Canada is undercounting the official number of non-permanent residents living in the country \u2013 including foreign students \u2013 by a million or more.<\/p>\n
Deputy chief economist of CIBC Capital Markets Benjamin Tal told the Liberal government as much at a gathering in Charlottetown.<\/p>\n
Tal said in an interview that while the government estimate of the number of non-permanent residents in Canada was around one million in 2021, he believes the actual number to be close to two million.<\/p>\n
This discrepancy arrives because the Government of Canada does not count the number of people living in the country without a visa, writes the Globe and Mail in relation to Tal\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
Herein, Statistics Canada software and coding assumes that temporary visa holders leave Canada within 30 days of their visa\u2019s expiration, even though the majority stay and instead apply to extend their stay in Canada.<\/p>\n
Tal said that by adopting this practice, Statistics Canada accounts for just 750,000 of the million non-permanent residents that are absent from official numbers. On top of that, another 250,000 (most of which are international students<\/span><\/a>) are absent from census data.<\/p>\n Read More:<\/b><\/p>\n Chinese International Students Report Long Security Screening Times for Canada Study Permits<\/a><\/span> The most recent census forms asked students to submit their information if they were living in their main residences. However, they were told to not fill out the census if they return home to live with their parents during the year.<\/p>\n As this caused confusion with students, not all of them filled out the census, as they believed their main residence to be outside Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is why even Statistics Canada believes that the census continues to undercount NPRs with valid visas in Canada,\u201d Tal said, with \u201cNPRs\u201d being an abbreviation for \u201cnon-permanent residents.\u201d<\/p>\n This \u2013 among other repercussions \u2013 causes an underestimation of the number of new homes needed to meet growing housing needs, writes Marie Woolf for The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n \u201cThe practical implication of that undercounting is that the housing affordability crisis Canada is facing is actually worse than perceived, and calls for an even more urgent and aggressive policy action,\u201d reported Tal on his findings.<\/p>\n Moreover, the census shortfall has implications for Canada housing policy, because the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (which is the federal Crown corporation responsible for housing) uses census data to make forecasts, which are used by planners across Canada.<\/p>\n Watch video:<\/b><\/p>\n
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