Juno News - February 21, 2019


Trudeau's immigration numbers boost poses many challenges


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

148.40912

Word Count

681

Sentence Count

33

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 The Trudeau government is ramming through its plan to boost immigration levels despite
00:00:10.240 survey after survey showing that Canadians oppose this idea.
00:00:14.240 An Angus Reid poll from August 2018 found that half of Canadians want lower immigration
00:00:20.080 compared to just 6% who want increased immigration.
00:00:25.320 Another Angus Reid poll from earlier that month which focused on illegal immigration found
00:00:30.100 that about two-thirds of Canadians believe we accept too many asylum seekers.
00:00:35.080 These numbers represent the lowest public approval rating of Canada's immigration program since
00:00:40.080 pollsters started tracking this data in the 1970s.
00:00:44.600 While public opinion on immigration has hit an all-time low, Trudeau is boosting immigration
00:00:49.260 levels to an all-time high.
00:00:51.880 The Trudeau government recently announced its annual immigration targets and unveiled an
00:00:55.540 aggressive plan to boost immigration numbers to the highest level in modern Canadian history.
00:01:01.640 By 2021, the Liberals plan to welcome 350,000 new permanent residents per year.
00:01:08.640 Under Trudeau's plan, Canada will add a city the size of Victoria, BC or London, Ontario
00:01:14.940 or two Prince Edward Islands each and every year.
00:01:18.160 The Liberals will have Canada welcome 1.3 million new permanent residents by 2021, the equivalent
00:01:25.040 of a city the size of Calgary or the entire province of Manitoba within just three years.
00:01:31.660 Trudeau's plan will bring in more people than the current populations of Yukon, Nunavut,
00:01:37.160 Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick combined.
00:01:44.340 New permanent residents are only half of the equation.
00:01:47.460 The Trudeau government also plans to boost the number of temporary foreign workers coming
00:01:51.260 to Canada to 250,000 per year.
00:01:55.420 When we add together permanent residents, temporary workers, foreign students and other long-term
00:02:00.340 visitors, Canada will welcome more than 1 million new people into our country each year.
00:02:06.340 That's more than 3% of the total population.
00:02:10.460 So it leaves so many questions.
00:02:12.380 Where will these newcomers live?
00:02:14.260 Will they disperse across the vast country?
00:02:16.940 Or like newcomers over the past few decades, will they join the already over-congested major
00:02:21.820 cities?
00:02:22.820 What will this do to our roads, our hospitals, our schools?
00:02:25.460 What will that do to the cost of living and the price of real estate in already very expensive
00:02:30.380 cities like Vancouver and Toronto?
00:02:33.000 Will these newcomers learn English or French?
00:02:35.260 Will they adopt a Canadian identity?
00:02:37.540 Will they learn about Canadian history?
00:02:38.880 Will they celebrate our culture and our values?
00:02:42.180 Or will they follow Justin Trudeau's cue that Canada is a post-national state with no
00:02:46.920 core identity?
00:02:47.960 Will they live in isolated communities, fail to learn English, and live off of Canada's
00:02:53.260 lucrative safety net?
00:02:55.760 Trudeau has created a toxic brew when it comes to immigration.
00:02:59.220 He's flung the door wide open, repeatedly inviting the world to come to Canada on social
00:03:04.160 media.
00:03:05.160 His government has welcomed and even helped to facilitate the stream of illegal border crossers
00:03:10.860 coming in from the United States, a problem that two-thirds of Canadians described as a
00:03:15.500 crisis.
00:03:16.500 70% of Canadians said they don't trust Trudeau to fix it.
00:03:21.680 Along with the Trudeau government's unwillingness to protect our borders, Trudeau has embraced
00:03:26.300 this post-modern attitude and neglects the Canadian identity.
00:03:30.800 He downplays the importance of integration.
00:03:33.800 And he doesn't really think that there's anything special about being Canadian.
00:03:37.180 Canada has long been a country made up of different people from different parts of the world who
00:03:42.300 come to Canada with hope and opportunity.
00:03:46.840 Canadians from all backgrounds worked hard to build an incredible civilization out of nothing
00:03:52.600 in some of the most unbearable living conditions imaginable.
00:03:57.020 Canadians have always come together and embraced a culture that celebrates our values and our
00:04:01.140 way of life.
00:04:02.440 Canadians are intrinsically open to immigration and to newcomers.
00:04:05.840 We're welcoming.
00:04:07.300 So long as those newcomers are willing to work hard to play by our rules and embrace our
00:04:12.640 Canadian values.
00:04:14.760 But Trudeau's immigration and integration policies are testing the limits of Canadian
00:04:19.300 openness and generosity.
00:04:21.880 Canadians want responsible, rules-based immigration, a program that benefits the entire country.
00:04:28.060 They want our government to put Canadians first.
00:04:31.720 And that's simply not what the Trudeau government has offered.