A discussion of Canada’s 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan and the 2024 Report to Parliament on Immigration, in which the Trudeau government cut planned permanent residence levels by 20%, imposed caps on the number of international students and workers that would be allowed into the country and declared that they expect 1,000,000+ people currently in Canada to leave in the next few years as a result of their changes.

Alice Craft is a Research Associate in the Immigration knowledge area at the Conference Board of Canada. She recently published a paper titled Small Business, Big Impact Immigrant Hiring and Integration in Five Canadian Cities.

We discuss the key findings of that study — namely, that:

• In fast-growing small and mid-sized Canadian cities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in multiple sectors identified skill shortages as their most common employment challenge.
• SMEs are using practical and inclusive strategies to evaluate newcomers’ education and experience, but they rarely intentionally reach out to newcomers or work with immigrant‑serving agencies during recruitment and onboarding.
• SMEs prioritize English/French language skills, particularly spoken communication, when hiring immigrants. Language skills are particularly important in client-facing roles or those involving safety regulations.
• Negative experiences and limited understanding of immigration processes discourage SMEs from engaging with the immigration system.
• Affordable housing and access to public transit and child care compound labour market challenges for both job-seeking immigrants and SMEs looking to hire and retain talent.

We also discuss her recommendations.

Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at Ivey Business School, Western University. He is the host of the Missing Middle podcast.

1:20       Mike’s speech to the Liberal Cabinet in August 2024 re. the impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) on housing.

5:15       Mike’s thoughts on recent changes to the TFWP.

6:45       What is the impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program on housing in Canada?

8:00       Discussion re. zoning and development fees.

13:00    What level of immigration would be ideal in order to reduce the impact on housing?

18:30   Consequences of promoting pathways to PR for international students.

24:00    Are recent changes to Canada’s international student program the end for private colleges?

28:00    Is the recent decline in rents attributable to the international student program changes?

34:00    Should there be a hard cap on Canada’s foreign worker programs? Also discussion re. stats manipulation.

48:00    Distinctions between new foreign workers and companies trying to retain existing ones.

54:00    How does Mike respond to allegations that he is anti-immigrant. 

Jason Kenney was Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration from 2008-2013.

1:30 – The story behind Jason Kenney showing up unannounced at a CBA Immigration Law conference.

4:30 – The difficulties of being an immigration minister and Minister Kenney’s relationship with the bureaucracy and Deanna’s thoughts on Jason Kenney’s tenure. 

9:30 – Marc Miller’s attempts to introduce a program to regularize the status of undocumented workers, and his public statements that he was overruled by Cabinet. 

16:20 – Prime Minister Harper’s teenager looking for work and the overnight imposition of the 2014 moratorium on new LMIAs in the Food Service Sector.

23:00 – Record immigration levels, wage suppression, the collapse of the general consensus on immigration, and whether Canada’s record population growth was deliberately planned or unintended.

32:15 – The introduction of Ministerial Instructions.

37:30 – Diploma mills.

41:00 – What the scariest thing Jason Kenney did as Minister.

44:15 – Ending the ability of people to simultaneously claim asylum and submit an H&C application, and soaring asylum claim numbers.

49:50 – Is there anything Minister Kenney wishes he had used the notwithstanding clause on and revisiting the 1951 Refugee Convention.

57:15 – Advice to people who are disillusioned with politics.