03/23/2025
OTTAWA — The Liberal government’s recent reversal on the consumer carbon tax takes first prize for its biggest policy backpedal, but in a close second is a dramatic U-turn on immigration.
The Liberals came to power offering an expansive vision of immigration that saw permanent resident targets nearly double, from 260,000 in 2015 to a goal of 500,000 in 2025.
By 2023, when inflation was spiking after the pandemic and housing issues had grown into a full blown crisis, Canadians were starting to become skeptical that the country could handle the kind of population growth the Liberals envisioned. At the same time, population growth was hitting record levels.
Statistics Canada reported that over a three-month period in 2023, the country’s population grew by 430,635 people, representing a 1.1 per cent boost, which was the highest growth rate since 1957 when the country was in the throes of the post-war baby boom.
As the politics of immigration turned darkly against the Liberal government, a new minister was brought in to reverse his predecessor’s policies. Almost immediately after taking the job, Marc Miller slashed the number of foreign students in the country by a third and brought in a temporary cap on the student visa system, at least partly to help address the housing crisis.
Most surprisingly, given the Liberal government’s past policies and rhetoric on immigration, Miller also drastically reduced the number of permanent residents coming into Canada each year to a smaller target of 365,000 by 2027.
