On August 15, Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West struck a nerve with a viral post on X, calling British Columbia’s dependence on mass immigration “a Ponzi scheme.” His blunt choice of words might sound exaggerated, but the comparison hits uncomfortably close to home not just for B.C., but for Canada as a whole.
A Ponzi scheme works by promising outsized returns while relying on a constant stream of new investors to pay off the old ones. The moment that inflow slows, the whole structure begins to crumble. That’s essentially what our immigration-driven economy has become: growth that’s increasingly dependent on bringing in more and more people, rather than on building industries that create lasting value.
British Columbia has seen staggering population growth in recent years adding nearly 167,000 people between mid-2023 and mid-2024. Projections suggest the province could swell from 5.7 million residents today to nearly 8 million by 2046. But here’s the catch: this growth isn’t natural. B.C. has the lowest fertility rate in Canada and has been losing residents to other provinces for seven straight quarters. The only reason its population is soaring is immigration.
At the same time, the province’s economy has become frighteningly dependent on real estate. According to BC Stats, real estate, rental, and leasing are valued at $56.1 billion by far the biggest industry. Construction, worth $29.3 billion, comes second. Both are tightly linked to housing demand. Compare that to manufacturing at just $17.3 billion, or forestry and agriculture a combined $5.7 billion. The industries that once defined B.C. have been completely overshadowed by an economy built on selling homes to the next wave of arrivals.
Canada as a whole is following the same path. The country added nearly 1.3 million people in 2023 and another 744,000 in 2024, almost entirely due to immigration. Real estate is now the largest industry in six provinces and the second-largest in the other four, according to the Business Council of Alberta.
For decades, economists criticized Canada for leaning too heavily on resource extraction forestry, mining, agriculture rather than diversifying into value-added industries. But instead of correcting course, we’ve created a new imbalance. We’re not “hewers of wood” anymore we’re sellers of condos. And unlike natural resources or manufacturing, housing demand on this scale only exists as long as immigration numbers remain sky-high.
The problem is that Canadians are losing patience with this model. Housing has become unaffordable, wages stagnant, and the sense of economic security more fragile than ever. In response, the Trudeau government began scaling back immigration in late 2024, slashing permanent resident targets and reducing inflows of temporary foreign workers and international students.
The effect has been dramatic. Canada’s population growth rate has already dropped to zero as more temporary residents leave than new arrivals enter. Real estate markets are reacting: micro-condos are collapsing, and foreign buyer bans are cooling demand further. If these immigration cuts continue and public opinion suggests they will we may see a broader property market correction, perhaps even a crash.
This moment is a wake-up call. A housing market inflated by relentless immigration was never a sustainable foundation for prosperity. When an economy depends on perpetual population growth rather than productivity, innovation, or resource development, it becomes fragile just like a Ponzi scheme.
Canada needs to get back to basics. That means fostering industries that produce lasting value: technology, advanced manufacturing, natural resources, and agriculture. These sectors may not create overnight riches like speculative real estate, but they provide the kind of stability a nation can actually build a future on.
The bottom line is simple: we can’t just sell each other condos forever. If we want a resilient, fair, and prosperous country, it’s time to stop relying on immigration-driven real estate bubbles and start building a real economy again.
