Canada 2035
Will Canada be the greatest country to live in?
Introduction
Changing Populations
Canada's current population is 35.16 million people out of that 35.16 million 20.6 percent of that population is foreign born immigrants so that doesn't even include descendants. The majority of the immigrants come from the same few countries such as China, India and the Middle East make up 56.9% of the immigrants. From this we can assume that majority of the immigrants Canada will be attracting will be from these countries. The main skilled workers that Canada will be looking for around the year 2020 is doctors and engineers.
Canada will be a desired location for many immigrants. This is because Canada has good education for couples who are looking to raise a family. Good education is very important because Canada provides good free education, with this education they could go into one a many jobs that are available in Canada. Canada also has free health care. This is very appealing to potential immigrants because health care could be their determining factor on whether or not to move to Canada. I think Canada will be a very desired location for many immigrants.
The Canadian population is changing by 2% on an annual basis. But with current trends the population will remain fairly stable. In the year 2036 there will be estimated 2.3 people working for each senior, it is currently at 4.2 people per senior citizen with this the dependency load is decreasing. In 2012 each woman was having approximately 1.61 children. Despite the dependency load decreasing statistics show a slight increase in population graphs.
The Inuit population in 2035 will most likely have grown because currently the Inuit population is still young. Only 4% of the Inuit population is 65+ which might seem a lot but if u compare it to the non-aboriginal people the percentage of people 65+ is 13%. Nunavik has the fastest growing Inuit population and is located in northern Quebec. The Nunavik population has received a 25% increase since 1996 and it will most likely only keep on growing. A lot of Inuit's are moving into large urban centers. In 1996 17% of Inuit's lived in urban centers but in 2006 22% of Inuit's have moved into urban centers.
Sources:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-foreign-born-population-soars-to-6-8-million-1.1308179
http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-558/p6-eng.cfm
Interactions in the Physical Environment
Canada has the climate it does because of the 7 various climatic zones. Each of the zones depends on proximity to large bodies of water, altitude and latitude. For example Ontario enjoys warm, humid summers and cold winters because of the proximity to the great lakes. The latitude which is north to south effects the climate because of the distance from the equator for example a place like Mexico is warm all the time because it is by the equator, but a place like Nunavut is a lot colder because it is far from the equator. The mid latitude places like the parries experience extreme weather such as cold winters and hot dry summers.
Canada has 6 defined landform regions St.lawerence lowlands, western cordillera, Canadian shield, interior plains, Appalachians and the Arctic. The biggest region is the Canadian shield and the smallest region is the St.lawerence lowlands. Each of the regions have their own climate conditions, vegetation, physical features and soils. The region that we live in is the St.lawernece lowlands. The St.lawerence lowlands is along the edge of lake Ontario. The western cordillera is on the west coast the Canadian shield is located in the middle of Canada the interior plains is in between the western cordillera and the Canadian shield, the Appalachians is on the east coast and the arctic/ tundra is up north.
In the past 50 years the average temperature has increased by 1.2 degrees. Climate will effect the northern parts of Canada more because of global warming and it is slowly but surely melting the glaciers up there and causing sea levels to start rising. If the sea levels rise then the west and east coast could will have to live up on higher elevations to that the risk of tsunamis will be leave hazardous. The heat is also making the summers a lot hotter. The main cause of climate change is the amount of green house gas emissions from our cars and factories. The largest contributor to climate change in Canada is coming from the Alberta oil sands.
Sources: http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=WEATHER&sub=WEATHER_BASICS_ZONES&lang=En
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=canadianlandforms
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/themes.aspx?id=climate&lang=En
Managing Canada's resources and industries
Canada does a lot of trading with other countries. Canada's main trade partners are the United States and China. The majority of the trades are with the Unites States 76%. Canada's exports is valued at 235 billion, the majority of these exports are natural resources. In 2035 the main resource that will be exported is oil because the Alberta Oil Sands is currently producing 1.9 million barrels a day in 2012 and in 2022 it is estimated to produce 3.9 million barrels a day and if it keeps up like this the oil sands can produce up to around 5 million barrels a day. Another main resource is minerals. Some of the minerals are Pearls, gems and aluminum. The minerals are 6.9% of Canada's total exports.
Canada can start making oil more sustainable by using alternate energy sources. A few alternate energy sources are wind, hydro and nuclear. Hydroelectricity would be very efficient because water is a renewable resource. To convert water into power we have to set up dams and stations where there are hydraulic turbines which are connected to electricity generators in the station. These generators will be powered to the rushing water from the dam. Hydroelectricity is used in 150 countries globally and is 16% of the worlds electricity production. Wind energy can be harvested in any large area of land. The harvest wind energy all you need to do is set up wind turbines that are like giant pinwheels. To get the electricity from these when the wind blows and spins the top of the pinwheel/turbine there is power generated and it creates electricity.
Canada is connected to other countries in trade with trade agreements. For example NAFTA is a trade agreement between Canada the United States and Mexico. Canada is also setting up many FTA's (free trade agreement) with countries world wide. Canada's most recent FTA is with Japan and it was signed on January 1 2015. Canada has FTA's with more than 10 countries world wide and negotiations with 60 other countries have begun.
Sources: http://www.energy.alberta.ca/ourbusiness/oilsands.asp
http://www.worldstopexports.com/canadas-top-exports/2502
http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/fta-ale.aspx?lang=eng
Livable Communities
Some issues Canadian cities may face are political and financial cities. A recent political issue is that Mayor Rob Ford has admitted to using crack. This is a problem because the if the mayor of your city is a drug user he might try to harbor drugs from other countries which would not be good for the city. Former mayor Gilles Villancourt has been charged with gangsterism and corruption plagued Montreal has had 4 mayors in just over a year. Besides that there is a lot of pollution due to the amount of transportation in the city. With this pollution the city would no longer have clean air which could cause a lot of medical problems.
Urban Sprawl could be a big problem in the year 2035 because populations are growing. With a growing population people need places to live in and the only way for them to have a place for them to live is to expand residential areas. Ontario can limit urban sprawl and still accommodate for the growing population by creating more high rise buildings for people to live in. The buildings will provide a place for many people to live in and the amount of space to build and apartment building is around the area of 5 houses, but in the building u can hold around a 100 families.
Many cities in Canada are doing things that will make the cities more sustainable. Some examples are Montreal is growing food on top of building in climate control rooms and food being grown on the campus of McGill university. This is good because there will always be food for the local area and it the produce will be more fresh than if it were from a farm. In Toronto an urban architect is trying to use reduce the carbon emissions from cars by making the areas more natural, which will improve air quality and people have a place to enjoy. In Edmonton they are turning their waste into biofuel which could be alternate energy source. In Vancouver they are making houses out of old recycled materials which will help with the waste and it has it's own idviduality.
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/suzuki-diaries-future-city