Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner believes Canada should significantly lower its immigration targets after Prime Minister Mark Carney recently suggested that increasing these levels might be considered.
“The Liberals keep allowing too many people in too fast for housing, health care and jobs to keep up,” Rempel Garner stated during a news conference Wednesday.
The Conservative immigration critic mentioned that her party wants the government to reduce its immigration targets even more than previously planned.
The government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau had started to decrease immigration levels after initially raising them quickly during the post-pandemic labor shortage.
The latest immigration targets were detailed in last year’s budget, which includes strict limits on certain immigration categories – including a 43 percent cut in the number of temporary residents Canada will accept this year.
WATCH | Minister says immigration increases Canadian prosperity following Trump comments:
Minister says immigration increases Canadian prosperity following Trump comments
When asked about U. S. President Donald Trump’s social media claim that Canada’s immigration policies have caused ‘big unemployment,’ Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand responded that the government has been reducing immigration levels since 2024 to ‘stabilize’ support for all Canadians.
The levels plan, typically updated annually, also set a target of bringing in 380,000 new permanent residents each year from 2026 until 2028.
Rempel Garner did not provide a specific number when asked what would be an acceptable target for her party. Instead, she emphasized that targets should match the country’s capacity to offer services, housing, and jobs.
“We would restore order and fairness. We would remove people with no legal reason to be in the country and we would get back to the principles of integrating people into the Canadian economy,” she said.
Carney recently indicated his government is starting to think about when they might increase immigration targets again. In an interview with the New York Times, he mentioned that his government is “getting the system under control.”
“Now the question starts to become: When do we resume some controlled increase in population, which is natural for Canada? So that will happen, and we just want to make sure that we’ve got it under control,” said Carney according to the interview transcript.
“To have the prime minister go to a foreign news outlet and announce a potential increase in immigration without discussing housing, health care and jobs – it’s just irresponsible,” Rempel Garner remarked on Wednesday.
Immigration numbers decreasing: Stat Can
In his interview with The New York Times, Carney acknowledged “pressure on housing” regarding Canada’s immigration numbers. He also noted that Canada’s population growth has been slowing down.</P
The latest estimates from Statistics Canada reveal that population growth was only half a percentage point from July 2025 compared to July 2026.</P
The statistics agency stated part of this slowdown is due to fewer new permanent and temporary residents admitted during this time period. For temporary residents alone, Stats Can estimates there was a drop of around 154,000 from July last year until July this year – marking the largest decline in temporary residents since the early 1970s according to their report.</P
U. S. President Donald Trump criticized Canadian immigration policies last week, claiming Canada is “destroying itself” by letting “millions” enter without proper security checks. These remarks prompted pushback from federal ministers who called Trump’s views misguided and inaccurate.</P
During his New York Times interview, Carney was asked if Trump had any influence on Canada’s immigration program; he denied it outright.
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