Trudeau Canada's Immigration Growth Outpacing Capacity to Manage
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
148.58437
Summary
In this episode, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper talks about the need to limit temporary foreign workers in Canada and why he didn t act on it when he was in office in the late 2000s and early 2000s. He also discusses the impact temporary immigration has had on Canadian housing prices and the need for a permanent immigration strategy.
Transcript
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But in fact, reducing the overall portion of the population that's made up of temporary residents
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could have a positive impact on housing pressures that we're seeing in communities
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as we continue to accommodate longer-term population growth
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through a sustained and well-planned permanent residency immigration strategy.
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Respectfully, Minister, though, those numbers in international students didn't just pop up overnight.
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In fact, they increased quite substantially while you were minister,
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and your government didn't pursue any of those policies.
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I understand what you're saying that it's not the same as permanent immigration,
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A policy lever that was available to you earlier, the Canadian press,
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reported that your department, when you were minister,
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was warned about the very specific impact temporary immigration
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as well as permanent immigration could have on housing prices,
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Is it political that you're deciding now to act, and why didn't you before?
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Well, in fact, if you go back to some of the interviews that I would have given
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in the spring before the cabinet shuffle, I was talking very openly about the need
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to do the kinds of things that Minister Miller now has announced and put in place.
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If you look at some of the challenges that existed at the time,
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what we ended up seeing was multiple cohorts of students running into one another
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at the same time that colleges and universities were increasing international student enrollment
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far beyond what was projected to deal with revenue challenges
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that they were having coming out of the pandemic.
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We had, when the borders were closed, a couple of years where students weren't actually coming to Canada.
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When the borders opened back up and we saw multiple cohorts come to arrive at once,
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and the number of student study permits, rather, that institutions were requesting
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We had a huge number of people who arrived more or less at the same time.
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Clearly, now you've instituted policies that show you weren't.
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So upon my appointment to the position, as the borders were first opening up,
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But we didn't project it was as significant as what it ended up had being
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It's really important to understand the context around immigration.
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Every year, we bring in about 450, now close to 500,000 permanent residents a year.
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And that is part of the necessary growth of Canada.
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These are the levels that we have stabilized and grown steadily over the past years
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because that's what Canada needs to continue to have a strong economy and strong communities.
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However, over the past few years, we've seen a massive spike in temporary immigration,
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whether it's temporary foreign workers or whether it's international students in particular,
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that have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.
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To give an example, in 2017, 2% of Canada's population was made up of temporary immigrants.
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Now, we're at 7.5% of our population comprised of temporary immigrants.
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That's something that we need to get back under control, both for the benefits of those people,
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but as international students, we're seeing increasingly vulnerable to mental health challenges
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to not being able to thrive and get the education they want.
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But also, increasingly, more and more businesses relying on temporary foreign workers
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in a way that's driving down wages in some sectors.
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It's a responsible approach to immigration that continues on our permanent residents as we have,
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but holds the line a little more on the temporary immigration
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that has caused so much pressure in our communities.