Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
I am totally shocked by those numbers. I knew there was a difference between provinces but not so much. Ontario is in a baby bust.
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Economic conditions are pretty awful right now if you're in the prime age bracket for raising small children in Canada. A lot of younger people don't have much stability because they haven't found good employment, even if they went to school and racked up student loans, and housing is extremely expensive. Here in Vancouver a lot of people simply can't afford living space in which to comfortably raise children (there are cheaper cities than Toronto and Vancouver, sure, but all of Canada is at least moderately expensive and a lot of the opportunities are in the most expensive cities). People who are 30-40 now often live like people did in their early 20's not too long ago.
Very little has been done to correct this problem. Governments have made it worse for the most part, following the wishes of older generations.
We're sort of told that immigration will help with the demographic shortfall but this is just more talk from the perspective of people who want high asset prices, lots of labour, and/or a big tax base to mooch off of. Immigration isn't helping the younger Canadian-born population much, and having a stranger move in to your city in 20 years from another country to shore up the tax base is not the same thing as being able to afford to have kids...