Parliament revolts against the Trudeau Liberals, passing a motion demanding less immigration

The Opposition House parties and the NDP passed a motion to reduce immigration levels by a vote of 173 to 150. Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet stated, 'Canadians disagree with the immigration policies of this government.' Additionally, three-quarters of Canadians oppose more immigration.

Parliament revolts against the Trudeau Liberals, passing a motion demanding less immigration
The Canadian Press / Sean Kilpatrick
Remove Ads

The Trudeau Liberals appear disillusioned on immigration as all other House parties demand they reduce their annual quotas in a non-binding Parliamentary motion.

The Bloc Québécois motion passed by a 173 to 150 vote Monday with a commitment to curb record immigration levels within 100 days, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Canadians strongly disagree with the immigration policies of what is left of this government,” said Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet, who insisted the Liberal Party “could not have cared less” about costs incurred by taxpayers.

The non-binding motion urges the Liberal cabinet to meet with the provinces “to consult them on their respective integration capacities.” 

“Everyone is being crushed by health care costs, education costs and other costs,” Blanchet told MPs. “This used to be a Québec thing. Now it is a Canada-wide issue,” he added.

The motion urges a prompt revision of federal immigration targets this year per the dialogue with their provincial partners. According to Immigration Levels Plan, the Trudeau Liberals set annual quotas at 485,000 permanent residents for 2024. 

A Leger poll published last November showed three-quarters of Canadians oppose more immigration owing to the curtain strain on the housing market and essential services, like health care. Compared to March 2022, the number of people who want more immigration has halved to 9%.

“We are so focused on numbers and so keen to open everything up that people who came here as asylum seekers are sleeping in the streets of Montréal without housing,” according to Blanchet. “This is the most obvious example of the government’s heartless failure.”

However, Immigration Minister Marc Miller defended his government’s record on immigration. “We need them,” he said. The Immigration Levels Plan puts Canada on a collision course to bring in at least half a million permanent residents by 2025, and another half-a-million for 2026.

“Canada has accepted a substantial number of permanent residents,” Miller told the Commons. “The main reason is we need newcomers as much as they need us.”

The minister suggested immigration is crucial to expanding Canada’s labour force to “ensure our economy prospers” and to “guarantee the social services Canadians depend on.”

Housing and Infrastructure Minister Sean Fraser concurred last August that fewer immigrants would not solve the crisis. 

He suggested newcomers would alleviate the 6.5% labour shortage reported in 2022, especially in construction. Housing developers claim the lack of workers is "one of the chief obstacles" to building more houses.

According to an internal government memo, Canada needs 665,000 new homes annually to reduce the housing gap amid rising immigration quotas — more than triple the 2021 output. That is "significantly more ambitious" than the 3.5 million units the federal government budgeted, it reads.

CHMC projects the housing stock will grow by approximately 2.3 million between 2021 and 2030. However, an additional 3.5 million housing units are needed beyond current projections to restore affordability.

The documents, obtained by The Counter Signal, showed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had been debriefed on his immigration quotas worsening Canada’s housing crisis.

Secretary of the Cabinet, Janice Charette, said "broad agreement" exists that "homebuilding has been insufficient [compared] to housing demand in recent years." Experts contend that immigration hikes and a shrinking homebuilding pace will worsen the housing gap.

Current immigration quotas are in addition to 227,000 annual permits for temporary foreign workers and 983,000 foreign students, reported Blacklock’s Reporter. From July to September 2023, 313,000 work and study permit holders entered Canada.

Conservative MP Tom Kmiec noted Miller on January 22 announced a 35% cut in foreign study permits nationwide. “It is hard to take him seriously,” said Kmiec.

The number of non-permanent residents residing in Canada has increased by nearly 700,000 to 2.2 million since July 2022, with the number of immigrants up by 468,817. 

“We know the immigration system is broken. We know it is not working with what the government is doing,” said Kmiec. “How can we believe the Minister now?”

Canada’s population hit 40 million residents last June.

Remove Ads
Remove Ads

Don't Get Censored

Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.

Remove Ads