The labour shortage started to be felt in 2015. The demographic curves have shown the aging of the population since 1997. Looking at those curves, we could have predicted that it was coming and understood that immigration would not be sufficient to solve the shortage. We could also have looked at the figures on Canada's economic growth in 1997. There are things that could have been predicted based on that.
On November 2nd, 2022. See this statement in context.