The Century Initiative and the Carney Government

The Century Initiative, a "national non-partisan charity with a mission to enhance Canada's long-term prosperity and resiliency" has a lofty goal for Canada's future as you will see in this posting.  After providing you with a basic understanding of the Century Initiative and we'll look at the connections between one of the political leaders in Canada and this "charity".

The Century Initiative, by its own description is:

"a diverse, non-partisan network of Canadians from the business, academic, and charitable sectors with a shared belief that, with the right approach to growth, we can enhance our economic strength and resilience at home, and our influence abroad."

Century Initiative was founded in 2014 years by a group of "influential Canadian leaders" who came together to champion the "long-term thinking and planning that would shape Canada’s future for the next century. Recognizing the demographic, economic, and security challenges on the horizon.". 

Here is the group's current Board of Directors:

Let's focus on the Century Initiative's Board Chair, Mark D. Wiseman:

This individual is well connected with work experience at BlackRock, the former President and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Board Chair at the Alberta Investment Management Corporation and a myriad of other boards/organizations.  We will get back to Mark Wiseman later.

Here's what Century Initiative does:

 Here's who pays to get that work done from the group's 2023 Annual Report:

 

Just in case you were curious, here's what the group's finances look like:

 

And, here's an announcement showing how a member of Canada's mainstream is being used to propagate the group's agenda because it needs a high profile media outlet to propagate its particular brand of propaganda:

 The lobbing group's key goal is to "responsively grow" Canada's population to 100 million people by the year 2100 to "enhance Canada's long-term prosperity, resiliency and global influence".  The group notes that the Government of Canada had (as of 2023) committed to increasing immigrant admissions to 500,000 per year by 2025 – more than doubling the number of admissions to Canada in 2015  The group does note that, while Canadians have historically supported immigration as shown here:

 ...that this may change and that Canada's advantage as a destination for immigrants could change as Canadians grow increasingly concerned about the impact of immigration on:

1.) Access to affordable housing with housing markets being at all-time unaffordalibilty levels.

2.) Public infrastructure and services with a dramatic shortage of health care providers and health care infrastructure.

3.) Economic challenges including high levels of real unemployment and a low productivity rate

The Century Initiative releases an annual scorecard showing how Canada is proceeding on key aspects of the group's vision and compares it to the scores achieved by other nations:

 

When it comes to increasing Canada's population to 100 million, here's what the group says about Canada's progress with my bolds:

"Population growth, immigration and prosperity are at a pivotal stage in this country and around the world.  Canada is on track to reach 100 million people by 2100 and remains a stable, democratic society. However, reaching this target will require a war-time-like effort to support both natural population growth and growth through immigration.

Efforts to safeguard Canada’s future through responsible population growth could be undermined by poor performances on critical indicators like housing affordability, investment in infrastructure and climate change.

Canada’s fertility rate recently fell to a record low and life expectancy fell for the second year in a row. A continued decline in fertility rates would bring far-reaching social and economic consequences in the years ahead, including on labour markets and social services. And while the decision whether or not to have children is highly personal in nature, more robust supports like affordable day care and stronger public education are key inputs to these decisions. The government’s enshrinement of a Canada-wide early learning and child-care system into legislation is an important, arguably transformational, step. 

But more work is needed to increase spaces and recruit and retain the workers necessary for this ambitious program.  Investments in housing, infrastructure, and climate-resilient communities will benefit all Canadians, whether they were born here or not. Building a stronger future means more than just growing our population – it’s about growing well – through immigration, infrastructure investments, economic management, support for children and families, and education.

It’s about preserving Canada’s position on the global stage as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.  It’s about planning for a bigger, bolder, more resilient Canada and working together to get there."

So, in this group's opinion, Canada definitely needs to improve its performance when it comes to meeting the Century Initiative's goal of more than doubling Canada's population over the next 7 decades.

Now, with that background and as promised, let's look at the group's Board Chair, Mark D. Wiseman.  Here is a recent announcement from Mark Carney's government:

 

Mark Carney is bringing the Chair of the Century Initiative into his inner circle as a member of his Council on Canada-U.S. relations.

Not surprisingly, the Century Initiative does have a history of lobbying the Canadian government as shown here:

 ...and here:

 

 

So, basically, Canadians now have a Century Initiative insider as a member of "Team Carney" which would suggest that Canada will continue to open itself to very high levels of immigration that were a key part of the Trudeau government's plans for a post-nation state.  This will mean that Canada's housing market and health care system will continue to be under severe levels of stress with a shortage of both affordable housing and timely health care being part of Canadians' lives for the foreseeable future.