• Minister Freehand suggests immigration surge an unexpected post-COVID consequence

• Liberals took in a record number of immigrants in 2021 and 2022

• These numbers were aligned with the Liberals’ stated targets

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland blamed COVID for the Liberals’ recent backtrack on immigration.

The Finance Minister was asked during an unrelated press conference on Tuesday for her reaction to the development that saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller admit that their immigration numbers have contributed to the housing crisis, and that they’d be lowering their target of 500,000 per year. 

“As happened with so many things in the extraordinary environment of COVID … we had a huge surge of people coming to Canada and living in Canada, a surge of historic proportions,” she said.

“That put an incredible stress on our social infrastructure, particularly but not only housing,” she added.

In 2022, Canada took in more newcomers than ever before, with 431,645 new permanent residents. The year prior, Canada also set a record, with 401,000 newcomers. These figures were aligned with their stated targets, and represented an increase from pre-pandemic levels. 

In 2023, the Liberals took in 471,550 new permanent residents in 2023, which was also aligned with their target of packing in between 410,000 and 505,000.

Freeland’s desperate misdirection comes one week after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Liberals will accept just under 400,000 immigrants in 2025 rather than 500,000 as previously stated.

Despite Trudeau’s announcement, his government claimed just months prior that Canada’s housing affordability situation is aligned with—and requires— their mass immigration plan of 500,000 newcomers per year.