As migration numbers to Calgary continue to rise, so does the need for settlement and infrastructure supports to integrate new migrants and settle into life in the city, according to experts
The federal government’s move to slash immigration levels could be a step in the right direction, as long as it doesn’t come with cuts to funding for settlement and infrastructure supports for existing migrants, local advocates and experts say.
They say the cuts should be followed by steady investment in housing, health care, language supports and other developments to support migrants already living in the city and moving from elsewhere in the country.
“It’s a response to public perception,” said Paula Calderon, CEO of Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association. “While we do appreciate the government’s response to (alleviate) capacity pressures, I think we need to focus on existing immigrants . . . and huge backlogs and increased demand for services for immigrants that are in the country already. Cutting the numbers won’t alleviate that.”
The federal government announced Thursday a plan to cut the projected number of permanent residents from 485,000 this year to 395,000 in 2025, with further cuts to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
In the short term, this may help to alleviate some concerns around affordability and housing shortages, experts say, but does not address the nuances of existing immigration such as interprovincial migration, regional skill and labour needs, and infrastructure supports.
Premier Danielle Smith and Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Muhammad Yaseem said in a statement Thursday that the immigration cut does not do enough to give the province a “reprieve from the explosive population growth” over the past year.
“With the cost of food, energy, housing and everything else in this country increasing, and with tens of thousands of new people moving to Alberta monthly, our hospitals and schools are at or above capacity,” the statement reads.
The statement argued that the federal government should “cut the number of newcomers to Canada from almost two million to well under 500,000 annually until further notice.
“Ottawa’s priority should be on reducing the number of temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers — not on reducing provincially selected economic migrants.”
Secondary immigration to Calgary
More than 26,000 people immigrated to the city from other provinces, the data showed — the largest interprovincial migration to the city since 2001.
“What the government doesn’t take into account is secondary migration,” said Dr. Kelly Ernst, chief program co-ordinator for Centre for Newcomers Calgary. “Calgary is home to a very large number of secondary migrants and I don’t expect that flow to stop . . . because of affordability issues.”
Ernst and Calderon expressed concern that a reduction in funding could hurt new immigrants’ access to settlement and social services when moving to a new city.
“The federal government tends to fund where people land in Canada first,” Ernst said. “But that’s not where people stay. And right now, there’s a big move from places like Ontario to the West and especially to Calgary, and we’re seeing a population boom as a result of this secondary migration. If services and funds get cut in Calgary, then we’re going to be in real trouble.”
The common assumption is that the flow of money interprovincially would net out, according to Alicia Planincic, economist with the Business Council of Alberta. “(For example), some immigrants may land in Alberta and then move on, but the challenge is that, with Alberta, we do have more net secondary migration, where people land in these other places and, especially with housing becoming more affordable, move to Alberta.”
The cut in immigration levels, according to Jatin Shory, a Calgary immigration lawyer, may not affect the interprovincial migration from other provinces to Calgary and Edmonton, “until these cities start to increase in terms of their standards of living and their costs to match Toronto and Vancouver.”
Funding required for immigration and settlement supports
And as migration numbers to Calgary continue to rise, so does the need for settlement and infrastructure supports to integrate new migrants and settle into life in the city, according to experts.
Shory, who also sits on the board of Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth, a local youth settlement agency, says settlement services are “completely burned out.”
The influx of newcomers into the country results “in the biggest strain on the settlement sector to provide the types of services that have been successful in helping these families transition into Canada, helping treat mental issues, identify types of supports that new families will need,” he said. “I think increased investment (in) settlement services is actually warranted more, as opposed to cutting funding.”
One of the biggest gaps newcomers to Calgary face is a language barrier, Ernst said, due to a lack of fluency in English. However, the wait to get into federally funded language classes can take weeks, if not months.
Housing, health care, roadways and schools are other services and resources that require investment to sustain the influx of new and existing migrants in the city, Ernst added. “We’re going to need mass transit and so forth,” he said.
While the cut in immigration targets may relieve housing pressures in the short term, it may put a pin in developer plans for new housing starts in the coming years, according to Planincic. “It’s probably going to confuse developers,” she said, noting some may put off planning new developments until there is more certainty on what the demand for housing will be in a few years.
The announcement, Planincic said, “kind of feels like we realized we were driving too fast and then we just slam the brakes.”
“It’s a huge shock to the system that could have unintended consequences.”