The book you're referring to was published by the Fraser Institute, somewhat reluctantly, with a co-author—an American who had lived in Ottawa for a long time. It started off.... Our attention was drawn to the following fact: Statistics Canada found that when immigrants enter Canada, they have an income that is below that of Canadian workers of the same age and education. This low income persists for the next 20 years and never goes completely away. I don't know whether it's discrimination or whatever. That's a fact. When we were writing our book, it was getting worse every five years. Statistics Canada has shown that it has gotten worse.
At the same time, as they settle in Canada, they're entitled to all the government benefits we offer. We also have progressive income taxation, so these immigrants with low incomes are getting all the benefits that are not tied to income, while the taxes they pay are considerably lower because their incomes are lower. We calculated it. This was in the eighties. The several billion dollars' worth of costs that immigrants impose on the rest of Canada was never mentioned. Even then, it was disregarded. We were hated for pointing out these kinds of things. People went, “Oh, this is wrong.” The numbers are there. Nobody refuted them. Of course, the popular media didn't like the idea, because the mood in Canada at the time was still, “Immigrants cannot do any wrong, and we need more and more.”
The question is, do we all want to subsidize the small businessmen of the world? That's an issue we ought to discuss. At the time I was active in writing, these issues were never discussed. We ought to have people from both sides.
Let me say—