Immigrants fill serious needs in Canada’s labour market, contribute to productivity growth and save public budgets from the costs of aging populations but the country needs “immediate action” to build housing for all the people moving here, said an analysis by Randall Bartlett, Desjardins’s senior director of Canadian economics. (The Logic)

Talking point: Desjardins estimates Canada needs an extra 100,000 housing starts a year to keep pace. The role of temporary residents is also significant, Bartlett’s report said, and their numbers aren’t included in ambitious federal immigration plans. As it fights inflation by hiking interest rates, the Bank of Canada thinks immigration increases housing demand while easing labour shortages, and the effect is roughly equal, bank governor Tiff Macklem said last week after the bank’s latest rate decision. Meanwhile, a BMO Economics analysis found a weak but real long-term correlation between high population growth and higher inflation in Canada.