One third of the working age population in Ontario was born outside Canada; in Quebec, the number is one in six. Absent those people, you could lop 20 per cent off Ontario’s GDP and 10 per cent off Quebec’s output, according to a recent report by Scotiabank.
Immigration is an economic imperative for a country with a low birth rate and an aging population, that is speeding towards a worker-to-retiree ratio of two-to-one in the next decade or so.
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