Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, acknowledging that a rapid growth in Canada’s immigrant population over the past three years had strained resources, announced on Thursday significant cuts to the number of newcomers in coming years.
Mr. Trudeau took the unusual step of publicly admitting to getting immigration wrong and laid out his government’s plan to change policy.
He said his government had allowed in too many newcomers in too short a period of time, straining services such as housing and health care.
“We are acting today, because in the tumultuous times as we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labor needs and maintaining population growth, we didn’t get the balance quite right,” Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
In response, he said, Canada would significantly slash the number of people it invites and eventually grants permanent resident status. The country will reduce its annual target for the number of people made permanent residents from 500,000 to 395,000 next year, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
The changes would “stabilize our population growth to give all levels of government time to catch up, time to make the necessary investments in health care, in housing, in social services to accommodate more people in the future,” Mr. Trudeau added.
Mr. Trudeau’s changes to Canada’s immigration policy and his ability to impose them without parliamentary approval is a key difference from what a U.S. president can do, outside using executive orders, to push for similar changes without Congressional approval.
One in five Canadians were born overseas and polling shows that the public broadly supports a well-managed immigration system, but has become increasingly concerned about the number of new immigrants arriving in recent years.
Mr. Trudeau’s announcement comes as he and his Liberal Party have become increasingly unpopular among voters unhappy with the country’s direction. With elections looming by late next year, the Liberals are badly trailing their Conservative opponents in polls.
Canada is the world’s second largest country by size, but has a population of just 41 million people; as more of its territory becomes inhabitable, partly because of climate change, there is a consensus that population growth is desirable and even necessary to sustain economic growth and pay for a generous social security system.
The country’s geographic position, too, means that it can largely control who comes in, and illegal migration over the southern border with the United States — the world’s longest single boundary — is relatively low.
Too many, too fast
As the coronavirus pandemic receded, Canada invited in nearly three million people in three years, fueling a rapid population growth that took the country from 38 million to 41 million people.
About half a million people became permanent residents every year, while Canada also expanded its intake of temporary residents that included low-wage and higher-wage workers; international students who could also work legally part time; and refugees.
The immigrants helped bolster the economy and contributed taxes and labor. International students, who pay significantly higher fees than Canadian students, also provided a major financial boost to colleges around the country allowing many to build new infrastructure.
But the rapid expansion in the number of immigrants burdened health care services and worsened a housing crisis.
Demand among the newcomers for housing has contributed to scarcity and made existing units more expensive.
Accessing family doctors and emergency services in Canada’s public health care system has become harder.
While the economy did recover from the pandemic, it has shown signs of a slowdown — the overall unemployment rate has been persistently high, at around 6.4 percent, but is even higher for foreign temporary workers.
What are the new policies?
Beside reducing the number of new permanent residents, the federal government has, since the start of the year, announced a series of measures designed to tighten Canada’s broader immigration system. These include lowering the number of international temporary workers, making it difficult for international students to bring their spouses and capping the percentage of a company’s work force that can made up of foreign temporary workers.
Mr. Trudeau on Thursday took a swipe at businesses, accusing them of abusing their ability to invite foreign workers in a bid to avoid paying fair wages.
He also pointed a finger at provincial governments that oversee higher education institutions, saying they were exploiting international students.
“Far too many corporations have chosen to abuse our temporary measures employed in exploiting foreign workers while refusing to hire Canadians for a fair wage,’’ Mr. Trudeau said. “While under the watch of provinces, some colleges and universities are bringing in more international students than communities can accommodate, treating them as an expendable means to line their own pockets. That’s unacceptable.”
Mr. Trudeau said that all the changes to immigration policies announced by his government would be in place for the next three years, but, given that elections are set to take place next year, a new government could revisit and revise immigration rules.
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