The Liberals’ immigration plans for Canada are being managed by the Prime Minister’s Office, by Mark Carney’s Chief of Staff, Marc-André Blanchard, who was Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations when Canada signed onto the U.N. Migration Pact, as well as senior advisor Mark Wiseman, an architect of The Century Initiative, which is the plan to grow Canada’s population to 100 million through increased immigration. The increased number of immigrants – and migrants – the government has brought into the country in the past decade has broken Canada’s once highly functioning immigration system. It is the Liberals’ immigration mess – and, from all the news from Ottawa, one can conclude it is by design.
The Carney Liberals, like the Trudeau Liberals (as they are one in the same), are implementing immigration policy with clear intent. Aside from the government announcements about immigration levels, consider these news items from this fall.
Let’s begin the review by mentioning the Liberals’ legislation to change the country’s citizenship law, Bill C-3. In last week’s column, it was explained that this new law grants citizenship to people born outside the country. Those who have Canadian citizenship, who may no longer reside in Canada, can pass along their citizenship to their children and grandchildren. Last week, Liberal-appointed Senators sped the legislation through the Senate and it is now law.
The federal government is promoting Canada’s public healthcare system as part of their advertising to third world country would-be migrants. Blacklock’s Reporter uncovered that the department of immigration rolled out this campaign to lure newcomers to Canada – and they were careful not to use the term “free,” but highlighted the fact that there would be public health care for foreigners moving to Canada.
Conservative MP Matt Strauss, a medical doctor by profession, stated uncontrolled immigration is placing a tremendous strain on the healthcare system, especially given the generous health services provided to all people arriving on to Canadian soil, “It [healthcare coverage] includes pharmaceuticals, vision care, mental health counselling, assisted devices, physiotherapy and occupational speech therapy and all sorts of things that seniors in Kitchener do not get unless they have supplementary health coverage.”
As mentioned in my previous column, MPs on the health committee are currently investigating the impact Canada’s immigration has on the country’s health care system. In that committee, immigration minister Lena Diab testified that the government continues to provide all healthcare benefits to asylum seekers who have been found to not have legitimate asylum claims. Until they leave the country, the rejected claimants continue to receive “free” healthcare services.
In other committee testimony, it was learned that the government is quickening refugee claims with a new One Touch app that simplifies the intake process, providing verification with the provision of digital ID data. Using the app, full eligibility confirmation is awarded in less than 45 days. Mark Weber, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, told MPs on the health committee, “To speed things up, because we are short-staffed, we are allowing people into the country without first doing … security screening.” Critics of the One Touch app state that in bypassing the interaction with border officers, it hampers their ability to flag early risks associated with security and health.
Also at committee, MPs were told that the government does not track how many immigrant medically trained doctors work in healthcare. Committee testimony revealed that there are over 80,000 foreign-trained Canadians who cannot work in healthcare and over 13,000 internationally trained physicians in Canada who are unable to work because of Canada’s health profession accreditations and restrictions.
Here are another half dozen immigration news items you may have missed because they were not reported on or suppressed in legacy media.
- The government has paid out more than $7 billion on childcare for non-citizens over the last nine years, as reported by Juno News.
- Housing officials calculate that illegal immigrants and refugee claimants occupy more than a tenth of beds in homeless shelters, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. An internal February 2025 document written for the housing minister states actual figures are higher but unverifiable due to the refusal of “sanctuary cities” like Vancouver to keep records on foreigners without permits. The document reveals, “People with a newcomer history represented 13 per cent of the point-in-time count survey respondents with higher rates, 29 per cent, in temporary accommodations such as motels or hotels.”
- Government housing data through the last five years shows the increase in new immigrants is tied to an 11 per cent increase in both national house prices and rents – 21 per cent rise in house prices and 13 per cent in rentals in big cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.
- The Epoch Times featured a new report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, “Leaky Bucket,” that shows 20 per cent of immigrants to Canada leave the country within the first 25 years. Immigrants holding doctorates are more than twice as likely to leave as those with high school or less – for healthcare workers, it is 36 per cent, for scientists, it is 36 per cent.
- Freelance journalist Riley Donovan of Dominion Review highlighted Statistics Canada data revealing that, in Canada in 2024, 42 per cent of babies were born to foreign-born mothers, and this is near double the 1997 rate (22.5 per cent).
- Statistics Canada reported on more data from the 2021 census, that nearly one in four people in the country (23 per cent) have been born abroad. Also, in 2024, Canada accepted more than one in four (26 per cent) permanent residents from India.
The Liberals’ handling of immigration has catalyzed (a favourite word of the prime minister’s) public discussion. Opinion polls are consistently showing a majority of Canadians believe immigration levels are too high, a result of poor government management. This week a new Leger poll found that two in three newcomers to Canada (67 per cent) believe fewer than 300,000 new immigrants per year should be permitted, and two in five (40 per cent) believe less than 100,000 should be permitted.
Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun argued this week that unsustainable immigration has lowered Canadians’ standard of living. Goldstein wrote: “While a properly managed immigration system contributes to economic growth by filling labour shortages and making up for Canada’s low birth rate in terms of providing future workers, an improperly managed one weakens the economy.”
A recent National Post editorial, “Canada has lost control of its immigration system — and Canadians know it,” stated, “Canada’s immigration system is no longer just strained; it is compromised. Bureaucratic neglect, damaging court rulings, and political timidity have combined to produce a system that admits people faster than it can vet, monitor, or remove them.” The editorial pointed to a number of policy initiatives that might address the faulty system, including restoring security-first screening, enforcing automatic deportation, ending the culture of ‘compassionate’ leniency, and cancelling the plan to fast track asylum claimants.
A candid Pickering City Councillor Lisa Robinson posted a frank statement on X suggesting a quick remedy to the Liberals’ unbridled immigration intake, “Canada is handing out free money, housing, and food to people who break the rules, while seniors, veterans, and families struggle. Take away the freebies, and the floodgates close. It’s that simple: stop rewarding law-breaking, and they won’t come.”
The debate came to a head last week when U.S. Vice President JD Vance responded to comments made alleging Canada’s economic woes are a result of President Donald Trump. Vance posted on X: “While I’m sure the causes are complicated, no nation has leaned more into ‘diversity is our strength, we don’t need a melting pot we have a salad bowl’ immigration insanity than Canada. It has the highest foreign-born share of the population in the entire G7 and its living standards have stagnated.
“And with all due respect to my Canadian friends, whose politics focus obsessively on the United States: your stagnating living standards have nothing to do with Donald Trump or whatever bogeyman the CBC tells you to blame. The fault lies with your leadership, elected by you.”
His X statement punctuates Vance’s argument that Canada’s immigration policies crafted by the Liberals have strained per capita growth at 0.6 per cent annually since 2015, compared to 1.8 per cent in the U.S.
The frenzied and hyperbolic reaction to the American vice-president’s jab by Canadians elites, those supporting the Liberals and much of the subsidized legacy media, was akin to a waking alcoholic looking into a mirror, in denial that his horrible condition has nothing to do with the night before. Yet, Canadians are increasingly recognizing the sobering reality: the Liberals’ immigration mess is by design.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
