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An “overheated” immigration system that admitted record numbers of newcomers to the country has damaged Canada’s decades-old consensus on the benefits of immigration, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said as he reflected on changes to his department in a end of year interview.
The system, he said, needed some discipline to get the country back on track.
Over the course of 2024, Miller took steps to limit the number of student visas, reduced the number of permanent residents he plans to admit, made it more difficult to obtain a work visa, and suspended most private applications for refugee sponsorship.
All of this came as record levels of immigration pushed population growth to more than three percent in 2023, double the average over the previous decade.
“There’s no hiding the fact that there are some things that I think we could have improved. I think a lot of good things have happened too,” Miller said.
This interview took place on December 11, before Chrystia Freeland’s resignation as finance minister and deputy prime minister upended Canadian politics. Miller, who was appointed Immigration Minister in July 2023, retained the role on Friday.
Miller said the deterioration of public opinion on immigration is rooted in a number of factors, including high rates of asylum seekers, the high cost of housing and political movements in the Western world.
This climate created the challenge for Miller over the past year to “instill some discipline” in the immigration system.
With an aging population and birth rates below replacement levels, Miller said immigration is essential to ensuring a strong workforce to help pay for key programs like health care.
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“We still need immigration, but we need to be able to tell Canadians that we’ve been listening to them and react accordingly when we see things overheat,” Miller said.
In the minister’s eyes, this includes bringing in more economic immigrants to lower the average working age of Canada’s population.
The increase in the number of temporary workers is one of the biggest problems that have arisen since the pandemic. Initially, the goal was to use the program to fill gaps in the labor market, but the program grew so quickly that it opened the door to fraud and exploitation of workers.
The government recently took steps to make it more difficult for an employer to obtain a permit, and low-wage applications will be rejected in geographic regions where unemployment exceeds six percent.
Labor market impact assessments, paperwork needed to help bring a worker from abroad, are also worth between 50 and 200 valuable points in Canada’s points-based express entry system for permanent residents. CBC recently published an investigation that found those reviews were being sold, sometimes for tens of thousands of dollars.
“It is being played and I think we have to recognize that there is fraud that comes in different forms. I have a particular role in making sure that people don’t take advantage of that to get, for example, permanent residency,” Miller said.
On Dec. 19, Miller announced those items would be removed from labor market impact assessments as part of a suite of measures tied to increased border enforcement in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat on Canadian goods.
That change includes temporary residents submitting applications exclusively online to extend their stay, in an effort to end a practice known as “flag poleing.” This occurs when someone crosses the US border from Canada, only to turn around and return to the border for faster processing of the application at a port of entry.
The government will also introduce legislative amendments to allow them to suspend or cancel immigration documents, including visas, where it is considered in the public interest. Miller gave massive fraud as an example.
Trump is threatening both Canada and Mexico with 25 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports from those two countries unless they increase border security to curb illegal crossings and drug trafficking.
“The rhetoric we have heard in the United States seems unfortunate to me. “It’s not something I will ever advocate for, but we also need an immigration system that doesn’t appear to be being abused by people trying to game the system,” Miller said.
“And I think that’s something we’re seeing more and more with false asylum claims, sometimes from certain countries.”
There are approximately 250,000 asylum applications waiting to be processed by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The largest number of applications in 2024 came from India, followed by Mexico.
Miller said he is considering introducing more asylum reforms over the next month to “simplify” the system and more quickly address illegitimate claims.
But introducing more reforms in a sensitive area amid a heated discussion over border policy may be easier said than done. For Miller, it’s about trying to strike a realistic balance between commitments under humanitarian laws and what Canada can handle.
“What we cannot do is be victims of our basic instincts. We need to rise up and look at this in a way that is rational, that considers these people as human beings, without being naïve about the capacity of the Canadian government, the capacity of Canada to absorb the number of people that are coming here. “Miller said.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
