Where have all the babies gone?

Back in 2012, New York Times’ columnist David Brooks noted the declining fertility rates across the mid-east and the affects that declining birth rate would have on the region.
In 2016, it was noted that in the United States had reach an all time low in births. It has continued to decline since then.
In Canada, our birthrate has been on the decline since 2009. In fact, Canada’s replacement rate of new persons is not keeping up with our aging and dying population.
That is not necessarily a bad thing if we continue to encourage immigration to Canada. With our low replacement rate, Canada is already facing issues like replacing aging work force, funding social programs that support older adults.
Today, our replacement level fertility is 1.61 children per women.
Since 1971, Canada has been below the replacement level of 2.1 children needed to maintain the population.
It should be noted that the number of births in Canada has remained constant for the past decade, but the population has continued to increase.
Perhaps a new opportunity exists should the Supreme Court in the United States rule on the side of the Trump administration ruling that the 700,000 DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) residents are in the U.S. illegally and should be deported back to the countries that their parents brought them from.
Our government should make it easier for those DACA persons to immigrate to Canada as refugees since over 90 percent have nothing in common with their native country.
But getting back to the decline in Canadian births there is a great deal of good news in our birth rates.
Teenage pregnancy has declined dramatically with fewer teenagers giving birth.
Similarly, college age women are postponing having children to a later age in life.
Today, the average age of mothers having their first child is 30 years old–an age that is continuing to creep up.
Denmark, with one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe, began an aggressive campaign in 2014 to encourage women to have more children.
The television campaign encouraged Danish people to procreate.
The “Do it for mom” commercials were designed to make mom a happy grandmother and to also reverse Denmark’s aging population.
The national broadcaster aired a program titled “Knald for Danmark”–or “Screw for Denmark.”
The Danish birthrate was up considerably the following year.
What should Canada do? Should we try Denmark’s campaign and create more benefits for mothers and fathers having more children?
Should we expand our immigration program to attract more immigrants to our country to fill employment vacancies?
Something needs to be done.