Brian Crombie Radio Hour - Epi 1635 - Immigration, Productivity & Canada’s Economic Future: Can Canada Grow Without Population Growth?

On this episode of The Brian Crombie Hour, Brian Crombie is joined by leading economists Don Drummond and Parisa Mahboubi for a major discussion about Canada’s slowing economy, falling immigration targets, and deepening productivity crisis. The episode begins with an examination of Canada’s post-pandemic immigration reset and why the federal government reduced immigration levels after years of rapid population growth. The panel discusses the pressures created by housing shortages, healthcare strain, infrastructure limits, and affordability challenges — while also exploring how slower immigration could reduce GDP and employment growth in the near term. The conversation also looks at Canada’s aging population, declining birth rates, and the growing consensus that immigration alone cannot solve the country’s long-term demographic and economic challenges. The discussion explores why immigration policy may need to be more closely aligned with housing capacity, labour market needs, healthcare systems, and productivity growth. In the second half of the program, the focus shifts to Canada’s long-standing productivity problem. Don Drummond explains why Canada has struggled for decades to close the productivity gap with the United States and why many Canadian companies fail to scale into globally competitive businesses. The panel examines weak investment in technology and innovation, regulatory barriers, interprovincial trade restrictions, tax policy concerns, and what some describe as an “ambition deficit” in the Canadian economy. One of the central discussions explores why many Canadian businesses plateau instead of pursuing aggressive long-term expansion. As population growth slows, the episode asks a defining economic question for the country’s future: Can Canada still build a high-growth economy based on productivity, innovation, investment, and competitiveness rather than simply adding more people?