L'ancien gouverneur de la Banque du Canada, Mark Carney, quitte la salle après avoir parlé aux journalistes lors de la retraite du caucus libéral à Nanaimo, en Colombie-Britannique, le 10 septembre 2024. Le Canada n'a pas été à la hauteur de ses valeurs en matière d'immigration au cours des dernières années, a affirmé Mark Carney. LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Darryl Dyck
L'ancien gouverneur de la Banque du Canada, Mark Carney, quitte la salle après avoir parlé aux journalistes lors de la retraite du caucus libéral à Nanaimo, en Colombie-Britannique, le 10 septembre 2024. Le Canada n'a pas été à la hauteur de ses valeurs en matière d'immigration au cours des dernières années, a affirmé Mark Carney. LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Darryl Dyck
DDOTTAWA - Canada didn't live up to its values on immigration over the last few years as it allowed more people into the country than it could absorb, said former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
Carney, who is a special adviser to the Liberal party, made the comments at an event on Wednesday in Ottawa held by Cardus, a Christian think tank.
"I think what happened in the last few years is we didn't live up to our values on immigration," Carney said.Â
"We had much higher levels of foreign workers, students and new Canadians coming in than we could absorb, that we have housing for, that we have health care for, that we have social services for, that we have opportunities for. And so we're letting down the people that we let in, quite frankly."
Earlier this fall, the Liberal government announced a plan to significantly reduce its immigration target for permanent residents and to dramatically scale back the number of temporary residents in Canada.Â
Those changes came about after a period of strong population growth and mounting criticism of the government's immigration policies.
Statistics Canada recently reported that the population on July 1 was three per cent higher than a year earlier. Between 1998 and 2018, annual population growth was less than 1.5 per cent.
With the planned changes to immigration targets, the federal government now estimates Canada's population will decline slightly by 0.2 per cent in 2025 and 2026, before returning to growth of 0.8 per cent in 2027.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged that his government did not get the balance right on immigration after the COVID-19 pandemic.Â
Carney also pointed to the pandemic as he dug into what went wrong on immigration policy. He said Canada chose to loosen its rules in response to pressure from businesses facing a labour shortage to allow more temporary foreign workers into the country, but he said the government ended up "losing track" in the process.
He also blamed provinces for underfunding higher education, which pushed institutions to turn to foreign students to make money.
"Do we value higher education in this country or not? Well, if we value higher education, maybe we should start funding our universities," he said. "On the foreign student side, it's more on provincial policy, on squeezing universities, in a sense."
This report by ¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû was first published Nov. 27, 2024.Â
¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû. All rights reserved.
Get the latest from ¹ú²úÓÕ»ó¸£Àû News in your inbox. Select the emails you're interested in below.
For many Indigenous communities, access to financial services and economic opportu…
Trust in international money transfers has long been tied to physical places: a ba…
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Tax: | |
| Today's total: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
