Trudeau Says He Could Have Acted Faster to Make Immigration Changes

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

Trudeau released a nearly seven-minute video on YouTube on 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 targeted “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.

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