Population Institute Canada

India is the most populous country in the world (having surpassed China in 2023) and so it’s good news that its total fertility rate has fallen below replacement, to 1.9 children per woman. But it’s interesting that this article, instead of celebrating this win for sustainability, worries about future labour shortages and an ageing population. India’s southern states, where population growth has been falling faster than in northern states, are worried that they will be punished by a soon-to-be-implemented policy of “delimitation,” which assigns parliamentary seats to each state according to population figures based on a new census begun this year and that will conclude in 2027. While the fertility rate of Muslims (13% of the population in the 2011 census) has been higher than that of Hindus, it has been falling faster recently: from 4.41 to 2.36 between 1992 and 2021 compared with 3.3 to 1.94 for Hindus. Some Indian states have been trying to encourage people to have more children. Are they well?! https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/9/indias-fertility-rate-falls-below-replacement-level-why-it-matters

British Columbians have been stiffed for over $200 million in healthcare bills over five years by foreigners who used BC medical services and left the country without paying. The total losses could have paid for over 21,000 hip replacement operations in BC. Meanwhile, access for BC residents continues to deteriorate. Something could be done. Visitors from abroad could be made to pay up front for medical services (other than emergencies). Visitors could be required to have travel health insurance before entering Canada. The federal government could ban re-entry for anyone with an outstanding medical bill. https://secondstreet.org/2026/06/08/british-columbians-stuck-with-200m-health-care-bill/

In a 55 to 45 percent vote, the Swiss voted No in yesterday’s referendum, initiated by the Swiss People’s Party, to cap the Swiss population at 10 million before 2050. Not surprisingly, the government and businesses were against the proposal. While concern about population growth is widespread, fear of damaging relations with the EU, Switzerland’s main trading partner, was cited as a major reason for voting No. Foreigners make up 28% of Switzerland’s population of 9.1 million. Official projections are that it will reach 10 million by 2040. Marcel Dettling, president of the Swiss People's Party, said, “Not a single problem has been solved. We will continue to push for sensible immigration.” A Green Party parliamentarian lamented, “The damage is done. This has legitimized talk about capping the population. The genie is out of the bottle.” It seems to us that there are a lot of genies in a lot of countries waiting to get out of bottles! https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/switzerland-votes-proposal-cap-population-10-million-2026-06-14/

Short and (maybe not so) sweet: Gad Saad tells Sean Hannity what the Canadian tax burden is. He’s talking about Quebec, and provincial and consumption taxes vary a giant across provinces, but there’s no escaping a big tax burden anywhere. And, despite that, Canada is dead last among the G7 in terms of per capita output. Are we doing something wrong? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SnGHJDEyHIg

British historian Simon Schama slammed US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s D-Day speech in France as “a special kind of loathsomeness.” Hegseth contrasted the Allied landing on June Beach in Normandy, France, with the mass arrival of illegals in small boats and asked, “When will European capitals do something about that invasion?” At the same time, Schama dismissed concerns about mass immigration and denigrated those who hold them. “As if the little people's rage against immigration somehow is superior to the war against the 3rd Reich…” Interestingly, Schama was teamed up with our newly minted Governor General Louis Arbour in favour of the resolution, “"Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free,” in the Munk Debate of April 1, 2016. They lost to Mark Steyn and Nigel Farage who opposed the resolution and argued for more restrictive immigration policies. Before the debate, 77% of the audience agreed with the resolution and 23% disagreed. After the debate, it was 55% for and 45% against, a shift of 22 points to the Con side. https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/hegseth-slammed-slipping-anti-migration-052531452.html

A recent study published in Nature says that financial markets undereste the economic risks of biodiversity loss, potentially exposing countries to sovereign debt crises and higher borrowing costs. Failing to incorporate environmental degradation leaves $83 trillion of global assets vulnerable to mispricing. Biodiversity losses included wild pollinators, marine fisheries and tropical forests. As these and other losses undermine economic performance, it becomes harder for countries to service their debt, raising borrowing costs and fiscal strain. The additional debt servicing costs would represent almost three-quarters of global annual overseas development aid. The authors urged regulators, central banks and rating agencies to integrate nature-related risks into financial models, saying the cost of protecting biodiversity is far lower than the economic consequences of ⁠its loss. https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/study-warns-biodiversity-loss-could-trigger-wave-debt-crises-2026-06-05

A majority of Canadians are deeply unhappy with their country’s much-vaunted healthcare system. Not a surprise when 5.9 million adults do not have a family doctor or primary care team. A recent Nanos poll shows that 91% of Canadians want to see immediate and extensive changes to healthcare and 70% are worried or frustrated by existing conditions. Just 14% think healthcare is moving in the right direction and only 12% say they were hopeful. All of which reflects an overstressed healthcare system, which is part of the flock of chickens coming home to roost from Canada’s deliberately driven population growth that started in 1990 with Brian Mulroney and was turbocharged by Justin Trudeau. Per capita hospital beds are one indicator, falling from 6.9 per 1000 people in 1976 to 2.6 per 1000 people in 2020. And those numbers are from before the out-of-control immigration of 2022 and 2023, during each of which over one million newcomers (permanent and non-permanent residents) were brought to Canada. https://nanos.co/why-canadians-want-healthcare-to-change-now-the-santis-nanos-canadian-health-perspective/

Today Canada gets a new governor general, Louise Arbour. When Prime Minister Carney appointed her in early May, he said Canada’s history, institutions, and enduring traditions matter more than ever. However, the traditional changing of the guard at Rideau Hall, the governor general’s residence, was cancelled last year. Streets, schools, universities, public squares, and buildings are being renamed because the people they honoured don’t meet all the specs of today’s politically sensitive standards. Historical plaques are being removed from national parks for the same reason. Even Canada’s founder, Sir John A. Macdonald, is being cancelled, including at the law school that once bore his name. Macdonald Hall of Queens University in Kingston, where Macdonald practiced law, is now simply “the Law Building.” Some of the views that Louise Arbour has expressed and her leading role in creating the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (which essentially gives the United Nations control of national borders) suggest she’s very much open to a “postnational” Canada. There is also no evidence that either Carney or Arbour intend to do anything about the erasure of Canada’s past, suggesting that they may be more interested in directing Canada toward globalism than in preserving its history, institutions, and traditions. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/article/pm-carney-names-louise-arbour-as-canadas-next-governor-general/

Concerns are being raised about Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s omnibus Bill 60, which contains the Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, allowing local water systems to be removed from municipal control and reorganized as corporate entities. Legitimate concerns are being raised that this creates opportunities for making profits at the expense of public safety and rate affordability. What kind of leverage will citizens have if their water supply is owned by profit-seeking corporations? https://carleton.ca/news/story/ontario-water-privatization-law/

Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested that the reduction in immigration may have been a factor in creating a “technical recession” (two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction) and this was part of a “settling-in” period during a broader economic transformation. Indeed, the GDP was growing as population growth ran amok when Trudeau brought in over one million people in each of 2022 and 2023, exacerbating a housing crisis, homeless crisis, and foodbank crisis, from all of which Canada is still suffering. This only shows what a totally inadequate measure of actual well-being the GDP is when used as a stand-alone metric. Boosting immigration to “grow the economy” is not what Canada needs. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/carney-says-canadian-economic-data-133909929.html