Canada's Immigration Policy: A Decade of Strain

Canada's liberal immigration boom promised growth but delivered housing strain, wage stagnation, and rising political backlash. Here's what went wrong.

What We’ve Learned and What We Haven’t

Photo by Metin Ozer on Unsplash

Every generation is called to learn something from its circumstances. Sometimes, the lessons are obvious, like after a natural disaster or a global crisis. In other times, the consequences creep in slowly until suddenly, they’re too large to ignore. That is what has happened in Canada after a decade of sky-high immigration under Justin Trudeau’s government. The lesson we must learn, urgently and without denial, is that even good ideas, like building a stronger country through immigration, require thoughtful limits and sober planning.

The numbers alone don’t tell the full story, but they provide a roadmap for how we got here. From 2015 to 2025, Canada admitted immigrants at an unprecedented rate, with numbers surpassing one million newcomers annually by the early 2020s. This included record-breaking increases in permanent residents, work and study permit holders, and temporary foreign workers. The population soared, yet housing didn’t. Wages stagnated, and public services frayed. Political trust collapsed in communities watching their prospects evaporate.

We were told that high immigration would secure our future. Instead, it strained our cities, split the workforce, and gave Conservatives their strongest issue in years. In a nation known for compassion and multiculturalism, this moment demands more than slogans or platitudes. It demands accountability.

A Country Overwhelmed, Not Enriched

Supporters of the Liberal immigration policy framed it as necessary to replace an ageing workforce and to safeguard the Canada Pension Plan. However, immigration, like any public policy, must balance intention with capacity. Our infrastructure, labour market, and housing supply simply couldn’t absorb the pace of change.

From 2021 to 2025, the number of non-permanent residents more than doubled from 1.3 million to 3 million. The influx of international students and temporary workers strained everything from rental availability to transit to healthcare access. In many parts of the country, people working full-time could no longer afford housing. Vacancy rates plummeted, and the promise of a better future for all Canadians began to ring hollow.

When you go into a Tim Hortons and see immigrants working jobs that once helped Canadian students and low-income families survive, it’s about priorities. Who is the system designed to help? When the same immigrants are seen in lower-paying jobs while ordinary Canadians compete for fewer opportunities, the resentment is not unfounded, it’s the natural response to a policy that has failed to serve the common good.

Immigration Policy Became a Substitute for Real Reform

What we saw during these years was a sleight of hand: instead of confronting Canada’s economic shortcomings with real investment in training, education, wages, and industry, the government leaned on immigration to paper over systemic cracks.

Need more healthcare workers? Import them. Need people for construction? Bring them in. What about investing in Canadian youth? What about retraining workers trapped in minimum-wage jobs? What about helping seniors and rural communities access services without being buried by competition?

Too often, immigration was used as a shortcut rather than a solution. If Canadian companies are struggling to fill low-paying jobs, perhaps the answer is not to import more workers but to raise wages and improve working conditions. Instead, we created a system where economic desperation, both for Canadians and newcomers, kept wages low and turnover high.

The Political Backlash Was Inevitable

This failure created fertile ground for Conservative politicians to grow their influence. Pierre Poilievre and others haven’t had to say much, they only needed to point at the chaos and nod. In doing so, they’ve claimed the one issue where they currently dominate in the eyes of many Canadians: immigration.

The irony is that many of their actual policies were undefined or may not differ dramatically in practice. When the perception is that the Liberals failed to manage immigration responsibly, the damage is real.

Yet another irony? Many Canadians who blame Justin Trudeau’s government for this overreach remain willing to overlook Doug Ford’s failures in Ontario, despite his role in mismanaging housing and healthcare provincially. That double standard speaks volumes about partisan loyalty and the Conservative media ecosystem, but it does not absolve the federal Liberals from responsibility.

Immigration as an Ongoing Necessity but Not Like This

Canada has always relied on immigration. From Confederation onward, it has been part of our nation-building story. But different periods require different policies. The 2015–2025 decade should have been a time of rebuilding the middle class, expanding public services, and preparing workers for a changing economy. Instead, it became a period of experimentation, one that stretched the social fabric to the breaking point.

Even if one agrees that immigration is necessary, the current model doesn’t work. The rise in international students hasn’t matched our capacity to house or integrate them. Foreign credential recognition remains a national embarrassment, forcing doctors and engineers to drive Ubers while Canada faces labour shortages in the very sectors they could fill.

While the Conservative Party hasn’t fully clarified its immigration platform, its message, that Canadians deserve a fair shot and a better quality of life, resonated. Because Canadians are tired of watching opportunity slip away while being told everything is fine.

Where Do We Go From Here?

First, we need a complete reevaluation of immigration levels. Targets should be tied to housing, transit, healthcare, and labour capacity, not arbitrary annual goals. Immigration policy should serve the public interest, not corporate demand for cheap labour.

Second, we must reinvest in Canadian workers. That means training programs, wage subsidies, and strong employment standards. If we want to reduce reliance on temporary workers, we need to build a skilled, domestic workforce ready to step into those roles.

Third, the federal and provincial governments must cooperate on housing. Responsibility is shared, but leadership must come from the top. Without urgent action, we risk fuelling division and anger that populists will gladly exploit.

Lastly, we must stop treating criticism of immigration policy as xenophobia. Real xenophobia exists and must be condemned. But when people raise genuine concerns about overcrowding, economic competition, and quality of life, they deserve a serious response, not slogans.

Accountability or Apathy?

Canadians have a choice: we can continue ignoring the strain, or we can demand better. Mark Carney may offer a chance at renewal, but no politician deserves a blank cheque. His current government must acknowledge the reality Canadians are living in and act accordingly.

Canada’s future depends on its ability to grow, but that growth must be sustainable, just, and rooted in the well-being of all who call this country home.

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