Fréchette et Roberge comme cautions nationalistes à l’Énergie et à l’Immigration

2024/09/07 Leave a comment

Some analysis of the new Quebec immigration minister:

….À l’Immigration, l’arrivée de Jean-François Roberge est vue comme un moyen d’aligner les orientations du ministère avec le programme nationaliste de la Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). Pour certains, Mme Fréchette — qui est ex-présidente-directrice générale de la Chambre de commerce de l’Est de Montréal — est perçue comme étant trop près des demandes des associations patronales, qui réclament des hausses radicales des niveaux d’immigration.

Cela ne l’a pas empêchée de « livrer les commandes » qui lui ont été passées par la CAQ, observe une source du milieu économique. Ex-péquiste, Mme Fréchette avait claqué la porte du gouvernement Marois en 2014, incapable de défendre la Charte des valeurs que son parti allait proposer en campagne électorale.

Les talents de Mme Fréchette à l’Immigration ont été remarqués au bureau du premier ministre. La ministre a su calmer le jeu, surtout après le tollé causé par une affirmation de son prédécesseur. En pleine campagne électorale, en 2022, Jean Boulet avait déclaré que « 80 % des immigrants s’en vont à Montréal, ne travaillent pas, ne parlent pas français ou n’adhèrent pas aux valeurs de la société québécoise ».

À l’aube d’élections fédérales, et vu l’explosion de l’immigration temporaire, les troupes de François Legault estiment que le moment est venu d’être plus revendicateur, plus « politique » dans ce ministère. Jean-François Roberge, notamment responsable des Relations canadiennes et de la Francophonie canadienne, apparaît tout désigné.

M. Roberge, ex-ministre de l’Éducation, fait partie de la frange nationaliste de la CAQ. « Jean-François, c’est un grand nationaliste, un enseignant, quelqu’un qui a à coeur le français », a dit à son sujet M. Legault après son assermentation. Dans ses fonctions actuelles, M. Roberge a notamment négocié une entente sur les langues officielles avec Ottawa. Quant à Christine Fréchette, elle est diplômée en administration et en relations internationales. Elle est souvent décrite comme une femme pugnace, mais discrète, capable d’obtenir les résultats qu’elle recherche….

Source: Fréchette et Roberge comme cautions nationalistes à l’Énergie et à l’Immigration

Computer translations:

…. At Immigration, the arrival of Jean-François Roberge is seen as a means of aligning the ministry’s orientations with the nationalist program of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). For some, Ms. Fréchette — who is the former President and Executive Officer of the East Montreal Chamber of Commerce — is perceived as being too close to the demands of employers’ associations, which are calling for radical increases in immigration levels.

This did not prevent her from “delivering the orders” placed with her by the CAQ, observes a source from the economic community. Ex-Péquiste, Mrs. Fréchette slammed the door of the Marois government in 2014, unable to defend the Charter of Values that her party would propose in the election campaign.

Ms. Fréchette’s talents in Immigration were noticed in the Prime Minister’s office. The minister was able to calm the game, especially after the outcry caused by a statement by her predecessor. In the middle of the election campaign, in 2022, Jean Boulet said that “80% of immigrants go to Montreal, do not work, do not speak French or do not adhere to the values of Quebec society”.

On the eve of federal elections, and given the explosion of temporary immigration, François Legault’s troops believe that the time has come to be more demanding, more “political” in this ministry. Jean-François Roberge, in particular responsible for Canadian Relations and Canadian Francophonie, appears to be designated.

Mr. Roberge, former Minister of Education, is part of the nationalist fringe of the CAQ. “Jean-François is a great nationalist, a teacher, someone who cares about French,” said Mr. Legault after his oath. In his current duties, Mr. In particular, Roberge negotiated an agreement on official languages with Ottawa. As for Christine Fréchette, she has a degree in administration and international relations. She is often described as a pugnacious, but discreet woman, capable of obtaining the results she is looking for….

A related article, Le milieu de l’immigration craint que Roberge ne soit qu’un «ministre à temps partiel»

Nommer au ministère de l’Immigration Jean-François Roberge, qui détient déjà les portefeuilles de la Langue française et des Relations canadiennes, est « un choix cohérent » pour le gouvernement caquiste actuel, qui prône un nationalisme identitaire et économique et qui est engagé dans un bras de fer avec Ottawa. Mais l’Immigration est un véritable « monstre », qui demande une expertise complexe qui va au-delà des questions de langue et de main-d’oeuvre, indiquent des acteurs du milieu. M. Roberge est-il l’homme de la situation ?

« Je ne suis pas certain qu’il est très connaissant de tous les dossiers en immigration », dit Stephan Reichhold, directeur de la Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI), qui représente plus de 150 organismes communautaires. Il rappelle que, au point de vue du budget et du nombre d’employés, c’est la francisation qui occupe le plus de place au sein du ministère de l’Immigration. « J’imagine que c’est surtout ça qui va intéresser [le ministre]. On va voir. On va laisser une chance au coureur. »

M. Reichhold craint surtout que l’immigration ne reçoive pas toute l’attention qu’elle mérite. « Ce sera un ministre à temps partiel et, pour nous, c’est toujours très handicapant », dit-il. Il cite comme exemple des prédécesseurs de Christine Fréchette : Jean Boulet, qui était aussi ministre de l’Emploi, du Travail et de la Solidarité sociale, et Nadine Girault, qui avait aussi la responsabilité des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie. « Le plus gros problème, on l’a vécu avec Jean Boulet, c’est l’absence du ministre. »

Il dit toutefois avoir été bien servi avec la ministre Fréchette, dont l’immigration était l’unique responsabilité. « Elle maîtrisait bien ses dossiers, et même si on n’était pas toujours d’accord, il était possible d’avoir de bons échanges avec elle, raconte M. Reichhold. Je ne sais pas dans quelle mesure M. Roberge va être à l’écoute, mais on espère avoir de bonnes relations avec lui. »

Au début de l’année, Jean-François Roberge avait suscité l’ire de plusieurs immigrants et personnes travaillant dans le milieu en déclarant que le grand nombre de demandeurs d’asile menaçait les services et pourrait aller jusqu’à compromettre l’identité québécoise. Aura-t-il un accueil plus tiède du milieu ? « Difficile à dire », avance M. Reichhold. « Il calquait son discours sur celui du premier ministre. Ça va freiner ses ardeurs [de devenir] ministre de l’Immigration. Il va comprendre que ce n’est pas à son avantage de tenir ce type de propos. »

Le portefeuille de l’Immigration, « pas un cadeau »

Professeure adjointe au Département de science politique de l’Université de Montréal, Catherine Xhardez fait aussi remarquer que la ministre sortante avait réussi à piloter habilement les dossiers de l’Immigration pour plaire aux diverses « coalitions » — économiques, identitaires — de la Coalition avenir Québec. « Elle avait réussi à gagner le respect et la confiance de plusieurs groupes et à naviguer entre eux. C’est ça qui est le plus difficile. Ça va constituer un défi pour le nouveau ministre », dit la chercheuse spécialiste en politiques publiques et en immigration.

Le défi sera aussi de gagner la confiance des acteurs de la première ligne. « Quand on devient ministre de l’Immigration, on est confronté à toute cette complexité. C’est tellement hétéroclite. Il y a beaucoup de programmes. C’est un monstre, l’Immigration. Ce n’est pas un cadeau », constate-t-elle. C’est là une occasion pour le nouveau ministre de se plonger dans la réalité du terrain. « C’est son défi et en même temps une opportunité de gérer mieux, en synergie et de manière plus holistique », croit Mme Xhardez.

Et l’immigration, c’est beaucoup plus que de la francisation. « Pour être en mesure de négocier, il faut connaître sur le bout des doigts les programmes, les chiffres, comprendre les accords et rester compétitif par rapport au reste du Canada, et ça veut dire aussi comprendre les employeurs, le patronat, le milieu des affaires et comprendre les problèmes de terrain dans l’accueil et la disponibilité des services. »

Source: Le milieu de l’immigration craint que Roberge ne soit qu’un «ministre à temps partiel»

Appointing Jean-François Roberge, who already holds the French Language and Canadian Relations portfolios, to the Ministry of Immigration, is “a coherent choice” for the current Caquist government, which advocates identity and economic nationalism and is engaged in a tug-of-war with Ottawa. But Immigration is a real “monster”, which requires complex expertise that goes beyond language and labor issues, say actors in the field. Mr. Is Roberge the man of the situation?

“I’m not sure he’s very knowledgeable about all immigration issues,” says Stephan Reichhold, director of the Table for Concertations for Refugees and Immigrants (TCRI), which represents more than 150 community organizations. He recalls that, from the point of view of the budget and the number of employees, it is the francization that occupies the most space within the Ministry of Immigration. “I imagine that this is mainly what will interest [the minister]. We’ll see. We’ll give the runner a chance. ”

Mr. Reichhold fears above all that immigration will not receive all the attention it deserves. “It will be a part-time minister and, for us, it is always very disabling,” he says. He cites as an example Christine Fréchette’s predecessors: Jean Boulet, who was also Minister of Employment, Labour and Social Solidarity, and Nadine Girault, who was also responsible for International Relations and La Francophonie. “The biggest problem, we experienced it with Jean Boulet, is the absence of the minister. ”

However, he says he was well served with Minister Fréchette, whose immigration was the sole responsibility. “She mastered her files well, and even if we did not always agree, it was possible to have good exchanges with her,” says Mr. Reichhold I don’t know to what extent Mr. Roberge will be listening, but we hope to have good relations with him. ”

At the beginning of the year, Jean-François Roberge had aroused the ire of several immigrants and people working in the environment by stating that the large number of asylum seekers threatened the services and could go so far as to compromise Quebec identity. Will he have a lukewarm welcome from the environment? “Hard to say,” says Mr. Reichhold “He modelled his speech on that of the Prime Minister. It will curb his ardor [to become] Minister of Immigration. He will understand that it is not to his advantage to make this type of comment. ”

The Immigration portfolio, “not a gift”

Catherine Xhardez, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the Université de Montréal, also notes that the outgoing minister had managed to skillfully manage immigration issues to please the various “coalitions” – economic, identity – of the Coalition avenir Québec. “She had managed to gain the respect and trust of several groups and navigate between them. That’s what’s the most difficult. It will be a challenge for the new minister, “says the researcher specializing in public policy and immigration.

The challenge will also be to gain the trust of front-line actors. “When you become Minister of Immigration, you are faced with all this complexity. It’s so heterogeneous. There are many programs. It’s a monster, Immigration. It’s not a gift,” she says. This is an opportunity for the new minister to immerse himself in the reality of the field. “This is his challenge and at the same time an opportunity to manage better, in synergy and in a more holistic way,” believes Ms. Xhardez.

And immigration is much more than francization. “To be able to negotiate, you have to know the programs, the numbers, understand the agreements and remain competitive with the rest of Canada, and it also means understanding employers, employers, the business community and understanding the field problems in the reception and availability of services. ”

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‘We were ahead of the parade’: Canada is following Quebec’s lead on tightening immigration

2024/09/06 Leave a comment

My Quebec friends and experts, point out the hypocrisy given that Quebec also jumped on the Temporary Foreign Workers bandwagon.

With only two years experience in politics, Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette may be a political upstart, but she seems to be the spearhead of Canada’s immigration policy.

And now, with a mini cabinet shuffle likely on Thursday, François Legault could entrust her with yet another major file: the economy.

Since Fréchette took over as immigration minister in 2022, she has not been the most vocal or flamboyant minister but she has been trusted with one of her boss’s most cherished priorities. And again and again, Canada has followed Fréchette’s lead on immigration.

She was at the heart of a united front among the provinces on the asylum seekers file, she pushed Ottawa to impose a visa on Mexican nationals to enter the country and obtained a reimbursement of $750 million for the costs incurred in processing asylum seekers between 2021 and 2023.

The agreement, announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault in June, stung the premier of British Columbia, who denounced a double standard between Quebec and Western Canada.

“If this is a federal program to support newcomers, it needs to be in place nationally,” said Premier David Eby.

Yet since Legault became premier, the relationship between Quebec and the other provinces has rarely been as aligned on the issue.

In 2018, Legault wanted to limit the amount of immigrants Quebec takes in every year. Quebec has an accord with the feds that gives it more power than other provinces to select newcomers. The move, at the time, was criticized in the province, but also elsewhere in the country at a time when the Trudeau government had an open-arms approach to immigration.

In an interview with the National Post, Christine Fréchette underlined how her party was a “pioneer” of the idea that Canada welcomes too many immigrants and that it must review its thresholds.

“Two years ago, we were practically the only ones to hold this discourse, and the rest of Canada accused us of being too rigid and almost anti-immigration,” she said.

These days, the CAQ’s vision of immigration is gaining traction elsewhere. “We were clear-sighted in this matter. We were ahead of the parade. We were the ones who shed light on the debate with what it could generate as negative impacts for Quebec in terms of perception,” she added.

For instance, Conservatives Leader Pierre Poilievre recently said the country “needs to have a growth rate that is below the growth in housing, health care and employment.”

In the province, the Liberal Party of Quebec, which used to accuse the CAQ of blowing “on the coals of intolerance” because of its stance on immigration, has recently said it wanted more control because “under the CAQ, we saw an uncontrolled increase in new arrivals.”

Even the Liberals in Ottawa are adjusting. The Trudeau government is currently targeting about half a million new permanent residents a year, a sharp increase from about 300,000 a year when the Liberals came to power in 2015.

But Immigration Minister Marc Miller has already announced a plan to reduce the number of non-permanent immigrant by about 20 per cent over the next three years. He also wants to decrease the temporary resident population to about five per cent of Canada’s total. It currently stands at nearly seven per cent.

“Now that the rest of Canada is starting to endorse a vision that is close to that of Quebec, that we cannot open the doors without counting, I hope that this will positively change the image of Quebec,” Fréchette said.

CAQ officials even said that Fréchette’s work gave them the impression that she was Canada’s real minister of immigration.

“I think if that’s a compliment, then good for her,” said Miller in a phone call with the National Post. “I know we have a role to make things work, and I certainly have been accused, I think unfairly, of wanting to change the shape of Quebec. So maybe it’s a backwards insult to her.”

The feeling is far from unanimous in Quebec, as in Ottawa, but in both capitals, sources are quick to emphasize to what extent she is competent and in control of her files.

The vision of Quebec and how it sees the role of immigrants and immigration, in addition to its resistance towards its federal counterpart tees up “really difficult relationships,” according to Miller.

But he salutes Fréchette’s dedication in attending meetings with other provinces to make her point of view known and push for reforms.

“Whether (Fréchette is) calling the shots, (that) certainly isn’t the case,” he said.

In an interview, Fréchette said she doesn’t really feel like a federal minister, but she emphasized how effective her government has been.

She doesn’t want the federal job, saying she’s “happy that minister Miller is in charge” and that he has a lot to do in his portfolio.

However, it’s a portfolio that could quickly slip away from her. On Wednesday, Quebec’s “super minister” who oversees economic and energy issues, Pierre Fitzgibbon, confirmed he was stepping down after earlier reports sent the province into a political tizzy. “Fitz” is a key player in the plan to entice electric vehicle battery plants to Quebec that has been making headlines in the province for the past few years.

Fréchette’s name was soon circulating as a successor. A source told the National Post that she would gladly take charge of this economic file. Fréchette, who has a background in economics, is “ready for changes,” the source said.

“Be patient,” said Legault at a press conference when asked if Fréchette was on the list to succeed Fitzgibbon. He also confirmed that he would make a ministerial adjustment on Thursday in Quebec City.

Source: ‘We were ahead of the parade’: Canada is following Quebec’s lead on tightening immigration

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Canada’s migrant farm workers need better protection. A new program could help — if grocery chains and consumers buy in

2024/09/06 Leave a comment

Private certification programs certainly can have a role. Ironically, industry concentration can help their effectiveness if they become accepted:

The proposed fair farmwork certification is designed to complement authorities’ enforcement of employment standards, a stick that’s imperfect at best. The certification is meant to be the carrot, rewarding operators who treat their employees well and helping them attract and retain workers in an industry with chronic labour shortages.

Although such voluntary programs by non-governmental organizations already exist in other jurisdictions, they need buy-in from grocery retailers and even consumers. Advocates and experts say this initiative can help address issues of food security, food processing quality standards and labour exploitation.

“What we eat matters. There are so many other human beings involved who do not have the same rights as we do, and they deserve to have better conditions,” said University of Windsor Prof. Tanya Basok. Basok led the project with Anna Triandafyllidou, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“A lot of businesses nowadays have social responsibility statements and that’s how they buy their customer loyalty.” 

The launch comes just as Ottawa is about to give these workers the freedom to change employers within the agricultural sector.

Researchers examined current social certification projects for food production and explored how best to introduce such a program in Canada. This month, the Fair Farmwork Toolkit will be released as a step-by-step guide.

Basok, whose research focuses on migrant rights, said a lot of Canadians started to recognize the role of migrant farm workers in the food supply chain and their precariousness and working conditions during the pandemic.

Despite government attempts to improve labour protection, she said many migrant workers remain silent because they are afraid to be sent home and denied work by employers if they speak out.

“The working conditions have to improve,” Basok explained. “Inspections would be one way. But there has to be something more. What would encourage growers to provide better conditions for the worker? So that’s where we’ll bring some kind of market mechanisms to improve working conditions.”

Researcher Erika Borrelli said the fair-farmwork certification could highlight the work of good growers and help improve their competitiveness in attracting and retaining high-quality workers, especially as changes are underway by Ottawa to introduce sector-wide work permits for migrant farm workers. The research was supported by The WES Mariam Assefa Fund.

What different certification models have in common, she noted, is they all provide a way for workers to express their needs and concerns.

The Equitable Food Initiative, for instance, started in the U.S. as a coalition by Oxfam America, Costco Wholesale and United Farm Workers. It was launched as an independent non-profit social enterprise in 2015 that offers a comprehensive certification audit, covering labour conditions, food safety and pest management.

An Equitable Food Initiative label signifies that the food comes from a grower that meets the standards in compensating and treating the workers fairly.

“Let’s say Costco has a few big farms in Ontario or B.C., and they say, ‘We now want all of our suppliers to abide by social certification standards and otherwise we’re not buying your product,’” said Borrelli, who prepared the tool kit.

“So what’s the grower going to do? When Costco, Walmart, Target and all these retailers demand more from their suppliers, there’s that level of enforcement.” 

Sunrite Greenhouses, a farm in Kingsville, Ont., learned about the EFI program over a year ago after one of its U.S.-based customers requested it to complete a social responsibility audit. Two trainers provided training to 20 leadership team members at the farm, which drew from all levels of the company from worker to the CEO.

The one-time training was followed by an audit, which identified issues and gave the management an opportunity to fix them. The Equitable Food Initiative certificate was then issued upon compliance. The workers have a voice on the leadership team and there is an anonymous reporting system to let them report issues, make comments and suggestions in their native languages. The training cost $20,000 (U.S.), which is separate from the audit fee.

“We are starting to see a culture shift in the company where employees are prioritizing safety and the well-being of all workers more, and there has been a slight boost in morale,” said Amanda Sharman, food safety compliance and regulatory specialist and EFI co-ordinator for Del Fresco Produce Ltd.

“When workers are happier because they feel like they are heard, and they can see improvements being made … we see productivity, camaraderie and safety culture all increase.”

Del Fresco operates Sunrite, which hires 170 foreign workers and 20 domestic workers during the peak of the season. The 46-acre farm produces tomatoes, peppers and organic mini-cucumbers.

Migrant worker advocate Gabriel Allahdua said that when he makes presentations to university students about workers’ rights, the audience is often interested in how to buy food that is ethically sourced and what they can do as consumers to support workers.

“Consumer power can certainly create changes in the market,” said Allahdua, who first came to Canada from St. Lucia in 2012 under the seasonal agricultural worker program. “So this is filling a void for Canadians, who are increasingly raising concerns.”

Having another tool to hold growers and grocery retailers accountable is welcomed, he said, but no matter how a certification mechanism is shaped, farm workers must be actively involved in decision-making.

Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer of Justicia for Migrant Workers, said a certification process can never replace legislative protections because participation is voluntary and it fails to address what he called the indentured nature of migrant worker schemes.

“It is imperative that the necessary structural measures are undertaken so that agricultural workers can exert their rights to organize and collectively bargain,” said Ramsaroop. 

“It is imperative that these type of fair food programs do not impede or become an obstacle to the advocacy and organizing that address larger structural reforms to our food system, our agricultural system and our immigration system.”

Source: Canada’s migrant farm workers need better protection. A new program could help — if grocery chains and consumers buy in

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Angus-Reid Federal Politics: Concern over immigration quadruples over last 48 months

2024/09/05 Leave a comment

Of note, again linked mainly to housing and employment concerns:

…When parliament resumes seating later this month, there will be a full docket of issues waiting to be addressed. A majority of Canadians (57%) believe the cost of living is one of the top issues facing the country at the moment, while more than two-in-five (45%) say the same of health care. Behind that, one-in-three worry over housing affordability. Other concerns trail far behind those three, but at least one-in-five say climate change (21%), immigration (21%), and crime and public safety (19%) are key challenges for Canada:


Concern over immigration nearly quadruples over past two years

Some issues are lingering – cost of living, health care, and housing affordability have consistently been selected by Canadians as top issues over the past two years – while others have grown more pressing according to Canadians. The proportion of Canadians that select Immigration / Refugees as a top issue has nearly quadrupled over the past two years.

Perhaps at issue is growing attention over the ripple effects of the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Workers program, which had been expanded as the country dealt with a post-pandemic labour shortage. In 2023, the federal government allowed employers to hire nearly 240,000 temporary foreign workers, more than double the amount it allowed in 2018. After a cabinet retreat focused on housing and immigration, the federal Liberal government announced plans to scale back the program. There will be more to come on Canadian public opinion on the Temporary Foreign Workers program in a forthcoming report.

Those who say they will vote Conservative if the election were held today are the most likely to be concerned about immigration. It’s the second most chosen issue behind the high cost of living among those likely voters. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has said a government led by him would reduce immigration, keeping population growth lower than the number of new homes.

The issues concerning likely Liberal voters remain consistent from two years ago, while those who say they will vote NDP are becoming increasingly concerned with housing affordability (+9) and less so with climate change (-11)…

Source: Federal Politics: Concern over immigration quadruples over last 48 months

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Don Wright: Will Trudeau make it impossible for Eby to succeed?

2024/09/04 Leave a comment

Valid arguments:

It is three-and-a-half months since David Eby took the reins of power in B.C. There is no denying the energy and ambition he has brought to the role. Announcement after announcement has rolled out of the Premier’s Office since December 8 across a broad spectrum of initiatives in health care, housing, energy, infrastructure, increases in affordability tax credits and family benefits, and many, many more.

This column isn’t going to analyze the pluses and minuses of this ambition. Instead, I will argue that Premier Eby’s success on the big questions that will ultimately determine his political success may well be largely out of his control.

The most recent polling in B.C. shows that the most important issues are housing affordability, inflation/rising interest rates, and health care. Inflation and rising interest rates are overwhelmingly determined by federal monetary and fiscal policy, so largely outside the control of Premier Eby.  What about the other two big issues – health care and housing affordability?  While these two areas look to be within the domain of the provincial government, B.C.’s success in addressing the public’s concerns here will be largely hostage to the federal government’s immigration policy.  Let me explain.

Since it came to office, the current federal government has increased the level of immigration into Canada significantly.  Most of the attention has been focused on the increase in new permanent residents.  Last year, 438,000 people were granted permanent resident status, a 60% increase over 2015.  The federal government plans to raise this to 500,000 by 2025.

What receives less attention is another category of people coming to Canada – “non-permanent residents.”  This category includes Temporary Foreign Workers, International Students, and the International Mobility Program, which provides multi-year permits to live and work in Canada.  This category has been growing as well.  In fact, this category has been growing at a faster rate than permanent residents.  Last year there was a net increase of 608,000 in non-permanent residents. 

So, in total, the federal immigration policy resulted in an additional 1.045 million people coming to Canada – far and away the largest number of newcomers to Canada in one year ever.  Last year 160,000 of the 1.045 million came to B.C.

The rationale for these unprecedented numbers is that Canada has a “worker shortage.”  This rationale is almost entirely fallacious, but that is a subject for another column.  Let’s focus here on what this means to Premier Eby.

What is the basic problem in health care?  An inability to meet the public’s demands for medical services.  One million British Columbians don’t have a family doctor.  Waiting lists to get to see specialists and to get necessary surgery continue to get longer.  No doubt part of the problem is a result of the Covid pandemic.  But that rationalization is buying less and less forbearance by the public as we get further and further away from those dire days in 2020 and 2021.

The federal government’s prescription for this?  A rapid increase in the number of people who will need services from our health care system!

A story is spun is that the government will use the higher immigration numbers to bring in more health care professionals.  But this would only work if the proportion of qualified doctors, nurses and allied health workers in the more than one million new Canadians is significantly larger than the existing proportion of those professionals in the current Canadian population, and that they could get licenced immediately to practice in Canada.  Neither of these conditions will be met. 

The net result of this?  Premier Eby is going to have even more difficulty in delivering improved health care accessibility to British Columbians.

And then there is housing.  Almost all of the narrative around the shortage of affordable housing focuses on the supply side.  If only we could force municipalities to make permitting easier and faster, and to zone more density, our housing affordability would be solved.  The fact is, we build a lot of homes in B.C.  In Greater Vancouver – ground zero in our housing affordability problem – 365,000 homes were built in the 20 years between 2001 and 2021.  And there has been ample densification, as a walk through any of the redeveloped neighbourhoods in Vancouver shows. 

But supply is only half of the equation. Demand matters too.  And as quickly as we have built new homes, the population in our major urban centres rises as well. 

The Federal Government’s prescription for this?  Ramp up immigration numbers!

Again, a story is spun that this will actually increase housing supply because we are going to bring in more trades workers to build the houses we need.  Suffice it to say there are some pretty heroic assumptions here.  It is not going to work.

Of the 160,000 new British Columbians last year, more than 95% settled in the Lower Mainland, Southern Vancouver Island, and the Okanagan – where affordable housing was already acutely unavailable.

The net result?  Premier Eby is going to have even more difficulty in delivering more affordable housing.

This is all good for one group of British Columbians – those that are fortunate enough to already own a home.  So, thank you, Mr. Trudeau for making me wealthier and my fellow boomers wealthier. 

But if I were Premier Eby, I don’t think I would be quite as grateful.

Don Wright was the former deputy minister to the B.C. Premier, Cabinet Secretary and former head of the B.C. Public Service until late 2020. He now is senior counsel at Global Public Affairs.

Source: Don Wright: Will Trudeau make it impossible for Eby to succeed?

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Kelly: Fix, don’t gut, the temporary foreign worker program

2024/09/04 Leave a comment

The CFIB view. Like Century Initiative and others, having to adjust to the new public opinion environment that their previously successful lobbying and pressures helped create.

It will be interesting to see how far a future Conservative government would restrict access to low-wage temporary workers given their sympathies with SMEs (large companies not so much):

…Canada needs to have an adult conversation about the labour market and admit that there are many jobs and locations where there aren’t enough Canadians to fill the gaps. TFWs can help supplement the Canadian labour force and protect Canadian jobs. I’ve spoken to several restaurant owners who have said they can find Canadian young people willing to work as servers in the front of house, but can find no one willing to staff in the kitchen. Hiring a couple of experienced cooks from overseas helps them ensure there is work for their Canadian crew.  

As for taking jobs away from students, we need a big reality check. While students may be available for work during July and August, how does the business owner staff a day shift in September or October without people available for work year-round? 

There are legitimate criticisms of the program. Temporary workers are often hired by employers who really need permanent staff. But this is where there is large agreement between employers and migrant groups—and even the United Nations report. Creating greater pathways between the TFW program and permanent residency is a way to fix many of the programs’ defects. For years, the CFIB has lobbied government to shift elements of the TFW program to an Introduction to Canada program where TFWs can shift to permanent status after one-to-two years in Canada. This would allow the worker to learn the job, put down some roots in an area of Canada they may not have otherwise, and then have full labour-market mobility at the end. We see this as a way to balance the relationship between workers and employers. 

The vast majority of employers use the TFW program as a last resort in their hiring process and treat their workers—both Canadian and foreign—well. I’ve spoken to many employers who have built fantastic relationships with their foreign workers, and provided help to give them a great start in Canada. Shrinking the program is unlikely to help any Canadian looking for work, but will certainly add to the immense pressures already facing many of Canada’s small businesses.

Dan Kelly is the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Source: Kelly: Fix, don’t gut, the temporary foreign worker program

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The quiet technocrat who steered Biden’s effort to tighten the border

2024/09/03 Leave a comment

Of interest:

The lead architect of President Joe Biden’s border strategy is not Vice President Kamala Harris, despite persistent Republican claims to the contrary. That role belongs to a bookish, little-known policy adviser named Blas Nuñez-Neto.

A data-driven technocrat, Nuñez-Neto has helped engineer Biden’s pivot toward tougher border enforcement and sweeping restrictions on asylum — moves that contributed to a nearly 80 percent drop in illegal crossings since December.

The transformation is shoring up one of Democrats’ biggest vulnerabilities ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election and potentially defusing a top-polling issue for Republican nominee Donald Trump. After three years of record crossings, the U.S.-Mexico border is quieter and more controlled today than at any point since late 2020, before Trump left office.

Nuñez-Neto pulled that off by steering the administration back to a border policy framework Democrats used to embrace more easily, according to current and former administration officials. The formula: Be generous and welcoming to immigrants seeking to come lawfully, but stingy and firm with those who don’t.

The White House declined to make Nuñez-Neto available for an interview. Biden officials said the administration’s border policy moves have been shaped by senior White House officials and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom Nuñez-Neto worked for before being promoted to the White House in June.

In a statement, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said Biden “believes it is a false choice to say we have to walk away from being an America that embraces immigration in order to secure our border.”

“We must enforce our laws at the border and deliver consequences to those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States, and we must expand lawful pathways,” Fernández Hernández said.

Southwest border apprehensions by month

Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have declined in 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Nuñez-Neto’s policy approach embodies the political calculus that while most Americans remain favorably disposed toward immigrants, few things erode the welcoming spirit faster than an out-of-control border. The growing U.S. economy needs workers, too, and immigrants help offset declining U.S. birth rates. But how they arrive matters.

Relying heavily on the president’s executive powers to grant entry using an authority known as parole, the Biden administration has been allowing nearly 75,000 migrants to enter each month through legal channels.

Republican critics denounce those pathways as a “shell game,” arguing the administration is facilitating mass migration through doors that should not be opened in the first place. But the expansion — paired with the most severe restrictions on asylum eligibility at the border from a Democratic administration in decades — has corralled the disorder.

Trump has largely ignored the change, displaying at his rallies a chart that shows record illegal crossings during Biden’s first three years and cuts out data showing the 2024 decline. He continues to label Harris, his Democratic opponent in the upcoming election, as the “border czar,” though she never held such a role. Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s plan to reduce Central American emigration by promoting investment and job creation, not to deal with immigration enforcement at the southern border.

That task — arguably one of the least-desirable in a Democratic administration — would become Nuñez-Neto’s.

A change in direction

The Argentine-born Nuñez-Neto was working on border security issues at the Rand Corporation in early 2021 when DHS policy adviser David Shahoulian — one of the few voices in the administration urging tougher measures at the border — recommended him for a job. He became chief operating officer for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Trump’s rhetoric and harsh policies in the White House had galvanized immigration advocacy groups and many Democrats against enforcement and the very idea of deterrence as an element of border security. Biden loosened restrictions, fueling a perception that the border was more open even as officials — including Harris — told would-be migrants “do not come.”

Shahoulian soon left the administration in frustration. In late 2021, Nuñez-Neto took over his role shaping border policy at DHS.

More than a year later, as the administration ended the pandemic-era Title 42 border restrictions, Biden officials increasingly sought help from Mexico, Panama and other nations in the region to help contain migration and cooperate with U.S. policies. Nuñez-Neto took on a second role as DHS’s top international envoy. He became a major diplomatic asset: a bilingual U.S. official capable of explaining policy to Spanish-language media and speaking directly to Latin American officials.

Nuñez-Neto developed an especially close partnership with Roberto Velasco, the top official at Mexico’s Foreign Ministry for North American affairs, according to current and former senior officials from both nations. Mexican authorities this year have arrested record numbers of migrants traveling through the country toward the U.S. border, a crackdown that Biden officials credit with sharply curtailing illegal crossings.

Angela Kelley, a senior adviser at DHS until June 2022, said the Biden administration has worked to craft a careful balance of incentives and penalties — carrots and sticks. She had been a longtime advocate for asylum seekers, and worked to resist Trump’s policies. Nuñez-Neto was laser-focused on border crossings, checking enforcement data daily.

“He’s more of a sticks guy, given his background,” said Kelley, now chief policy adviser at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Nuñez-Neto was promoted to the White House as the president announced strict new emergency measures that have upended decades of asylum law, closing the border when crossings are high and essentially barring access to U.S. courts for migrants who enter the country illegally.

The restrictions were made possible by a breakthrough agreement Nuñez-Neto helped negotiate with Velasco and other senior Mexican officials. It allows the United States to return large numbers of non-Mexican migrants back across the border — a crucial tool for agencies that have struggled to send deportees to Venezuela and other nations whose relations with Washington are strained.

As the deterrence policies took shape, the number of migrants released into the United States with a pending asylum claim — the procedure decried as “catch and release” — plummeted. It was Nuñez-Neto, not someone from Harris’s team, who fielded questions about the measures from reporters and on Capitol Hill.

“Those of us who follow the inside baseball of immigration know he’s the person that has become the de facto border czar,” said one policy adviser close to the administration who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe informal conversations with top officials.

Nuñez-Neto has done so with a quiet, disciplined manner that is the stylistic opposite of swaggering Trump-era border officials. Some immigration advocates and activists have come to view him with scorn, as a border-cop-in-sheep’s-clothing who speaks of migrants sympathetically while orchestrating the kind of crackdown immigration hard-liners have only dreamed of.

The sharp drop in illegal crossings has allowed the Harris campaign to go on offense. She blames Trump for sinking a bipartisan Senate bill last winter that would have provided billions in new funding for more border agents, detention capacity, deportation flights and other enforcement tools. She has called for Congress to pass the bill, and says she would sign it into law if she’s elected.

But several of its toughest provisions — in particular the emergency asylum restrictions — are already in place…

Source: The quiet technocrat who steered Biden’s effort to tighten the border

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Yakabuski | Réparer ses dégâts

2024/09/03 Leave a comment

Strongly worded and valid:

S’il y a une critique qui revient sans cesse à propos du gouvernement du premier ministre Justin Trudeau, c’est qu’il met trop l’accent sur les annonces et pas assez sur la mise en oeuvre des programmes qui en découlent. C’est un gouvernement qui néglige de façon quasi systématique les conséquences inattendues de ses initiatives, se concentrant plutôt sur le message qu’il souhaite envoyer à certaines clientèles politiques visées. Il ne semble pas apprendre de ses erreurs, ou, quand il le fait, il est trop tard pour réparer les dégâts déjà causés.

La preuve de cela demeure sa gestion du système canadien d’immigration. Faisant jadis l’envie du monde entier, ce système était fondé sur des critères de sélection précis permettant au Canada de classer des demandeurs pour que seuls les plus qualifiés parmi eux obtiennent la résidence permanente, peu importe leur pays d’origine. Les libéraux avaient déjà commencé à déroger à ce principe avant la pandémie en créant des exceptions pour certaines catégories d’immigrants. À partir de 2021, toutefois, le gouvernement Trudeau a complètement chamboulé le système en rehaussant les seuils d’immigration permanente et temporaire afin de doper la croissance économique et de combler la pénurie de travailleurs dans certains secteurs de l’économie.

Non seulement le Canada allait accepter davantage de résidents permanents — en fixant une cible de 500 000 en 2025 —, mais ces derniers allaient de plus en plus provenir de bassins de centaines de milliers de résidents temporaires déjà basés au pays grâce à l’expansion massive des programmes fédéraux des travailleurs étrangers temporaires et d’éducation internationale. Les critères de sélection établis avaient été contournés pour favoriser ceux qui avaient déjà une expérience de travail au Canada, même s’il s’agissait d’un emploi à bas salaire ne requérant ni de compétences précises ni de diplôme de niveau supérieur. Mais en procédant ainsi, Ottawa pouvait se vanter d’accélérer l’octroi des permis de résidence permanente et de répondre aux demandes de main-d’oeuvre des employeurs.

Or, on sait ce qui s’est passé depuis. La crise du logement n’est que la pointe de l’iceberg, la conséquence la plus visible de cet abandon par les libéraux des principes qui avaient guidé tous les gouvernements fédéraux précédents en matière d’immigration depuis plus de cinq décennies. Le taux de chômage des jeunes de 15 à 24 ans s’est établi à 14,2 % en juillet, selon Statistique Canada, une hausse de 3,6 points de pourcentage depuis un an et le niveau le plus élevé depuis 2012. Chez les jeunes hommes, le taux de sans-emploi a grimpé à 16 %. La situation est encore pire chez les jeunes immigrants qui sont au Canada depuis moins de cinq ans, dont le taux de chômage s’est élevé à 22,8 % en juillet, en hausse de 8,6 points de pourcentage depuis le même mois en 2023. L’économie canadienne a beau continuer de croître, la création d’emplois demeure bien en deçà de l’augmentation de la population en raison de l’immigration permanente et temporaire. Qu’arriverait-il si jamais une récession ou un ralentissement économique prononcé frappait le pays ? Une « tempête parfaite ».

Cette semaine, le gouvernement Trudeau a enfin annoncé son intention de resserrer les critères d’admissibilité du Programme des travailleurs étrangers temporaires, pas dans un lointain avenir comme il l’avait plusieurs fois suggéré, mais à partir du mois prochain. Entre autres, la durée des permis sera réduite à un an plutôt que deux, et la proportion maximale de travailleurs temporaires au sein d’une même entreprise sera de nouveau à 10 % plutôt qu’à 20 %. Mais avec près de 2,8 millions de résidents non permanents au pays, plus du double du nombre de 2021, des experts s’attendent avec raison à ce que des milliers d’entre eux choisissent de vivre dans la clandestinité plutôt que de quitter le Canada lors de l’expiration de leur permis de séjour. Après tout, la plupart d’entre eux sont venus au Canada sur une base temporaire en espérant obtenir la résidence permanente par la suite, grâce aux changements de critères d’admissibilité introduits par les libéraux en 2021. Or, le ministre Marc Miller a laissé entendre cette semaine qu’Ottawa examine aussi maintenant la possibilité de réduire les seuils d’immigration permanente.

Le ministère de l’Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada et l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada (ASFC) sont déjà aux prises avec un fardeau de travail qui dépasse l’entendement. Ils n’ont ni l’effectif ni les ressources pour s’assurer que tous ces travailleurs étrangers temporaires et tous ces étudiants internationaux quitteront le pays dès l’expiration de leur permis. Et on peine à croire que les libéraux, aussi dépensiers soient-ils, vont rehausser le budget de l’ASFC pour déporter tous les nouveaux sans-papiers qui ne quitteront pas volontairement le Canada. Le gouvernement est déjà accusé d’avoir fermé les yeux sur l’exploitation des travailleurs étrangers temporaires par certains employeurs sans scrupule. Procéder à la déportation de milliers d’ex-travailleurs étrangers temporaires forcés de vivre dans la clandestinité lui vaudrait d’être affublé de l’étiquette « trumpiste ».

Le recul du gouvernement Trudeau cette semaine ne sera pas suffisant pour remettre le système d’immigration canadien sur les rails avant plusieurs années et fera gonfler les rangs des sans-papiers au pays, avec toutes les répercussions sociales et économiques que cela implique. Il est difficile d’imaginer que ce scénario du pire surviendra dans un pays qui faisait autrefois l’envie du monde en matière d’immigration.

Source: Chronique | Réparer ses dégâts

Computer translation

If there is a criticism that comes up constantly about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, it is that it puts too much emphasis on the announcements and not enough on the implementation of the resulting programs. It is a government that almost systematically neglects the unexpected consequences of its initiatives, focusing instead on the message it wishes to send to certain targeted political clienteles. He doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes, or, when he does, it’s too late to repair the damage already caused.

Proof of this remains its management of Canada’s immigration system. This system was once envied by the whole world, was based on specific selection criteria allowing Canada to classify applicants so that only the most qualified among them obtain permanent residence, regardless of their country of origin. Liberals had already begun to derogate from this principle before the pandemic by creating exceptions for certain categories of immigrants. Starting in 2021, however, the Trudeau government completely turned the system upside down by raising the thresholds for permanent and temporary immigration to boost economic growth and fill the shortage of workers in certain sectors of the economy.

Not only would Canada accept more permanent residents — with a target of 500,000 in 2025 — but Canada would increasingly come from pools of hundreds of thousands of temporary residents already based in the country through the massive expansion of the federal temporary foreign worker and international education programs. The established selection criteria had been circumvented to favour those who already had work experience in Canada, even though it was a low-wage job requiring neither specific skills nor a higher-level diploma. But by doing so, Ottawa could boast of accelerating the granting of permanent residence permits and responding to employers’ demands for labour.

However, we know what has happened since then. The housing crisis is just the tip of the iceberg, the most visible consequence of this abandonment by the Liberals of the principles that had guided all previous federal governments on immigration for more than five decades. The unemployment rate of 15-24-year-olds stood at 14.2% in July, according to Statistics Canada, an increase of 3.6 percentage points in a year and the highest level since 2012. Among young men, the unemployment rate rose to 16%. The situation is even worse among young immigrants who have been in Canada for less than five years, whose unemployment rate was 22.8% in July, up 8.6 percentage points since the same month in 2023. The Canadian economy may continue to grow, but job creation remains well below population growth due to permanent and temporary immigration. What would happen if a recession or a pronounced economic slowdown ever hit the country? A “perfect storm”.

This week, the Trudeau government finally announced its intention to tighten the eligibility criteria for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, not in the distant future as it had repeatedly suggested, but starting next month. Among other things, the duration of permits will be reduced to one year instead of two, and the maximum proportion of temporary workers within the same company will again be 10% instead of 20%. But with nearly 2.8 million non-permanent residents in the country, more than double the number in 2021, experts rightly expect thousands of them to choose to live in hiding rather than leave Canada when their residence permits expire. After all, most of them came to Canada on a temporary basis in the hope of obtaining permanent residence afterwards, thanks to the changes in eligibility criteria introduced by the Liberals in 2021. However, Minister Marc Miller suggested this week that Ottawa is also now considering the possibility of reducing permanent immigration thresholds.

The Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) are already struggling with a workload beyond comprehension. They do not have the staff or the resources to ensure that all these temporary foreign workers and all these international students leave the country when their permit expires. And it is hard to believe that the Liberals, no matter how spendthrift they are, will increase the CBSA budget to deport all the new undocumented who will not voluntarily leave Canada. The government is already accused of turning a blind eye to the exploitation of temporary foreign workers by some unscrupulous employers. Deporting thousands of former temporary foreign workers forced to live in hiding would ear him the “Trumpist” label.

The Trudeau government’s retreat this week will not be enough to get Canada’s immigration system back on track for several years and will swell the ranks of undocumented people in the country, with all the social and economic repercussions that this entails. It is difficult to imagine that this worst-case scenario will occur in a country that was once the world’s desire for immigration.

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

TFWP: Setting the baseline to evaluate government changes

2024/09/03 Leave a comment

Just as the impact of the caps on international students is becoming apparent through monthly and quarterly numbers for post-secondary study permits, one can expect the government’s restrictions on low-wage temporary workers to start have an impact in the October-December quarter.

To better monitor and assess the impact, I prepared some charts on Temporary Foreign Workers by NOC Code. For those unfamiliar with the codes A 0 or 1: university degree, B 2 or 3: community college, apprenticeship, more than 2 years on the job, occupations with supervisory responsibilities or significant health and safety responsibilities, C 4 or 5: some secondary education, up to two years on-the-job training or equivalent, D 6 or 7: on-the-job training.

The following slides highlight the shift over the past five years. This provides a good overview and the context for articles like The sudden rise of temporary foreign workers in entry-level office jobs.

Starting with two views by NOC level, the numbers and the percentage shares which show the dramatic increase, both absolute and in percentage, of the low wage and low skilled temporary workers. Interestingly, there has been a squeezing of level C workers:

The next two slides provide the breakdown by NOC sector where sales & service and natural resources & agriculture have increased the most:

And lastly, looking at June year-over-year change and two year change, as well as from pre-pandemic 2018, showing again the greatest increase in level D occupations and, in terms of sectors, Business & Administration and Health, the latter from a low base:

Note to media: avoid year-to-date analysis in drawing conclusions as happened with Postmedia and other publications and focus on quarterly year-over-year changes.

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Poilievre says he would cut population growth after Liberals signal immigration changes coming

2024/08/31 Leave a comment

Ironically, by reversing some of their ill-advised policies that resulted in overly rapid increases in the number of temporary workers and students and, arguably, Permanent Residents levels, the Liberals have provided a pathway for a more robust discussion of immigration. Given that this is based upon the impact on housing, healthcare and infrastructure, not xenophobia and fear of the other, immigration is not really much of a “third rail,” Telling that Abacus Data didn’t include immigration in their polling on third rail issues.

In case you missed it, my earlier analysis of what one might expect under a Poilievre government,What changes a Conservative government might make to Canada’s immigration policies. In retrospect, my assessment may have been too cautious as these policy reversals by the government make further restrictions more politically acceptible:

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday he would rein in Canada’s population growth if elected, claiming the Liberal government has “destroyed our immigration system” and insisting on cuts to the number of people arriving in order to preserve a program that was once widely supported.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, Poilievre said immigration was “not even a controversial issue” before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected, but a surge in international students and low-wage temporary foreign workers has ruined the “multigenerational consensus” that bringing more people to live here is a good thing.

“The radical, out-of-control NDP-Liberal government has destroyed our system,” Poilievre said. “We have to have a smaller population growth.”

Poilievre said a future Conservative government would tie the country’s population growth rate to a level that’s below the number of new homes built, and would also consider such factors as access to health-care and jobs.

That’s an imprecise metric that makes it difficult to pinpoint just how many permanent residents or non-permanent residents such as temporary foreign workers, international students and refugees would be admitted on Poilievre’s watch.

Poilievre has previously said immigration levels should be tied to housing starts. The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported roughly 255,000 housing starts in July.

The federal government has already said it will admit about 485,000 permanent residents — immigrants who intend to settle here on a permanent basis — to Canada this year, with the target rising to 500,000 in both 2025 and 2026.

In an apparent reference to research from Mike Moffatt, the senior director of policy at the Smart Prosperity Institute who has studied immigration and housing, Poilievre said Canada “cannot grow the population at three times the rate of the housing stock, as Trudeau has been doing.”

The government hasn’t offered a hard target for the non-permanent resident streams but has already announced an initiative to rein in the number of international students and, at the Liberal cabinet retreat in Halifax earlier this week, announced a crackdown on low-wage temporary foreign workers (TFWs).

The number of non-permanent residents has been growing at a breakneck pace in the post-COVID era after the federal government relaxed regulations around TFWs and allowed Canada’s colleges and universities to dramatically expand the international student body.

Non-permanent resident population more than doubles in 3 years

In the last three years, the number of non-permanent residents — a category that includes TFWs, international students and asylum seekers — has more than doubled from about 1.3 million in 2021 to nearly 2.8 million in the second quarter of this year, according to data compiled by Statistics Canada.

Of that figure, 1.3 million people are in Canada on work permits, a category that includes TFWs.

The low-wage TFW sector, which has admitted workers in food services but also in sectors such as construction and hospitals, has grown from 15,817 such workers in 2016 to 83,654 in 2023, according to federal data.

The forthcoming changes to the low-wage stream will reduce the number of TFWs by about 65,000, the government has said, which brings it back to pre-pandemic levels.

Poilievre said the government has “destroyed” the TFW program by dropping a number of regulations that were designed to limit foreign workers to certain industries in areas with low unemployment.

The agricultural sector has long relied on TFWs to grow and harvest the food the country eats and exports, and Poilievre said he would preserve the program for that purpose.

But he also said he wants to “block temporary foreign workers where they are taking jobs from Canadians.”

He said he would only admit international students if they have a place to live and the means to pay for it, and possess “a real admission letter to a real educational institution.”

Trudeau said Monday the government is considering reducing the number of permanent residents Canada accepts each year — a potentially major policy change after years of increasing immigration levels on the Liberal government’s watch.

Unemployment high among newcomers

Talk of an immigration cutback comes as unemployment rates among immigrants and young people have crept up to concerning levels in recent months, according to federal data.

According to the Bank of Canada’s recent monetary report, the “newcomer” or immigrant unemployment rate now stands at 11.6 per cent — well above the overall unemployment rate of 6.4 per cent that was recorded in June.

Asked by CBC News if the government is considering broader changes to the immigration system beyond cuts to TFWs at a time of higher unemployment, Trudeau said the government is going to review its immigration levels this fall.

Asked if a reduction in the number of permanent residents is on the table, Trudeau suggested it’s an issue he takes “extremely seriously” and said that topic would be discussed among cabinet ministers.

“We’re making sure that the entire package makes as much sense as possible for the needs of Canadians and for the needs of our economy,” Trudeau said.

“We’ll be looking at unemployment rates and opportunities to make further adjustments over the course of this fall as we come forward with comprehensive level plans that will respond to the reality that Canada’s facing now and in years and decades to come,” he said.

He said immigration needs to be “done right,” and that changes may be forthcoming so that “Canada remains a place that is positive in its support for immigration but also responsible in the way we integrate and make sure there’s pathways to success for everyone who comes to Canada.”

Immigration Minister Marc Miller also said “all options are on the table” when it comes to addressing immigration levels.

He acknowledged that some people have expressed concern to him about the current pace of population growth, which is among the highest in the developed world.

Source: Poilievre says he would cut population growth after Liberals signal immigration changes coming

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

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