million. Its global influence over the last few decades has been unprecedented and it continues to dominate on the international stage. There are so many factors which could hamper or increase a nation’s global power and population is merely one of them.

Don't be fooled into believing the snake oil sold by financial moguls

A forced population growth of this caliber will have unintended and potentially disastrous consequences. There are other viable solutions which could mend many of our current and future problems as a nation and excessive population growth is not one of them. Hiding behind the altruism of diversity and economic growth The Century Initiative conceals its cold and calculated motive for sheer profit.