After telling Canadians that mass immigration was needed to address the housing shortage, the Liberals are now backtracking.
Marc Miller pictured (left)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Liberals will accept just under 400,000 immigrants in 2025 rather than 500,000 as previously stated.
“We will reduce the number of immigrants we bring in over the next three years,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.
The PM said Canada will take in 395,000 new permanent residents next year, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027. The Liberals had previously planned to bring in 500,000 new permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026.
The PM said the reduction is meant to “stabilize population growth.”
He added: “In the tumultuous times as we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth, we didn’t get the balance quite right,” Trudeau said.
While mainstream media outlets are reporting the reduction as “massive,” the modified targets are still significantly higher than what the Conservatives took in under the Harper Government.
The backtrack comes after the Liberals stated that their plan to take in half a million immigrants per year was needed to help build badly needed homes.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller now says that—shocker—fewer immigrants will mean less homes need to be built.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling the flip-flop “a massive admission of failure by Justin Trudeau.”
A recent Leger poll revealed a significant shift in Canadian sentiment towards immigration, with a large majority expressing concerns about its impact on the housing crisis and health-care system.In December 2023, the Bank of Canada Deputy Governor also linked Canada’s housing crisis with the Trudeau Government’s immigration policy.
