RECORD NUMBER OF CANADIANS LEAVING THE COUNTRY

 

 

You can’t “build the nation” if the builders are leaving

Canada has a quiet problem that doesn’t fit the glossy “growth” storyline: more Canadians are leaving the country for good—at record levels—and the biggest share are prime working-age adults.

According to Statistics Canada-linked estimates highlighted this week, 120,016 emigrants left Canada in the latest annual period (StatsCan’s annual demographic estimates are referenced to July 1; Better Dwelling reports this as “in 2025”). More than half of those leaving were age 25–49 (64,734 people)—the very group you rely on to staff job sites, raise families, start businesses, and fund public services through taxes.

It gets worse: it’s not just “young people chasing adventure.” Seniors are increasingly leaving too—16,609 aged 55+ in the same period, and a growing share of total departures. That’s a flashing warning light about quality of life, affordability, and confidence in the direction of the country.

Now put that beside the Prime Minister’s “build” messaging—fast-tracking major investment, building strength at home, and projecting a plan for a stronger economy. Ambition is fine. But a nation can’t be rapidly built on press releases. It’s built by people who choose to stay, work, invest, and raise their kids here.

When prime-aged workers leave in large numbers, it hits Canada where it hurts:

• Construction capacity shrinks (fewer trades, fewer project managers, fewer entrepreneurs).

• Tax base per resident gets more strained (fewer peak earners carrying more load).

• Municipal services get harder to fund without punishing the people who remain.

• Future growth becomes more dependent on replacing leavers rather than improving conditions.

To be fair, emigration is a difficult number to measure perfectly, and Statistics Canada notes methods evolve because departures are inherently harder to track than arrivals. But even with that caveat, the direction and scale should worry anyone serious about “building the nation.”

So here’s the practical question Ottawa—and every provincial legislature—should have to answer:

What are you doing to make Canada a place that skilled, prime-aged workers choose to stay in?

Not slogans. Not programs that shift money around. Real fixes:

• A hard affordability target (housing + taxes + energy + food) and policies that actually hit it

• Permitting and infrastructure reforms that lower the cost of building (not just announcing units)

• Tax competitiveness and productivity reforms so working more doesn’t feel pointless

• A retention strategy that treats skilled Canadians as an asset worth keeping—not an ATM

Because if the “builders” keep leaving, the country doesn’t get built faster.

It gets hollower.