Canadians positive about immigration but they want Ottawa to step up

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This week, John Ivison talks to Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller.

Miller has just announced a suite of measures aimed at capping the number of temporary residents in Canada at 5 percent of the population over the next three years, a 20 percent drop on current levels. This follows an explosion of temporary foreign workers and international students, which increased the country’s population at the fastest rate since the 1950s and contributed to the rising cost of shelter.

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Miller has admitted the situation is “a mess”. He said that measures like waiving restrictions on international students working off-campus and increasing the percentage of foreign workers businesses are allowed to hire made sense in 2022,  when there were nearly a million job vacancies.

“(But) there was a need at this point in time to start taking a look at what 6 .2 % of the population, 6.3% of the population based on 2023 numbers, and realizing that it’s doubled or even close to tripled in the last very short period of time. This isn’t the sole contributing factor to the cost of shelter…but to the extent that it’s a contributing factor, it was one that as we were reflecting internally on it, we needed to get a handle on,” he said. “Certainly numbers are undeniable and it’s something that had gotten out of control, whether it’s international students or any other category.”

The change in course has been commended by economists for targeting the demand curve for housing, at a time when it is clear that it will take years to address the supply side.

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Miller has indicated that the government will put a target on temporary residents in the same way it indicates targets for permanent residents.

“Yeah, I mean, right now that’s the signal that we’re sending to the market, that’s the signal we’re sending to provinces and territories. But I need to sit down with them and say, ‘guys, let’s sort this out. Let’s figure out where we tap these increases, where we look at decreases and make some adjustments’.”

When it moved to create a larger low wage labour pool in 2022, the government allowed certain industries to use 30 percent foreign workers, up from 10 percent pre-pandemic. For industries other than healthcare and construction, that cap is now 20 percent. Ivison asked whether it might return to 10 percent?

“I think we need to take a look at the possibility of that. I think we’ll have to see how the market adjusts to 20%… As we engage with industry and players, I think we’ll have to see if this is the right mark or whether we turn it to another ratchet length.”

Miller said the government has to be mindful of bad faith actors from predatory recruitment consultants, to unscrupulous education institutions.

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“This is a program that is very good for people to get citizenship and as a backdoor entry into Canada, as you mentioned. And in provinces like Ontario, the last three years of the post -secondary education system have generated about 10,000 asylum seekers, which is not the sign of a good education system. In fact, it’s surprising that someone would claim asylum based on three years of education at a Canadian institution. There are reasons for that. There are sometimes real elements of persecution, but the persecution can’t be a crappy education and a $50 ,000 per year fee for attending those universities. And that is something (over which) we’re going to have a very serious conversation with provinces, in terms of who assumes the responsibility for the people that are here, how you better align the job prospects of people graduating for a number of these institutions. Provinces and the institutions themselves say these people are very needed, but the data to me points elsewhere.

“I’m trying to ratchet back the number of hours that we’re allowing students to work. But my biggest concern for people presently in Canada is not to curtail it in such a way that they would be destitute because they’re paying $40-50 ,000.”

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Ivison asked whether foreign students should be allowed to work off campus at all?

“You know, it’s a good question. And I think most of the countries that we compete with for these people allow it. They don’t necessarily allow 40 hours a week. In some cases, institutions are charging these people a lot, $30, 40, 50 ,000 in some cases. You can’t make that money by slinging beer at the local university pub or doing a teaching assistant position. But 30, 40 hours is untenable.”

Ivison suggested that immigration has not been an election issue in Canada but might become one, as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre talks about linking population growth to housing availability.

Miller said that the larger parties in Canada have avoided making immigration a point of differentiation.

“But right now there are insinuations and obscure mathematical formulas trying to tie immigrants, immigrations to housing more. You know, Pierre probably has logic on that.

It always escapes me as to what that he actually means, but( if it means fewer immigrants), he should say that.

“ I’m not naive enough to think that Canada isn’t immune to these debates…When you look at the numbers and the at least in -depth studies that we see, people aren’t necessarily against immigration. In fact, (they’re) still very positive about it. But they want governments like ours to get our acts together. They want us to work to make it make sense. And they don’t want any sort of immigration. They want it targeted and to fill marked labor needs in areas where it doesn’t directly impact housing affordability, access to health care and access to the education system.

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“I think the sad part of this debate is we only look at this part of the equation and we don’t look at the other side of the equation, where a lot of the people that we are bringing are actually filling the jobs in health care, for example, that are the basis of part of the Canadian national identity.”

National Post

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