OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a letter about immigration and homelessness, published Dec. 12.
I want to thank Ellen for her letter highlighting some important points. However, I noticed one glaring omission: non-permanent residents. These individuals — students, temporary workers, and others — also contribute significantly to housing demand, yet are often excluded from immigration statistics.
While she compares today’s numbers with historical data like 1913, when immigrants made up 5.3 per cent of the population, it might be worth noting that Canada in 1913 didn’t exactly have the zoning laws, NIMBYism, or corporate monopolies we face today. So, yes, we had more immigrants proportionally, but also far fewer barriers to building housing for them.
She is right that affordability and greed are enormous factors, but when housing supply doesn’t even keep up with total population growth (let alone immigration), perhaps we need more precision when discussing “capacity.”
Of course, I’m sure it was just an oversight to not include the 900,000 non-permanent residents recorded in 2023. An easy detail to miss, I’m sure.
Craig Jones
Orillia
