Account Login/Registration

Access KelownaNow using your Facebook account, or by entering your information below.


Facebook


OR


Register

Privacy Policy

'Our schools are full': David Eby says population growth in BC 'completely overwhelming'

British Columbia Premier David Eby has said “unprecedented population inflows” in the province have become “completely overwhelming.”

Eby was speaking this morning in Halifax alongside Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey, with whom he has joined forces in an effort to change Canada’s equalization program.

Asked about increasing numbers of asylum seekers – a major concern for Ontario and Quebec – Eby emphasized that migration in general has created problems in BC.

“We’re talking about well in excess of 10,000 people a month,” he said. “Our most recent total for last year was 180,000 new British Columbians.

“And that’s great, and that’s exciting, and it’s necessary. And it’s completely overwhelming. To add a new city of 180,000 people every year to our province is not sustainable. Our schools are full. We are unable to keep up with housing starts.”

He said one of the topics under discussion in Halifax – where Canada’s premiers have been speaking during the Council of the Federation get-together – was how provinces can work more closely with Ottawa on migration.

Premiers, he said, are interested in figuring out how “we link up our immigration targets and the federal government’s immigration work with the reality on the ground of what we have capacity for.”

He added: “We don’t want to lose the overall picture of how dramatically population is growing, certainly in British Columbia, and the impacts that that’s having on the ground in terms of our ability just to keep up.”

The Trudeau government has been heavily criticized – including by the prime minister himself – for allowing record-breaking levels of migration in recent years.

<who> Photo credit: 123RF

Canada’s population grew by 1.27 million people in 2023, with 97.6 per cent of that growth down to immigration.

BC’s population grew from 5.43 million at the beginning of 2023 to 5.6 million by year’s end.

Economists have warned that Canada’s “staggering” growth in people has led to a stagnation, or even decline, in living standards as inflation increases while incomes remain static.

A report released by Statistics Canada last month predicted that Canada’s population could, according to its “high-growth” estimate, top 87 million by 2073.

The same study predicted that BC’s population could reach 8.8 million by 2048.



If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.

If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.


Send your comments, news tips, typos, letter to the editor, photos and videos to news@kelownanow.com.




weather-icon
Wed
4℃

weather-icon
Thu
6℃

weather-icon
Fri
9℃

weather-icon
Sat
7℃

weather-icon
Sun
6℃

weather-icon
Mon
7℃

current feed webcam icon

Recent Livestream




Top Stories

Follow Us

Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Follow us on Linkedin Follow us on Youtube Listen on Soundcloud Follow Our TikTok Feed Follow Our RSS Follow Our pinterest Feed
Follow Our Newsletter
Privacy Policy