Juno News - September 05, 2025


Will Carney rein in Liberal spending？


Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

143.6369

Word count

2,114

Sentence count

103


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Canada Border Services Agency is refusing to release data on how many international students and temporary foreign workers actually leave the country once their visa permits expire. Two Canadian senators who have been accused of aiding the Communist Party of China have launched a non-profit to fight against what they call exclusion experienced by those accused of foreign government ties.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted that the Liberal government has to find ways to rein in its unsustainable federal spending during a cabinet planning session.
00:00:14.680 The Canada Border Services Agency is refusing to release data on how many international students and temporary foreign workers actually leave Canada once their visa permits expire.
00:00:27.080 Two Canadian senators who have been accused of wittingly aiding the Communist Party of China have launched a new non-profit to fight against what they call exclusion experienced by those accused of foreign government ties.
00:00:42.420 Hello Canada, it's Friday, September 5th. This is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia.
00:00:48.160 And I'm Clayton Demain.
00:00:49.440 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives.
00:00:56.580 You won't hear anywhere else.
00:01:02.160 Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finance Minister Philippe-Francois Champagne spoke ahead of a cabinet meeting admitting that the Liberals have to find ways to rein in unsustainable federal government spending.
00:01:15.180 Liberal cabinet ministers are convening for the second day for a cabinet planning forum,
00:01:20.720 which Carney promised would be focused on finding ways to spend less while also boosting investments.
00:01:27.180 Carney did not specify whether any significant cuts to specific departments were forthcoming.
00:01:33.140 The meeting comes as U.S. tariffs remain on select items such as Canadian steel and aluminum.
00:01:38.680 Carney said Wednesday in Toronto that the cabinet meeting comes during, quote,
00:01:43.120 challenging economic times due to the U.S.'s shifting global trade policy.
00:01:48.640 He said, quote,
00:01:49.720 We have a riskier global environment.
00:01:52.180 We have changes in technology that bring both promise but also dislocation.
00:01:57.140 And so the focus of the government from the start has been on what we can control.
00:02:01.420 He said priorities during the meetings will include his Build Canada Homes plan
00:02:05.720 to double the pace of home building over the next decade,
00:02:09.080 infrastructure projects, and increase defense spending to meet NATO goals,
00:02:13.580 all while making cuts to the federal budget.
00:02:16.020 The federal government has been growing spending as a whole at over 7% a year on average for over a decade.
00:02:23.760 That's twice the rate of growth of the economy on average.
00:02:27.400 It's not a sustainable situation.
00:02:30.200 So we need to rein in spending.
00:02:32.900 We need to find efficiencies.
00:02:34.620 Champagne also called the growth in liberal government spending, quote,
00:02:38.040 unsustainable on Thursday before cabinet met for its second and last day.
00:02:42.820 The prime minister was right when he said over the last years you've seen an increase in spending of about 7%.
00:02:49.260 That's not sustainable.
00:02:51.460 Folks at home understand that.
00:02:53.220 So folks at home have been tightening their belt for quite some time.
00:02:56.280 They said, if I do it, the government has to do it as well.
00:02:59.520 So having a leaner and more efficient government to provide services to Canadians,
00:03:05.280 that is needed as you're looking to rebuild this nation for the 21st century.
00:03:09.460 I mean, this seems too little, too late.
00:03:13.040 Spending has been out of control, especially since the pandemic.
00:03:18.660 The liberal government has ramped up spending to never-before-seen levels,
00:03:24.640 outpacing even spending during major conflicts like World War I, World War II.
00:03:30.860 Additionally, they have missed any sort of budget benchmarks or targets that they've set for themselves.
00:03:41.460 So, Clayton, are Canadians to believe that federal spending just got away from them,
00:03:47.900 as they seem to claim?
00:03:51.260 And isn't this the same government who has run all of these deficits
00:03:55.200 since it first came into office under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?
00:03:59.840 Well, exactly, Cosmin.
00:04:01.480 This is the same liberal government who's run deficits every year since 2015,
00:04:06.480 and those have ranged from $1 billion to $40 billion.
00:04:10.940 And, you know, that's resulted in the liberal government spending
00:04:15.020 over $53.8 billion on debt interest in this fiscal year,
00:04:20.740 which massively exceeds spending on things like child care benefits
00:04:25.280 and is $1 billion more than it spends on the Canada Health Transfer,
00:04:30.660 which is how the federal government pays provinces to fund health care.
00:04:33.960 But if you'll recall last year when Chrystia Freeland resigned,
00:04:37.980 she was set to give her fall economic statement.
00:04:41.300 And in that release, it was revealed that the liberal government spent $61.9 billion
00:04:46.480 on deficit spending, and with Freeland at the helm as finance minister
00:04:51.880 and Mark Carney as the financial advisor to the Liberal Party.
00:04:55.920 And that number was more than 50% higher than the $40 billion guardrail
00:05:01.300 that Freeland herself put on the liberal government for deficit spending for that year.
00:05:08.120 Carney himself has pledged more deficit spending,
00:05:11.260 and his plan for this year was to spend $486 billion,
00:05:16.420 which, despite all the posturing as a fiscally conservative and experienced businessman,
00:05:22.380 is more planned spending than what Trudeau's government was projected to spend in his final year.
00:05:27.580 But the liberals want Canadians to believe that this time it'll be different
00:05:30.920 because Canadians should think of it not as spending, but as investments.
00:05:35.100 Despite confirming it collects individual entry and exit information on all travellers,
00:05:44.720 the Canada Border Services Agency is refusing to release data
00:05:49.040 on how many international students and temporary foreign workers
00:05:52.640 actually leave the country when their visa permits expire.
00:05:56.400 In response to a True North inquiry,
00:05:58.880 the CBSA confirmed it collects exit information at land and air border crossings.
00:06:04.560 This data is used to confirm whether individuals remain in the country
00:06:09.760 after their authorized stay ends.
00:06:12.080 A CBSA spokesperson told True North the data is applied on a, quote,
00:06:16.280 case-by-case basis to support immigration enforcement.
00:06:20.240 However, quote, aggregate data on specific cohorts,
00:06:24.640 including international students and temporary workers, is not available.
00:06:29.280 The federal government, through Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada,
00:06:33.520 publishes detailed arrival numbers, but cannot tally how many temporary residents
00:06:38.800 depart Canada once their visas expire.
00:06:40.980 The CBSA stated its entry-exit system helps officers identify visa overstays,
00:06:47.540 target enforcement, and track departures of high-risk people or goods.
00:06:52.060 CBSA refused to disclose how many foreign students and workers left Canada in recent years.
00:06:58.020 True North also asked the IRCC for exit data, but did not receive a response.
00:07:04.540 So obviously there's a lot we won't know due to the tight-lipped border security and immigration
00:07:09.680 agencies in Canada, but what do we know about the state of immigration right now?
00:07:15.140 Like, what are the numbers and how many people can we confirm have overstayed their welcome
00:07:20.100 in this country, Cosman?
00:07:21.220 So yeah, you're absolutely right.
00:07:24.000 There's a lot the federal government agencies aren't telling us.
00:07:28.380 As you mentioned, the Canada Border Services Agency admits they do collect exit data on everybody
00:07:34.640 coming in and out of the country, and that's obvious if you've ever crossed the border or
00:07:39.360 been to the airport, they know where you're going, how long you're staying, etc.
00:07:43.940 But they refuse to release the big-picture numbers when pressed on.
00:07:49.820 So we don't actually know how many international students or temporary workers are leaving once
00:07:55.020 their permits expire, but what we do know is this.
00:07:58.800 Immigration is at a record high, and it's still high.
00:08:03.080 In just the first four months of 2025, over 807,000 newcomer applications were admitted.
00:08:09.560 That breaks down to about 132,000 permanent residents and 200,000 study permits, and additionally
00:08:17.180 close to half a million work permits.
00:08:19.340 So Statistics Canada estimates that almost 3 million people are in Canada right now on some
00:08:25.320 kind of temporary status, which is way up from the numbers in 2016, which was around 750,000.
00:08:34.840 So as for overstays, the government won't give a clear count.
00:08:39.900 They themselves admitted that anywhere up to half a million people could be living here
00:08:44.540 illegally after their visa expired.
00:08:47.120 And we've also learned there are at least 600 convicted foreign criminals still at large
00:08:52.760 in Canada.
00:08:53.840 So essentially, the bottom line is the government's betting on over a million temporary residents
00:09:00.980 voluntarily packing up and leaving over the next couple years.
00:09:05.440 But there's very little evidence that's actually happening, and the agencies won't release the
00:09:11.560 numbers that would prove it.
00:09:13.760 So unless there's a push within the government to get these numbers out, they're not very forthcoming
00:09:21.780 with the media, obviously.
00:09:23.800 And with the ATIP process, the access to information process, you know, is one avenue, but it's been
00:09:32.340 so delayed, and the information they usually give isn't the full picture.
00:09:38.820 So there definitely needs to come some internal pressure, you know, hopefully from the conservatives,
00:09:44.640 but we have yet to see anything like that.
00:09:47.420 But I personally would like to see if they're even tracking, or if they have just simply
00:09:54.520 estimates, because at this point, we can only guess.
00:10:03.100 Facing allegations of foreign interference on behalf of the People's Republic of China,
00:10:08.420 two Canadian senators have launched a new organization to fight against what they call the exclusion
00:10:14.240 experienced by those accused of foreign government ties.
00:10:18.200 Senators Yuen, Pao Wu, and Victor Oh, along with others, James Ho, and David Tam, have announced
00:10:24.440 the launch of a new non-profit organization, Canadians United Against Modern Exclusion.
00:10:29.840 Wu and Oh were among five elected officials named by journalist Sam Cooper as allegedly being
00:10:36.020 the unidentified elected officials mentioned in a foreign interference report for, quote,
00:10:42.460 wittingly working in favor of the Chinese Communist Party.
00:10:46.420 Wu has denied the allegations, though Oh has not made any public statements rejecting the
00:10:51.940 accusations, and did not respond when asked by True North last October.
00:10:56.880 Oh visited China several times to meet with PRC officials through the Canada-China Legislative
00:11:02.780 Association to promote the sharing of information and deepening relationships between the two
00:11:08.780 countries.
00:11:09.300 The controversial trip to China included interim NDP leader Don Davies and former MP Han Dong,
00:11:16.860 who resigned in March 2023 following media reports of alleged connections to the CCP.
00:11:23.140 The new entity set up by the senators and others is billed as a non-partisan group bent on defending
00:11:31.120 Canadians whose rights and freedoms are allegedly compromised by, quote, false or exaggerated claims
00:11:37.560 of foreign interference.
00:11:39.680 Wu told True North that rights are violated, quote, if they are accused of foreign interference
00:11:44.340 simply because of the views they hold or the groups or people they associate with.
00:11:50.940 The group warns that by accusing someone of acting on behalf of a foreign entity, quote, simply
00:11:56.840 because of their ties to foreign entities such as the PRC, Canadians are excluding the accused
00:12:02.720 and engaging in racism.
00:12:07.960 So Clayton, you wrote this article.
00:12:11.040 What is this group intending to actually do?
00:12:14.500 What are some of the things that it's posted on its website or said during the, you know,
00:12:20.340 revealing press conference by its founders?
00:12:22.840 Right.
00:12:23.600 So the group is supposed to document foreign interference and national security threat accusations,
00:12:30.060 which they say are just cloaked charter rights and freedoms abuses, defend those accused of
00:12:36.900 foreign interference, educate people on this new form of racism they're labeling as exclusion,
00:12:42.620 and to advocate for policy changes when it comes to national security and foreign interference.
00:12:49.480 But some of what the group said is quite rich.
00:12:53.100 They said accusing people based on their ties with the People's Republic of China is actually
00:12:59.220 xenophobia and racism.
00:13:01.480 And they say that this form of racism could lead to unfair prosecutions and stigmatization
00:13:06.900 of those people with ties to the Chinese regime.
00:13:11.660 And, you know, that people shouldn't be presumed to be disloyal for trying to, quote, improve
00:13:17.760 relations with the PRC, or for denying that China poses any threat to Canadian society.
00:13:23.820 They also accused police, national security and intelligence agencies of taking cues from
00:13:30.100 the political class and suppressing Canadians' rights and freedoms with these accusations.
00:13:36.200 And I asked Wu, though, about what he and the group mean by ties to the PRC.
00:13:42.480 It's mentioned like five times on the website in the summary page.
00:13:48.180 And, you know, if he or the other members or the founders happen to be one of these individuals
00:13:53.520 with ties to the regime that they mention so much on the website.
00:13:57.040 And Wu told True North that each of the founding directors are, quote, longtime Canadians who
00:14:04.420 are committed to the betterment of our country.
00:14:07.640 And when asked whether the group had ties to the PRC, he said, quote, we are ethnic Chinese
00:14:13.240 who are part of a diverse global Chinese community with ties to many different parts of the world.
00:14:18.920 So obviously skirting the question of whether they themselves had ties to the People's Republic
00:14:24.720 of China.
00:14:27.040 That's it for today, folks.
00:14:30.160 Thanks for tuning in.
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