Thank you.
If the committee so decided, I think it would be highly desirable to look at the demographic curve in Canada—not just the one that reflects all of Canada but one broken down by province and, at times, by regions, because I think people should be extremely preoccupied with how that chart is trending.
If we don't address the lower end of the chart with the younger end of the population through immigration, we will be facing a catastrophe in short order, in the next decades, as people will demand more services for health and more services that they expect to be part of the social fabric of this country. There isn't a part of the country that's immune to that.
You can ask whatever expert you want about those efforts, and they will highlight the fact that Canada has done a good job over the last few years in dealing with it.
What Canadians are also telling us is that it has not come without challenges and without sufficient foresight, including when we're looking at the stress on the health care system, on both sides of the equation. That means people—dentists, doctors, health professionals—working and filling those positions but also the stress that is therefore put on the system by not only the aging population but also the new arrivals. You can apply the same analysis to housing.
There are challenges. The strategic immigration review that I referenced earlier identified those, but what is certain is that we need sustained high volumes in order to address that demographic curve.
The demographic curve isn't addressed slowly through immigration, but it is a big indispensable part of it, and I think it should be the focus of this committee and something on the mind of every person who cares about how this country is going. That, I think, is not necessarily a cyclical electoral consideration but really a generational one.