Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney for failing to address Canada’s immigration crisis, exacerbating housing, healthcare, and employment issues.

Poilievre advocated for a "Canada First" immigration system on Monday, prioritizing suitable immigrants in appropriate numbers to align with job, healthcare, and housing capacities.

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He blamed Liberal "radical open-borders policies" for worsening Canada's immigration problems, a concern he first voiced on March 21.

Poilievre noted new mid-year figures indicating the government surpassed its self-imposed limits in several categories, including temporary foreign workers.

“While Canada faces the lowest youth employment since 1998, the Liberals are on track to issue the most temporary foreign worker visas in a single year,” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner told the Toronto Sun.

Despite federal caps, Canada admitted 105,000 Temporary Foreign Workers in 2025 (82,000 cap) and 302,000 through the International Mobility Program in the first six months (285,000 cap).

“Mark Carney promised to fix it, but these results show he’s worse. He supports the same out-of-control Liberal immigration policies that delivered a triple-header crisis in housing, health care and youth unemployment,” Poilievre said.

The Liberals planned to cut temporary resident admissions from 6.5% to 5% of the population by 2026. In early 2025, hundreds of thousands entered Canada on work and study permits.

The Conservative leader also cited pressures on the asylum system, claiming the backlog has risen by 2,920% since 2015, with hearing wait times now stretching beyond four years.

“These new numbers mean more delays, turning Canada’s asylum process into a waiting room of broken promises,” he said.

Carney, in office since March after the Liberals' third minority win, vowed to stabilize immigration. Last November, advised by Carney, the Liberals pledged to cut numbers but exceeded caps.

As prime minister, Carney vowed to fix the "mess" left by his predecessor, stating, "We need to adjust the numbers until we get back on track.”

MP Rempel Garner recently exposed that the government's open-data website hadn't updated immigration figures for months, with officials claiming they were reviewing presentation methods.

Quietly released Friday, immigration data reveals Carney isn't delivering on election promises. Poilievre, meanwhile, pledged detailed proposals this fall to overhaul the system.

Poilievre told reporters June 12 he wants "severe limits on population growth to reverse the damage the Liberals did." Before the federal election, Conservatives pledged to cap permanent immigration levels at 250,000 newcomers, aligning with annual housing starts.

Canada's annual permanent resident intake, historically between 200,000-300,000 (2000-2020), was raised to 500,000 by the Liberals and is now proposed at 395,000 annually under Carney.

Canada's population surged almost 9% between 2021 and 2024, hitting 41 million by March 2024. This marks the fastest growth in over 60 years, according to Statistics Canada.