ottawa –
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government could have acted sooner on reining in the immigration program, after blaming “bad actors” for abusing the system.
Prime Minister Trudeau released a nearly seven-minute video on YouTube on Sunday talking about the recent decline in the number of permanent residents allowed into Canada and changes to the temporary foreign worker program.
Over the next two years, the number of permanent residents is expected to fall by about 20% to 365,000 by 2027.
In the video, Trudeau spoke about the need for more immigration to boost the labor market after the pandemic lockdown ends, saying the measure helped avert a full-blown recession.
But Prime Minister Trudeau then went on to criticize a number of issues, including employers trying to avoid hiring Canadians, schools recruiting more international students to get higher tuition fees, and scams promising a false path to citizenship. He said “bad actors” in the department took advantage of these programs.
Trudeau says he and his team could have acted sooner once it became clear that businesses no longer needed additional workforce support.
Prime Minister Trudeau said the government’s goal in reducing immigration is to stabilize population growth until housing stocks catch up, then consider gradually increasing immigration rates again.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.
