[EyeBrock]

I have my own views on the pros and cons of immigration. The economies of scale thing isn't working too well here. Even BC isn't an equitable comparison with 4 million souls compared to Ontario's 13 million.

We have 180,000 of the 250,000 immigrants that come to Canada each year coming to Ontario. About 90,000 of those go to Toronto with about 160,000 going to the GTA as a whole.

That's a lot of hospitals groaning at the seams and a lot of the population not getting served by a local hospital. In my Region, no new hospitals have been built since the Liberals came to power in 2003 yet the population has grown 40% in that time.

Throw into the mix the 15,000-20,000 Family Class immigrants a year, usually older parents that require more health-care service than younger immigrants would, then adding in the aging boomers who were actually born here and you have an issue that is bigger in Ontario than in any other province and a few of the provinces combined.

[andyt]

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

I have my own views on the pros and cons of immigration. The economies of scale thing isn't working too well here. Even BC isn't an equitable comparison with 4 million souls compared to Ontario's 13 million.

We have 180,000 of the 250,000 immigrants that come to Canada each year coming to Ontario. About 90,000 of those go to Toronto with about 160,000 going to the GTA as a whole.

That's a lot of hospitals groaning at the seams and a lot of the population not getting served by a local hospital. In my Region, no new hospitals have been built since the Liberals came to power in 2003 yet the population has grown 40% in that time.

Throw into the mix the 15,000-20,000 Family Class immigrants a year, usually older parents that require more health-care service than younger immigrants would, then adding in the aging boomers who were actually born here and you have an issue that is bigger in Ontario than in any other province and a few of the provinces combined.

Again, comparing absolute populations isn't part of the question. As I said, health transfers are based on population, so Ontario would have received more money than BC. My point was that BC also had a large influx of immigrants - i don't know who takes relatively more, BC or Ontario. During the Harris years, Ontario's economy hadn't been hit by the recession yet, so it was doing relatively better than other provinces besides BC and Alta.

But it just boils down to my question, which is do you think the Harris government was a plus for Ontario or a minus?

[EyeBrock]

Harris fucked a lot of things up but compared to Bob Rae, he was an organisational genius. He also got rid of some of the discriminatory hiring practices that Rae’s NDP government brought in and I managed to get a job as a direct result of Equity being repealed.

[andyt]

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

Harris fucked a lot of things up but compared to Bob Rae, he was an organisational genius. He also got rid of some of the discriminatory hiring practices that Rae’s NDP government brought in and I managed to get a job as a direct result of Equity being repealed.

I forgot that Rae preceded Harris. I guess it's understandable then how Ontarians could go for Harris. I voted for Campbell, personally, too, the first time, because the NDP had to go.

[Bruce_the_vii]

EB the Greater Toronto Area doesn't get 160k immigrants plus family class.
Here's the table

With 100k immigrants you need new hospitals, schools and power stations. They seemed to have squeeze them into Mississauga.


Statistics Canada table 051-0039
..Immigration to Toronto area

1986/1987 43,256
1987/1988 56,120
1988/1989 66,671
1989/1990 72,228
1990/1991 79,047
1991/1992 86,872
1992/1993 98,762
1993/1994 83,762
1994/1995 86,997
1995/1996 84,670
1996/1997 92,316
1997/1998 82,285
1998/1999 70,804
1999/2000 88,256
2000/2001 117,602
2001/2002 123,836
2002/2003 87,495
2003/2004 102,536
2004/2005 103,948
2005/2006 109,349
2006/2007 93,341

[EyeBrock]

Well, close enough.

Add on the people who have 'vanished' on landing at YYZ and times by two.

Your stats don't take into account the 30,000 'refugees' a year or the family class immigrants. I'd say Statscan is a conservative estimate.

[Bruce_the_vii]

Dayseed Dayseed:

If we could switch to solar power and it raised the average household 'lectric bill 5-8%, I doubt you'd hear anybody bitching for very long.

5-8%???? McGuinty is contracting solar electricity at 80 cents a Kwhr compared to 5-7 cents for nuclear electricity. Delivery doubles the nuclear cost, more or less. Solar hasn't come along in 30 years of R and D.

[EyeBrock]

Bruce_the_vii Bruce_the_vii:

Dayseed Dayseed:

If we could switch to solar power and it raised the average household 'lectric bill 5-8%, I doubt you'd hear anybody bitching for very long.

5-8%???? McGuinty is contracting solar electricity at 80 cents a Kwhr compared to 5-7 cents for nuclear electricity. Delivery doubles the nuclear cost, more or less. Solar hasn't come along in 30 years of R and D.

Some sense from Bruce.