The Canadian Bitcoiners Podcast - Bitcoin News With a Canadian Spin - The Century Initiative - CBP Quick Currents

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Friends and Enemies,On the first CBP Quick Current we'll be discussing The Century Initiative, a lobby group pushing to increase Canada's population to 100 million by the year 2100 by expanding the country's immigration program to unprecedented levels of over 1 million new Canadians per year.What does this mean, and will it solve our birth rate problem?Let's dive in.As always, none of the info is financial advice. Website: ⁠www.CanadianBitcoiners.com⁠Discord: https://discord.com/invite/YgPJVbGCZX A part of the CBP Media Network: ⁠www.twitter.com/CBPMediaNetworkThis show is sponsored by: EasyDNS - ⁠⁠www.easydns.com⁠⁠ EasyDNS is the best spot for Anycast DNS, domain name registrations, web and email services. They are fast, reliable and privacy focused. You can even pay for your services with Bitcoin! Apply coupon code 'CBPMEDIA' for 50% off initial purchase Bull Bitcoin - ⁠⁠https://mission.bullbitcoin.com/cbp⁠⁠ The CBP recommends Bull Bitcoin for all your BTC needs. There's never been a quicker, simpler, way to acquire Bitcoin. Use the link above for $20 bones, and take advantage of all Bull Bitcoin has to offer.

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Buy with Bull. Non-custodial. Private. And extreme. Friends and enemies, my name is Joey and this is a CBP Quick Current. What if I told you there's a plan to triple almost, can this population to 100 million people by the end of the century? It sounds wild, right? Well, that's exactly what the Century Initiative is pushing for. And it's not as rosy as it seems. Let's start

with the basics. The Century Initiative is a Canadian lobby group founded by big names like Dominic Barton, the ex-McKinsey guy, we've talked about him on the show, and Mark Wiseman, former CPB, among other things. Their big idea is to grow Canada's population from about the 40 million we're at today to 100 million by the year 2100. But why? They say it's to solve a problem, Canada's aging population and crashing birth rates. With fewer kids being born and more seniors retiring, they argue that we're heading for an

economic cliff, less workers, more dependents, and a shrinking tax base. It's scary stuff, right? So how do they plan to fix this? Immigration, lots of it. They want to ramp up the annual immigration to about 1.25% of Canada's population, about 500,000 newcomers per year now, climbing to over a million newcomers annually by the 2090s. They envision mega regions, sprawling urban hubs like Toronto, Vancouver, and others ballooning

to 5 million people or more each. This means more workers, more taxpayers, more economic growth. Sounds like a bold vision for a bigger, bolder Canada, as they put it. But here's where it gets dicey. Not everyone is buying this utopia. Critics, and there are plenty of them, say the Century Initiative's got some serious flaws. For one, it's tied to a few corporate heavyweights.

Founders like Dominic Barton come from McKinsey, a consulting giant accused of cozying up to the Trudeau government and other governments. Some even link it to a scandal where McKinsey's influence shaped immigration policy behind closed doors over the last decade or so Then there's Quebec Premier, Francis Legault, calling it a threat to French culture Fearing mass immigration could drown out francophone identity and let's not forget the housing crisis Canada's already struggling to build homes fast enough and tripling the population doesn't seem like a great idea Good luck finding a place to live, I guess Now let's zoom out build homes fast enough. And tripling the population doesn't seem like a great idea.

Good luck finding a place to live, I guess. Now let's zoom out. Mass immigration from what can only really fairly be described as the third world isn't exactly a new experiment. And it hasn't always worked out. Look at Europe. Countries like Sweden and Germany opened their borders quite wide in the 2010s. And what happened? We've seen crime spike, social cohesion has frayed to say the least, and wages stagnated as low-skilled workers flooded their job markets. In the US, legal border crossings have overwhelmed cities like Chicago, draining public resources. We've talked about this and other examples on the show. The promise was diversity and growth, but the reality seems to be different. Overstretched systems and a lot of resentment. Canada is not immune to this.

We can look at cities like Brampton and others to see how much damage to the social fabric these immigration policies have done. Here's the thing. Immigration doesn't even solve the birth rate problem. The Century Initiative says that we need more people because Canadians aren't having kids. Depending on where you look, our fertility rate is around 1.3 children per woman, way below the 2.1 needed to sustain a population. But guess what? Immigrants age too.

Studies show 34 years of high immigration haven't budged Canada's age structure at all. Most newcomers arrive as adults, and family reunification brings in older folks, not babies. To fix birth rates, you'd need policies like affordable housing, childcare, or tax breaks for families, not just more bodies crossing our border. So what's really going on here? I suggest we follow the money. The Century Initiative's corporate ties, I mentioned McKinsey, BlackRock alumni, big

business donors, point to a different agenda. More people means more cheap labor. Flood the market with low-skill workers and wages drop while corporate profits rise significantly. It's supply and demand. Meanwhile, housing prices skyrocket, enriching real estate tycoons and leaving regular Canadians priced out. It doesn't seem like this is about saving Canada. It's about padding the bottom line for multinational elites, all while waving the flag of economic growth. The Century Initiative pitches a grand vision but dig deeper and it's a corporate

wish list dressed up as national salvation. Canada's future shouldn't be about driving down wages or turning cities into overcrowded mega regions with no distinguishable culture. Maybe it's time we focus on real solutions like supporting families and building a country that works for the people already here. What do you think? Leave a comment on the podcast, send us a message, and until next time, take care.