Trudeau says he could have acted faster on immigration changes, blames ‘bad actors’

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government could have acted faster on reining in immigration programs, after blaming “bad actors” for gaming the system.

Trudeau released a nearly seven-minute video on YouTube Sunday talking about the recent reduction in permanent residents being admitted to Canada and changes to the temporary foreign worker program.

Over the next two years, the permanent residency stream is being reduced by about 20 per cent to 365,000 in 2027.

In the video, Trudeau talks about the need to increase immigration after pandemic lockdowns ended in order to boost the labour market, saying the move helped avoid a full-blown recession.

But after that, Trudeau says some “bad actors” took advantage of these programs.

“Some saw that as a profit, to game the system. We saw way too many large corporations do this,” Trudeau said.

The prime minister adds that “too many” colleges and universities used international student programs to “raise their bottom line” as non-Canadian students pay significantly higher tuition. He also said scammers targeting “vulnerable immigrants” with bogus paths to citizenship.

“Looking back, when the post-pandemic boom cooled and businesses no longer needed the additional labour help, as a federal team we could have acted quicker and turned off the taps faster,” Trudeau said.

From there, Trudeau talks about the new immigration plan with the stated goal of lowering the amount of permanent and temporary immigrants coming to Canada.

In addition to a phased reduction in new permanent residents over the next two years, recent changes have made it more difficult to for employers to get temporary worker permits approved.

Trudeau says the goal of the government’s immigration reduction is to help stabilize population growth while housing stocks catch up, and then to consider gradually increasing immigration rates once again.

When reached for comment, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s spokesperson Sebastian Skamski referred The Canadian Press to an interview Poilievre did with CKNW 980’s “The Jas Johal Show” in Vancouver where Poilievre discussed immigration.

In that interview, Poilievre said much of his criticism of the current immigration system is coming from what Trudeau himself has said since enacting these recent changes.

“Now, he’s basically denouncing his entire immigration policy and expecting us to believe that he can fix the problems that he caused,” Poilievre said.

“The bottom line is we have to fix our immigration, get back to the best system in the world, the one that brought my wife here as a refugee legally and lawfully, the one that brought so many people here to pursue the Canadian promise and that’s what I’m going to do as prime minister.”

Poilievre’s previously said he would tie immigration rates to available housing while considering other factors like access to health-care and jobs.

Speaking on background, an official from the Prime Minister’s Office said that the video is being released as another means of communicating government policy to Canadians.

As for concerns around the potential for increased irregular migration with U.S. president elect Donald Trump’s deportation promises, the official said the video was filmed before the American election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2024.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press