Planning for shrinking cities

[ssiguy]

With this virus bringing our immigration rates down to effectively zero and due to high unemployment, we will have very low immigration rates for years to come and it's time we started planning for what was once unthinkable......shrinking cities. Immigration rates will never return to the levels of the past few years and that for Canada is a demographic timebomb. A staggering 80% of all our population growth is due to immigration. What's worse is that our immigrants disproportionately account for our fertility rates as they tend to be younger than the Canadian average.

Of course some areas will be less effected than others but many of our cities are growing almost exclusively due to immigration. Sound impossible? Just go look to the US where it's plunging immigration rate has led to population declines not only in cities in NY and Chicago but even LA. This despite the fact that the US has a birthrate 20% higher than Canada.

All Canadian cities since the industrial revolution have been based upon one basic premise...……. they will always grow. That truth is no longer valid and our successful urban areas will be the ones that prepare for this new eventuality.