Canada’s policy of continuous population growth has no basis in physical or biological reality. Continuous population growth is not possible on a finite planet or in a finite country. As such, Canada’s policy of continuous growth must be viewed as unscientific.
Of course, Canada’s policies are not guided primarily by the physical and biological sciences, but by an economic paradigm premised on continuous growth.
This raises the question, has the Canadian government ever received actual scientific advice advocating policies that are based on biophysical realities and an understanding of limits to growth? The answer is that it has, but that these have been ignored.
Below you will find links to two advisory documents submitted to the federal government and to a study of the lower Fraser River Basin (where Vancouver is located) that was commissioned by the federal government. All of these documents are already decades old and, from an ecological perspective, things are far worse than when they were published. The problems they address remain, and they could still serve as guidance to implementing ecologically sound policies for current and future decision-makers.