John Ivison: A Liberal spending spree, again [immigration]

Nails the transparency question even if the government in one sense is being transparent about the one-time numbers. Don’t understand why the government doesn’t simply add a line to the tables that includes the 200,000 (and previous year one-time number) along with a total. Clearer for all and avoids some of the sometimes puerile criticism.

From a policy perspective, there is a legitimate distinction between those already here and those not, and an equally legitimate debate over the numbers being regularized into Permanent Residents:

…After the pandemic, the Trudeau Liberals opened the floodgates to temporary foreign workers. By 2023, there were 971,815 in Canada. The government is cutting the annual target for temporary residents to 370,000 in the period 2027–29.

At the same time, it aims to reduce the number of permanent residents from 471,820 in 2023 to 380,000 annually in the coming years.

The problem is, the way it plans to reduce the temporary resident number is to allow around 200,000 of them to become permanent residents. Given the lower-than-usual education and experience profile of the temporary workers, that means an immigration system that was once the envy of the world will accept fewer than 200,000 of the best and brightest from around the world in 2027. Canada has a fertility rate of 1.26 children per woman, and its population is aging (one in five is now over 65). But nearly half of all voters say there are already too many immigrants coming into Canada.

It would take a brave government to raise immigration levels in the face of such hostility, and this government has just revealed the limits of its courage….

Source: John Ivison: A Liberal spending spree, again