Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has admitted that his government made mistakes in handling record-high immigration levels, prompting a significant policy shift.
In a video posted on his YouTube channel Sunday, Trudeau said, “In the last two years, our population has grown very quickly, like during the baby boom, and bad actors, including fake colleges and large corporations, have been exploiting our immigration system for their own benefit.”
He explained that following the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a pressing demand for labor. “We brought in more workers, which was the right decision. It worked—our economy grew, businesses stayed open, and we avoided a recession despite economists’ warnings. But some took advantage of the situation to game the system,” Trudeau said.
Highlighting issues within the education sector, Trudeau stated that many colleges and universities relied heavily on international students to bolster their revenues. He added, “There is fraud and abuse, and it needs to stop,” citing cases where institutions charged international students significantly higher fees than domestic students and where fraudulent entities preyed on immigrants with false promises of jobs and citizenship.
Trudeau acknowledged that the federal government was slow to address these challenges. “When the post-pandemic boom subsided and businesses no longer required additional labor, we could have acted sooner to adjust the flow of immigrants,” he admitted.
To address these issues, Ottawa plans to “pause population growth” for two years, resuming a gradual increase in 2027 at a sustainable rate. Refugee claims will also face stricter scrutiny, with those failing to meet criteria being deported.
Canada’s new immigration levels plan, announced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on October 24, reflects these changes. Permanent residency (PR) targets for 2025 and 2026 have been reduced from 500,000 to 395,000 and 380,000, respectively. For 2027, the target is set at 365,000. Similarly, study permit caps will drop to 437,000 in 2025 and 2026 from this year’s 485,000.
These reductions aim to stabilize the population, resulting in a slight decline of 0.2% in 2025 and 2026 before resuming growth at 0.8% in 2027. The government also intends to lower the proportion of temporary residents, including international students and workers, to 5% of the total population by 2026.
The surge in immigration has been partly blamed for exacerbating Canada’s housing affordability crisis, rising living costs, and strain on infrastructure, such as healthcare and transportation. These challenges have hurt the ruling Liberal Party’s popularity.
Polling aggregator 338Canada projects that if an election were held today, the opposition Conservative Party would secure a decisive majority with 214 seats, while the Liberals would drop to 66. Though federal elections are scheduled for October 2025, speculation of an earlier vote persists amid no-confidence motions in the House of Commons.
