[0:01]Immigration. Let's talk about it. In the last two years, our population has grown really fast, like baby boom fast. And increasingly, bad actors like fake colleges and big chain corporations have been exploiting our immigration system for their own interests. So we're doing something major. We're reducing the numbers of immigrants that will come to Canada for the next three years. Today, I'm going to let you in on what happened, where we made some mistakes, and why we're taking this big turn.
[0:34]There are two kinds of immigration in Canada. The one you probably think of most is permanent immigration, like when families come to Canada to settle and call it home. Every year, the government determines the right number of permanent residents that we want to admit. That's how it's been done for decades, but a plan that only talks about permanent immigration misses the other pathway: temporary immigration. Temporary residents are people who come to Canada for a limited time, like international students, temporary workers, and so on. They come to work a job or go to school. When the job is done or when they finish their degree, most return home. Some apply to stay as permanent residents, but most return home. So back to this year's plan. Historically, Canada's annual immigration plan just looked at permanent residents. The number of temporary students and workers that we admitted each year was left to the demands of the economy, was usually a small proportion of our population, so it's never been a part of the long-term immigration plan. But after the pandemic, our economy came roaring back quickly, and we needed a lot of workers fast. Canada is in the middle of a huge labor shortage. Temporary foreign workers became such a significant part of our workforce that it'd be a mistake not to include them when we plan our immigration levels. So this year, we did exactly that for the first time. We laid out a plan that sets targets for both permanent and temporary residents. This way, we're getting the full breakdown of people coming into our country, so we can prepare the homes and infrastructure needed to support them. Like I said, immigration is based on demand. When we set our targets, we look at every province and territory. We ask the premiers, "What are the gaps in your workforce? Is your population growing or getting older?" We filled calls from business, CEOs, economic experts, all sharing their thoughts on where we should set our targets. We've had a chronic shortage of labor for the last decade. It is the number one issue of all manufacturers across Canada, so we think it needs to be more, you know, push the pedal to the floor to bring more people into Canada because Ontario was facing a generational labor shortage. 380,000 jobs are going unfilled. It's no surprise that every sector has different wants and needs when it comes to immigration. But after the pandemic, they all came to us with the same message: We need more people. We need more workers fast. So we brought in more workers, and it was the right choice. It worked. Our economy grew. Restaurants, stores reopened, businesses kept running, but most importantly, in spite of lots of economists' predictions, we avoided the worst-case scenario, a recession. But some saw that as an opportunity to profit, to game the system. We've seen way too many large corporations doing this. The government says the program has been used to get around hiring Canadian workers in some instances. Far too many colleges and universities used international students to raise their bottom line. There are the diploma equivalent of puppy mills that are just churning out diplomas. There is fraud and abuse, and it needs to end. Because they could charge these students tens of thousands of dollars more for the same degree. And then there are really bad actors who outright exploit, who target vulnerable immigrants with promises of jobs, diplomas, and easy pathways to citizenship, promises that would never come true. Looking back, when the post-pandemic boom cooled and businesses no longer needed the additional labor help, as a federal team, we could have acted quicker and turned off the taps faster. Now, it is time to make the adjustments to stabilize the immigration system that we need and get it working right for Canadians, for right now. Immigration is primarily a federal job. We have the levers to rein it in, so we are. This is a big change, a major cut to immigration, reducing permanent immigration levels by at least 20%. A new string of measures to clamp down on temporary immigrants. That means a decrease in international students, temporary foreign workers. Canada's new immigration plan is straightforward: lower the number of new immigrants coming into Canada, both temporary and permanent. We're prioritizing permanent residents with the skills we need, like healthcare workers for our hospitals and construction workers who'll build more homes. And those temporary residents who are already in Canada, some will apply to stay in Canada as permanent residents, since they're already here, established and working, the added pressure put on communities is very low. Or they'll leave Canada when their temporary residency expires, reducing our population. Some temporary residents may turn to our asylum system when their visa expires as a shortcut to stay in Canada. Those claims will be analyzed and processed, and if their claim fails, they'll be sent home. Between the amount of people coming and going, we'll effectively pause population growth for the next two years. Then from 2027 onwards, it'll balance out and slowly start increasing again at a sustainable pace. In fact, that gets us back to the population growth path we were on before the pandemic. This pause is going to give our economy and our communities the chance to catch up with things like our plan to build millions more homes. That's not stopping, but now we'll have a little more breathing room as we build. We'll see more corporations investing in Canadian workers and youth rather than relying on cheap foreign labor. Our cap on international students is already bringing rental prices down in big cities, and as we keep that cap in place, rents will keep coming down. We're making the system work for Canadians and for newcomers, rather than for the big box stores, chain restaurants, immigration consultants, and sham colleges that exploit it. Immigration is a great thing, and we're lucky that so many people dream of coming to our country. Fulfilling that dream depends on having a good job, and a decent place to live, and healthcare that you can access when you need it. We have to make sure our population isn't getting out ahead of those things.
