The Trudeau government’s announced curtailing of immigration didn’t lead to real policy change. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo Credit: Justin Trudeau/X.
In recent years, the Trudeau government’s policy of sharply increasing immigration numbers into Canada has had very negative impacts on housing shortages, labour market disruptions and capacity crises in many of our social services, including health care. Data show that problems of homelessness and pressure on municipal government support services have also been greatly increased because of poor planning on the federal government’s part. Like many Trudeau Liberal government policies, the massive hike in immigration appeared to be based on leftist ideological beliefs that immigrants are more likely to vote for left-leaning governments and that high immigration is a necessary component of that chaotic “post-national state” Trudeau favours. In keeping with much of what this Liberal government has done, very little thought was given to the actual impacts of uncontrolled immigration – some of which was even illegal.
As Canadians became more aware of all of the negative outcomes of mass immigration and poorly vetted immigrants, political pressure ramped up to change direction. Accordingly, last October Trudeau announced that the government was going to sharply reduce immigration numbers. He even admitted it was something they should have done much earlier. But did that actually happen? A recent study by Desjardins indicates the answer is no.
The Desjardins economists found that based on Statistics Canada data, the number of permanent residents and temporary foreign workers being accepted into Canada had not been reduced at all. The only category in which declines had been seen was for international students, which has been shown in the past to be a significant boondoggle in which many people were accepted into Canada as students where there were no plans to be studying at all. Overall, the report concluded that there would be virtually no change in total population growth if current trends continue, despite Liberal government claims to the contrary.
Public opinion surveys show that for the first time in decades, a majority of Canadians are expressing negative opinions about immigration in general. A poll conducted by Leger in late 2024 found that 65 per cent of Canadians believed that there were too many immigrants being accepted into Canada. This is a very unfortunate development for a country that has greatly benefitted from immigration in the past. Canada’s historical immigration success was a result of a well-managed focus on economic immigrants – people who had demonstrated skills and entrepreneurial talents that were needed in Canada, and who were often sponsored by established Canadian citizens.
The current Liberal government has greatly reduced the proportion of economic immigrants accepted in favour of refugees, economic “migrants” and even illegal entrants to Canada. This has undermined the integrity of our immigration system and its support among Canadians. Despite Liberals’ professed efforts in recent months to curb excessive immigration numbers, the Minister responsible, Mark Miller, has put an emphasis on increasing immigration from Gaza and the Sudan, contradicting the Prime Minister’s claims of cutting back on migrant numbers.
Another issue is that authorities seem to have lost track of the plans of many immigrants who came to Canada under temporary visas of one kind or another. Late in 2024, it was reported that just under five million temporary visas of some kind were set to expire before the end of 2025, and the federal government expected all of these people to leave voluntarily. At the same time, asylum claims have skyrocketed, with many international students, among others, claiming refugee status once their visa has expired. The sloppiness of our immigration system is clearly encouraging more people to abuse it in various ways. And even if eventually all of the illegitimate claimants are deported – which is virtually impossible – they will have nevertheless cost Canadian taxpayers a fortune as they work their way through the costly government bureaucracy that often takes years to resolve these cases.
Given the political unpopularity of the Liberals’ immigration policy to date, it’s not surprising that leadership hopeful Mark Carney weighed in on the topic just this week. Carney promised to impose a cap on immigration until levels returned to where they were prior to the pandemic. Considering that immigration levels are currently at record highs, merely capping them is not a solution. Instead, significant reductions are needed.
A logical conclusion to all of these recent developments is that a true reduction in overall immigration is badly needed, yet unlikely to happen under this federal government or a Liberal successor government. In fact, it probably has the same chance of actually being implemented as that high-speed rail from Quebec City to Toronto. In other words, zero.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
