Re: “Making the case for a more-welcoming Canada,” Dec. 30, 2012.

Numerous studies have shown that immigration has little impact on age-dependency ratios.

What most “strains” public finances are the rising costs of repairing, maintaining and building new infrastructure that comes with an increasing population. These are monies that cannot be deployed in improving labour productivity, which is much more the key to a sustainable health-care and pension system than habitually importing masses of people.

In recent decades, more than three-quarters of new Canadians have lacked the necessary skills to earn an income high enough to pay the taxes necessary to reimburse government for the services they consume. According to economists Patrick Grady and Herb Grubel, these immigrants impose a net fiscal burden that averages a staggering $17 billion to $23 billion per year. Clearly, we cannot support a viable social safety net with McJobs. If you are not making at least $14 per hour, you aren’t paying for my pension.

We are told that we must once again resort to the quick fix of recruiting foreign workers to satisfy our labour-market needs, despite high unemployment. Funny thing about perceived labour shortages. When you offer appropriate training and living wage rates, they seem to disappear.

With the highest per-capita immigration intake in the world, our roads crumbling, our cities bursting at the seams and our farmland vanishing, one thing is certain: Bigger is not “better.”

Tim Murray

Quathiaski Cove, Quadra Island

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