Canada's Aging Population

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Issue:
Canada’s population has steadily gotten older and older. This aging population has caused concern for the workforce since more and more people are retiring and moving toward retirement, and there are just not enough workers in Canada to replace them. I will examine how Canada’s aging population will affect Canada’s work force. I will discuss what problems this will create, and possible solutions to the problems that an aging population will create.

History:
The current trend of Canada’s aging population can be blamed on two main things, the small family sizes in Canada, and the overall population, mainly the baby boomers aging. The baby boomers were born between the years of 1945-1965. This generation started after World War II when …show more content…

Baby Boomers were between the ages of 46 and 65 back in 2011, so everyone of those people are now six years older. The youngest of the baby boomers are now 52 years old and moving closer and closer to the retirement age. Many of the Baby boomers are now already retired or else moving very close to retirement. In 2011, 15% of Canada’s population was 65 or older. By 2031 every single baby boomer could retire. This will spike the percentage of 65 year olds and over to 23%. Right now every one in six Canadians is 64 or older. The problem with Canada’s aging population has gotten worse and worse over the years and for the first time ever in Canada, there are more 65+ year olds then there are 15 year olds and younger (see graph). There are 1.01 seniors for every child 15 and younger in Canada. As of 2015, Canada has had the smallest annual increase in population in 17 years, though still having the highest growth out of any g7 country (mostly due to immigration), this has caused a decrease in labour force …show more content…

Increasing immigration will help with giving more workers that can replace the retiring ones. Canada needs more immigration because our current number of children per family, which is less than two, is not enough to replace the parents, let alone the many retiring people in the workforce. Immigration will add many more workers to the work force, many of which may already be skilled and need minimal training. This will allow for the replacement of the retiring workers quickly and add more than we originally had. Many migrants who have worked in other countries will already bring skill they had acquired in other countries and this will bring more skill into the workforce and it will allow for a smooth transition from the older skilled workers that retire, to the new skilled workers. There are a few problems with this alternative however. Many migrants that come from developing countries may bring skill in their work area, but they have never been educated, and this will then cause them to be unable to work right away because they will need to receive some sort of education. There are also some jobs that the migrants did in their countries that they will not be able to do in Canada, such as being a doctor or a dentist. For these jobs they may have to go back to school for. Another problem is that some immigrants that come may already be older than the retirement age and so they will not be able to

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