Juno News - Conservative plan could lower immigration levels

00:00:00.000 But in the vein of birth rates, we can't talk about Canada's population without talking about

00:00:12.800 immigration, which has long been relied on as really the lone avenue for population growth

00:00:18.700 in this country. We hear time and time again, politicians say, well, birth rates are too low,

00:00:22.820 we've got to boost our numbers through immigration. And as we've seen in the last couple of weeks in

00:00:27.340 particular, Canada's immigration has led to an unsustainable path. We have the federal government

00:00:33.160 itself even admitting that it has had far beyond, those were its words, far beyond what Canada is

00:00:38.920 able to absorb in terms of temporary residents combined with new permanent residents. And to

00:00:43.760 give you some context on this, government has committed to about half a million new permanent

00:00:47.620 residents a year, but the number of new temporary residents a year is over a million. And that

00:00:52.960 includes foreign students, temporary foreign workers, people that come in through other

00:00:57.040 channels. So you have a large volume of people coming to Canada, and a country that economically

00:01:02.680 cannot sustain even those who are here already. So let's talk about this in context of what a

00:01:08.060 conservative government would do about it. I spoke about this with Pierre Polyev in December,

00:01:12.780 and he was hesitant to give a specific figure for what a conservative government would advance.

00:01:17.920 But he also did say there'd be a formula in place. And I wanted to delve into that a bit for

00:01:22.720 detail with the conservative's immigration critic, Tom Kamich.

00:01:29.440 I'm speaking right now with the conservative immigration critic, also a Calgary MP, the MP for

00:01:35.140 Calgary Shepherd, Tom Kamich. Tom, always good to talk to you. Thanks for joining me.

00:01:39.300 Thanks, Andrew. Thanks for having me.

00:01:40.580 So obviously, immigration has become a hot button issue in politics. What's been fascinating is how the

00:01:45.980 Liberals have decided to do a complete about-face on what's really been their position for quite some

00:01:51.480 time. How did you feel when you got that concession from Justin Trudeau within the last couple of

00:01:56.960 weeks that Canada has actually bungled this, that Canada has actually admitted through temporary

00:02:02.440 residency far more than what he said the country could absorb?

00:02:06.700 So, I mean, it's a bit ridiculous for the Prime Minister to claim that he suddenly discovered that

00:02:10.660 things aren't going the way that he maybe thought that it was. He's the one that's been appointing all

00:02:15.520 these immigration ministers. I guess he doesn't read any of the briefing notes or documents that

00:02:19.580 come up his way. We found that out at the inquiry. He doesn't read national security documents. He's not

00:02:23.400 reading immigration documents. It's obvious. And, you know, this is just a continuation because back in

00:02:27.660 August, when he reshuffled his own cabinet, you had this bizarre situation where the

00:02:32.080 previous immigration minister could not let go of his department. He was saying that things are a mess.

00:02:37.080 That's a direct quote. And the new minister said things are out of control. And they've been fighting it out in

00:02:41.780 public between the senior immigration minister and the junior immigration minister. And now that Prime

00:02:46.200 Minister's weighed in and accused this government of basically failing on the job, that they're not

00:02:50.800 competent, obviously, except he's the one that's appointed everybody. He's been in charge for almost

00:02:55.260 nine years now. And they broke the immigration system. It's nice of him to recognize that he broke it.

00:03:00.020 Pierre Polyev, on my show and now elsewhere, has talked about what his approach to immigration will be. He said

00:03:05.440 that immigration should be tied to a couple of key indicators, such as job availability,

00:03:10.020 health care resources. And also, I think, in general, when you're looking at just the well-being

00:03:15.020 of the country, those economic focal points have been where he's gone. Can you give any more clarity

00:03:20.180 on what a conservative immigration plan would look like in a platform or what you would like to do

00:03:25.700 in a conservative government on this? So, I mean, what I'd love to do in a conservative government

00:03:30.280 is help the next immigration minister figure out what the formula should be. And right now, it's,

00:03:35.580 you know, broad terms, health care, housing, jobs, equals, that will be whatever it equals to.

00:03:41.140 And then we'll have to create that, you know, very objective way of calculating how many people

00:03:47.760 should be allowed to be in Canada, to be working here, studying here, reuniting with families,

00:03:53.080 all of it, all of it together. And I think those are three very reasonable metrics to have.

00:03:57.280 And what are the inputs into those metrics, like how exactly we'll look at, closer to election,

00:04:02.660 we'll obviously give it to the public so they can, you know, make a determination. Do we have a

00:04:06.340 better way of doing and managing our immigration system? Or do they prefer the chaos and the 1.00

00:04:11.080 brokenness that the Liberals have created over eight years?

00:04:13.760 If that calculation leads to a permanent resident number that is lower than the target now,

00:04:18.880 is that something that you would be willing to stand behind?

00:04:21.420 So it's going to be more than just permanent immigration. It's going to be also temporary

00:04:24.940 resident immigration. Because the problem isn't the permanent residency ones. Like those PR numbers

00:04:29.780 are often quoted by individuals in Canada. About 45 to 55 percent of those, depending on the year,

00:04:35.900 actually people who are physically in Canada already, they're just changing their status from

00:04:40.180 studying, from working here on a temporary foreign work permit, and they're becoming permanent

00:04:44.580 residents of Canada, hopefully on their pathway to becoming citizens and, you know, joining the Canadian

00:04:48.480 family. So half of those are already here. We're talking about everybody. It'll be an all-encompassing

00:04:53.360 number, including everyone. So I don't want to limit it just to PRs.

00:04:57.280 But to be direct about that, do you think that number is going to have to be lower than what it

00:05:00.880 is right now?

00:05:01.780 It'll be whatever it comes out to, that will be the number. If it's lower, it's lower. If it's higher,

00:05:05.600 it's higher. But we see what the housing construction is looking like. The number is

00:05:10.480 going down in terms of the number of dwellings being completed per year. Healthcare services are

00:05:14.880 stretched in some provinces, sometimes beyond the limit. That's what I heard in Vancouver when I was

00:05:19.520 there a few weeks ago. That's what I hear in Toronto when I'm there. Like, we don't have a family doctor

00:05:23.360 crisis in Calgary. There are actually signs saying family doctors accepting new patients. So this is

00:05:28.720 my pitch to your listeners and viewers. Like, if you want a family doctor, know Calgary is a beautiful

00:05:33.020 place. It's the most beautiful city in Canada that they can move and find a family doctor, but also

00:05:37.760 jobs, job vacancy rates, job unemployment rates, and specific sectors of the economy are looking for more

00:05:44.240 people than others, such as construction. All of that will affect it. There'll be a total number at the end,

00:05:49.280 and that will be the final number.

00:05:51.040 Do you think that it's reasonable to restrict the immigration calculation to economic indicators? I know

00:05:56.400 the previous Conservative government looked at values-based things. And certainly since October 7th,

00:06:01.360 we've seen some examples of people where there is not a consensus on core beliefs. And I'm wondering

00:06:07.280 how that would factor into your ideal scenario for immigration.

00:06:10.240 I'm always worried about introducing things that are not fixed, like values, because that should be

00:06:15.040 a civic society to decide. Like, I don't want my government determining which values it supports,

00:06:19.920 which doesn't. And the reason I don't like it is because for the last nine years, that's the

00:06:23.200 Liberal government of Canada. That's what they've been doing. They've been telling you if you ran,

00:06:27.680 you know, a school camp program and you thought that it should be based on, like, Bible teachings,

00:06:33.440 that you were a bad person and they applied a values attestation test to whether you could receive

00:06:38.000 a bit of taxpayer funds to hire a couple of camp counselors. And if you were running, you know,

00:06:42.720 like a resettlement program, they made you tell them, do you support certain values or not? So

00:06:47.520 that's what I'm always worried about, is when you allow the government to determine which values it's

00:06:51.520 going to promote, which it doesn't, then you get the Liberal Party of Canada doing what it's done for

00:06:55.120 the past nine years. So I believe, like, things like healthcare, housing, jobs, all Canadians can get

00:07:00.800 behind that and be like, yeah, those are reasonable, objective metrics. There's no subjectivity to them. You either

00:07:05.920 have those services or you don't and there'll be a number and we can then debate whether the inputs

00:07:10.720 are correct or not. And then it's a debate about what are the inputs that should be going into it.

00:07:14.800 You want more immigration? Build more housing, get the policies into place to make housing cheaper 1.00

00:07:19.920 so that people can get into more housing. You want more doctors, more healthcare services? Well,

00:07:24.000 make it easier for doctors to practice. We have over 20,000 internationally trained doctors who cannot

00:07:28.480 practice their profession. In fact, there are less doctors practicing today than there were like 20,

00:07:34.000 30, 40 years ago as a percentage out of like per thousand. And same thing for nurses. There's over,

00:07:39.840 I think, 32,000 internationally trained nurses who can't practice the profession, the occupation that

00:07:44.640 they love because colleges are blocking them from doing so. So the country of origin lost a nurse. We

00:07:49.680 didn't gain a nurse. We just have people who are disgruntled because they can't practice their

00:07:53.040 profession, likely working a survival job. Election currently scheduled for fall of 2025. If you had your way,

00:08:00.640 when would you be going to the polls? Uh, the same thing my constituents are saying immediately

00:08:05.120 right now. Non-confidence, as many non-confidence votes as it takes to topple the government. Let's

00:08:10.160 have an election, a carbon tax election, and let the Liberals defend raising the cost of living on

00:08:14.240 everyone. Tom Kamich, thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:08:19.120 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - April 14, 2024

Conservative plan could lower immigration levels

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