Canada’s ultra-liberal prime minister has admitted that immigration levels in his country are too high and says the number of new arrivals must be “brought under control.”
Addressing an audience Tuesday at a housing announcement in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Justin Trudeau said the number of temporary foreign workers coming to Canada has increased at a rate “far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”
The prime minister, known for his liberal stance on immigration, said the number of temporary migrants in Canada has more than tripled in the past seven years and “must be brought under control.”
“Whether it’s temporary foreign workers or especially international students, they’ve been growing at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb,” Trudeau said.
“To give an example, in 2017, two percent of Canada’s population was made up of temporary immigrants. Now 7.5 percent of our population consists of temporary immigrants. That’s something we need to get back under control.”
Addressing an audience Tuesday at a housing announcement in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Trudeau said the number of foreign workers coming to Canada has increased at a rate “far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb” and “must be brought under control.” .
The prime minister, known for his liberal stance on immigration, said the number of temporary migrants in Canada has more than tripled in the past seven years. (Image: Asylum seekers unload their suitcases from a van as they wait to enter Canada)
“We want to get those numbers down,” Trudeau continued.
“It’s a responsible approach to immigration that extends to our permanent residents, as we have done, but also puts a little more emphasis on the temporary immigration that has created so much pressure in our communities.”
Canada is dealing with a 130 percent spike in the number of Mexicans, Haitians and others seeking asylum there, overwhelming shelters and leaving officials with an $822 million crisis.
Shelter systems in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and other Canadian cities are over capacity, prompting the Liberal government to take steps to deter the flow of people north.
The number of asylum applications in Canada increased by 130 percent to 137,900 between 2022 and 2023
Canadian officers stop asylum seekers as they enter Canada at the Roxham Road entry point into the US
Canadian officers check the identification details of two people who entered Canada via Roxham Road at the Canada-US border
Canada’s geographic location means there are a fraction as many irregular border crossings as in the US, but there has been an increase in the number arriving by air, especially from Mexico.
The shelter systems in Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver are also overcapacity, exacerbating the shortage of available places for the homeless.
The influx has prompted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to make policy changes.
Mexico is by far the largest source country for asylum seekers in Canada, followed by Haiti, Turkey, India and Colombia.
The rapid growth of asylum seekers in Canada is accompanied by record population growth, driven by foreign workers and international students.
The number of international students in the country has tripled in less than a decade to around 1 million.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has made policy changes to address the migrant surge
Protesters protest against Canada regularizing undocumented migrants in Montreal, Quebec
Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ontario, calls Canada’s migrant crisis ‘an ugly situation’
Frustration over the housing shortage has forced Trudeau’s government to scale back its immigration ambitions in recent months. The policy, among other things, limits the number of foreign study permits.
Last year, Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to end a pact that had led to asylum seekers from the U.S. entering Canada at a location known as Roxham Road.
In February, Trudeau’s government reintroduced visa rules for many Mexican citizens.
Last month, Canada said it plans to reduce the size of the temporary population, a group that includes asylum seekers and foreigners with temporary work permits.
In Peel, a Toronto suburb, the shelter system is operating at 300 per cent capacity, with asylum seekers occupying more than 70 per cent of beds and many more people camping on the streets, officials say.
“It’s an ugly situation,” Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ont., said this week.
“If Canada wants to allow more asylum seekers into our country, we need to make sure they aren’t abandoned, and frankly what we’ve seen is too much of that.”
Asylum seekers are making it harder for Canada to control its homegrown homeless problem
Mexico, Haiti, Turkey and India led the way in asylum applications in Canada in 2023
In Brampton, about 80 percent came from five African countries, including Kenya and Nigeria, Brown said.
The numbers have risen due to the overlapping conflicts and crises in other countries, the resumption of international travel after the pandemic and Canada’s broadening of the legal basis for asylum claims.
Trudeau’s government — under pressure from Quebec Premier François Legault and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow — offered about $360 million or $265 million to provinces and cities in January.
This was intended to help deal with the ‘extraordinary interim housing pressure’ from asylum seekers.
It says it has transferred about $750 million to other levels of government since 2017 to help with asylum-related housing costs. That amounts to C$1.1 billion, $822 million.