The Liberals’ immigration plan comes with an untold cost. Pictured: Immigration Minister Marc Miller. Photo Credit: Marc Miller/X.
Canada’s Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, has commanded center stage in Ottawa over the past few weeks making a rash of new policy announcements. The changes being made to Canada’s immigration system will make it easier for newcomers to come into the country – seemingly without regard for either the costs to taxpayers or the strain placed on Canadians’ social contract.
Last Thursday, the government tabled legislation that extends birthright citizenship, allowing Canadians who live abroad to pass down “Canadian citizenship” to their children who may have been born outside the country and live abroad. This allows for a person who never has set foot in Canada to hold Canadian citizenship based on one of their parents’ citizenship.
On Monday, the immigration minister announced that the government was increasing the temporary resident visa program for extended Palestinian family members in Gaza from 1,000 to 5,000 applicants. The special measures allow Gazans who have relatives in Canada to move and stay in the country for up to three years.
Miller then revealed that the federal cabinet is considering permitting migrants and illegal immigrants currently in Canada to gain permanent residence. This includes migrants without valid documents, including asylum seekers ordered to be deported, as well as former international students whose study permits have expired. This initiative will provide all current illegal immigrants an unconditional free pass.
Miller also made headlines this week testifying before a parliamentary committee when he admitted that a criminal background check by police is no longer mandatory for processing temporary workers and international students entering the country.
These latest policy announcements are an extension of the Trudeau government’s open border approach to attracting increasing numbers of newcomers to Canada. The latest immigration schedule announced in fall 2023 has Canada officially welcoming 485,000 new permanent residents this year, 500,000 in 2025, and another 500,000 in 2026. This is less than half the story though as government figures reveal 1,160,000 temporary residents came to Canada in the last 18 months and there may be more than 2,200,000 in the country. And in addition to this, Canada has accepted an increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers.
The government’s open border policies are changing the ethnic composition of the country. Government data from Statistics Canada and the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada tell us a number of things.
First, in 2022 and 2023 Canada’s population grew by a record amount, more than one million-plus people each year.
Second, in 2022 the country’s population growth rate was 2.7 per cent, which is the highest rate in the world outside African countries. In 2023, it was even higher at 3.2 per cent.
Third, Canada’s population has not grown at the current pace since the baby boom years in the late 1950s. Almost all (98 per cent) of that growth came from migration.
Fourth, according to the Canadian census, prior to 2015, immigration consisted of 28 per cent coming from the UK/Europe, and today this number is two per cent.
Fifth, nearly 98 per cent of immigrants now come from India, China, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, and other African countries. Today, Canada has the world’s largest intake of 3rd World migration – mostly from the continent of Africa.
Sixth, first- and second-generation immigrants now account for 44 per cent of the country’s population, according to the 2021 census.
Seventh, on June 16, 2023, Canada’s population surpassed the 40 million mark and nine months later on March 27, 2024, it surpassed 41 million. On July 1, 2015, Canada’s estimated population was 35,851,800.
The Liberals’ immigration plan comes with an untold cost. Aside from the increased pressure on Canadians’ housing, health care and social services, which are hard to quantify, there are a host of associated costs required to support the newcomers and their daily living.
Taxpayers never get a complete picture of costs, only snippets of details such as: Blacklock’s Reporter reported that room and board for illegal immigrants is costing a daily average of $224 per person, $81,760 per person per year, according to government records. Couple that news with the Migrant Rights Network estimating the number of illegals living in Canada could be anywhere between 20,000 to 500,000, and we can factor the annual cost of room and board for illegals from $1.6 billion to $40.5 billion.
Blacklock’s Reporter was the only news source to headline Statistics Canada data that reported out in March 2022 that “More than a third (35 per cent) of government-assisted refugees remain on welfare a decade after landing in Canada.” An analysis of the data showed “higher welfare rates followed landmark 2001 changes to immigration law” when the Trudeau government dropped the requirement for foreigners to show proof of work skills and economic independence. Separate Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada data reveals that “Only 56% of government-assisted refugees were directly participating in the Canadian labour market.”
Credit again goes to Blacklock’s Reporter publishing government data that revealed, of the 2015 Syrian refugees brought into Canada by the Trudeau Liberals, half the total (50.4 per cent) were still relying on social assistance after five years. Of the 2016 Syrian refugees the government welcomed, seven of ten (69.5 per cent) refugees were still relying on social assistance four years after landing.
As expensive as financially supporting migrants is for taxpayers, Canadians are paying a greater cost with the societal disorder newcomers are bringing onto the streets of Canada’s cities. The Liberals’ commentary around Miller’s announcement regarding bringing thousands from Gaza into the country has been met with grave concerns about Canadians’ security. This has been underlined in the last few days with bullet-ridden schools in Toronto and Montreal, violent protests on campuses, and rallies that display open threatening hate-speech and rallying cries to “globalize the Intifada.”
It is reasonable for Canadians to fear that the Hamas-supporting newcomers will join the growing street protests and make an already toxic situation worse, leaving all citizens compromised and Canadian Jews in an even more vulnerable position. (Consider why all other countries, including Arab neighbours, keep their borders closed to these people.)
Just as the Trudeau Liberals remain unfazed by the crises in housing and health care caused in part by the growing numbers of immigrants, they remain unapologetic with their intention to bring more Gazans into Canada. Political pundit Spencer Fernando bluntly assessed, “The Liberals are knowingly importing radicalized anti-Semites, many of whom also despise the Western world and oppose Canadian Values…. If you are someone who loves Canada and believes in Western Values, Marc Miller has chosen to be your Enemy.”
The National Citizens Coalition posted on X the following observation: “You don’t bring in a million people during a housing shortage crisis, where we don’t have enough family doctors, and say you’re fixing the problem… For every day that Trudeau and Miller’s desperate pivot to unchecked mass immigration grows more reckless, exploitative, and debilitating for generational problems of housing and healthcare, more and more Canadians are realizing they’ve had enough.”
Quite apart from the chaos of the Palestinian-Hamas protests, there are daily news stories of around-the-block food bank lines, new tent cities being pitched, carjacking and street crimes, bank foreclosures, and overcrowded and closed ERs. The strain being applied on Canadians’ social contract is now palpable.
Miller tells Canadians the government is extending citizenship, permitting illegals to stay in the country, and bringing in more Gazans. He’s signaled there will be more than a million newcomers ushered into the country again this year. Miller reassures us it’s all in the Trudeau Liberals’ immigration plan.
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.
