A motion to curb record immigration levels within 100 days, spearheaded by the Bloc Québecois, passed in the House of Commons with a vote of 173 to 150 on Monday.
All 149 Liberal MPs voted against the motion, with 1 Independent joining them. The rest of the Independents, the entirety of the Conservatives, Bloc Québecois, NDP, and Green Party voted in favour of the motion.
The motion on federal immigration targets calls on the government “to review its immigration targets starting in 2024, after consultation with Quebec, the provinces and territories, based on their integration capacity, particularly in terms of housing, health care, education, French language training and transportation infrastructure, all with a view to successful immigration.”
The non-binding motion also calls on the Prime Minister to convene a meeting with provinces and territories to consult them on their respective integration capacities.
Within 100 days, the motion calls on the government to present a comprehensive strategy to revise the 2024 federal immigration targets, reflecting the integration capacities of the provinces, and territories. This includes a detailed plan addressing the resource gaps necessary for the successful resettlement of newcomers and ensuring provinces and territories are adequately supported.
“Canadians strongly disagree with the immigration policies of what is left of this government,” said Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet. He insisted that the Liberals “could not have cared less” about costs incurred by taxpayers.
“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.”
A previous Nanos poll revealed that over half of Canadians would like to see the Liberals reduce their immigration targets. 75% of Canadians believe that immigrants are contributing to the housing crisis. 73% believe that immigrants are putting pressure on the health care system, and 63% believe the same for the school system, revealed a Leger poll.
Since March 2022, the number of Canadians willing to welcome more immigrants has nearly halved from 17% to 9%.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller acknowledged that the current level of temporary foreign workers and international students has grown at an unsustainable rate and noted that the system is “out of control.”
However, when speaking in the House, Miller defended his government’s immigration policy.
“We need them,” he said, defending the level of 500,000 new immigrants per year for 2024 and 2025, saying that the number comes after conducting extensive consultations.
Thanks to an influx of new permanent residents, CIBC estimates that the housing demand by 2030 will be at least five million units, not the 3.5 million projected by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
CIBC’s report projected the Canadian population would reach 38.7 million by 2020, a significant underestimation. There were 1.4 million more people than expected. Non-permanent residents accounted for over 90% of the discrepancy, which has since increased. In the third quarter of 2023 alone, Canada’s population grew by 430,000 people, the highest quarterly growth since 1957.
There were 240,267 total unit housing starts last year, a decrease from 261,849 in 2022 and 271,198 in 2021. To reach the goal of five million starts, there would need to be just over 830,000 housing starts a year. The United States has approximately nine times more people than Canada but only builds 1.4 million houses a year.
Internal documents revealed that the federal immigration department analyzed the negative effects of high immigration on the economy, housing and services, showing that population growth has exceeded housing starts. The Bank of Canada conducted its own analysis and reached the same conclusion.
Canada’s real-time population model estimates that Canada’s population is currently 40,879,339.
