Trudeau acknowledges mistakes in immigration policy, announces restrictions on new arrivals

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged mistakes in his country's open-door policy and announced restrictions for the coming years. Until 2027, the country will progressively reduce by around 20% the quotas for people to be granted temporary and permanent residence permits and will impose new limitations on employers seeking temporary workers.

True to his style, Trudeau made the announcement on social media using a seven-minute video to lay out the new developments and try to justify why the restrictions are in place. After a little self-blame for being too slow to react, the Canadian prime minister soon moved on to accusing "bad actors" of abusing the government's good intentions and causing the current situation.

Immigration-driven growth akin to a baby boom in two years

Trudeau begins the video by saying that Canada's population has grown too fast in the past two years, the equivalent of a "baby boom" in his words, causing the population to hit 41 million. He said a radical turnaround is needed in the coming years: "We are going to reduce the number of immigrants coming to Canada over the next three years."

Trudeau quickly went on to accuse "bad actors" such as "fake universities and big chain corporations" of taking advantage of Canada's immigration system in their own interest, forcing his government to this major change of course in one of its key policy planks.

"Far too many colleges and universities used international students to raise their bottom line because they could charge these students tens of thousands of dollars more for the same degree. There are really bad actors who outright exploit people, who target vulnerable immigrants with promises of jobs, diplomas and easy pathways to citizenship—promises that would never come true."

From 500,000 to 365,000 permanent residency permits between 2025-2027

The prime minister announced that, compared to the 500,000 new annual residents allowed right now, in 2025, the target will be 395,000, then 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027. The prime minister was convinced that with these measures and "between the number of people coming and the number of people going, we will put population growth on pause for the next two years, and then, starting in 2027, it will balance out and slowly increase again at a sustainable rate."

According to Trudeau, his government erred by not reacting quickly and seeing how the situation was getting out of hand, which has ended up generating serious discontent among the population. The percentage of Canadians who think that the number of immigrants is too high has risen from 33% to 58%. However, the president again insisted that immigrants are necessary both for the national economy and to maintain the population growth rate, which would reach zero growth in 20 years without them.

"Every sector has different wants and needs when it comes to immigration. But after the pandemic, they all came to us with the same message: 'After two years of closed borders, we need more people, more workers, fast.' So we brought in more workers. It was the right choice. It worked. Our economy grew ... most importantly, despite lots of economists' predictions, we avoided the worst-case scenario: a recession."