Long-term cuts to permanent residents and temporary residents.
After years of criticism and years of driving down the bargaining power of Canadian workers, pushing housing out of reach for millions, weakening our social cohesion, and overstressing our public services, the Liberal government is finally changing course on immigration.
Speaking to the media, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced significant cuts to permanent residents and temporary foreign workers along with a shift towards economic immigration.
Here are some key elements of the planned changes from the official government announcement:
“We are reducing our permanent resident targets. Compared to last year’s plan, we are:
- reducing from 500,000 permanent residents to 395,000 in 2025
- reducing from 500,000 permanent residents to 380,000 in 2026
- setting a target of 365,000 permanent residents in 2027″
“Specifically, compared to each previous year, we will see Canada’s temporary population decline by
445,901 in 2025
445,662 in 2026
a modest increase of 17,439 in 2027″The government is increasing the percentage of immigrant intake that occurs through the economic immigration stream to 61.7%.
You can watch the announcement here:
While this is a shift in the right direction, much of the damage from extreme immigration increases has already been done.
As noted by Scotiabank economist Derek Holt in a detailed report on the Canadian economy, “mismanagement of Canada’s immigration programs will cost this country for many years.”
“A significant negative, however, is that mismanagement of Canada’s immigration programs will cost this country for many years. Potential immigrants have choices. They’ve seen Canada ramp up in uncontrolled fashion, then throw their status in limbo and then remove many of them midstream. Potential future arrivals have to be able to rely on the rules for years at a time in order to have confidence in their decision to arrive in Canada. Otherwise, they’ll go to, say, the US, or Australia, or NZ etc. Why court the risk of future instability in Canadian immigration policies after deciding to take the leap? There must be accountability for the damage done to Canada’s stature as a welcoming, reliable nation for new arrivals. Frankly, as both an economist and a Canadian, I’m utterly ashamed of how this government has so severely botched the immigration file for several years now.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slammed the Liberal flip-flop:
“Today’s immigration flip-flop is a massive admission of failure by Justin Trudeau.
Desperate to save himself from Liberal MPs who want him gone, Trudeau now admits his immigration policies caused housing, health care and jobs crises. But he can’t fix what he broke.”
The Liberals will now be hoping that Canadians give them credit for ‘fixing’ the immigration system without noticing it was the Liberals who broke it in the first place.
If the long-term polling numbers are any indication, that is unlikely to work.
Spencer Fernando
https://spencerfernando.com/2024/10/24/liberal-government-slashing-immigration/