The Broken Liberal Immigration System Will Not Balance Itself

Plus, the immigration minister has no plan and no answers, the NDP-Liberal's temporary tax trick and their continued threat to the right of Canadians to access natural health products, and more.

Last week, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister released a video talking about the “bad actors” in Canada’s broken immigration system, but he conveniently forgot to mention the chief bad act: himself. The Prime Minister is not wrong that bad actors have taken advantage of Canada’s immigration system; however, he has been in charge of immigration for the past nine years. He set the policies, he appointed the incompetent immigration ministers, he controlled the immigration programs, he directed the immigration levels, and yes, he allowed these bad actors to exploit his broken system.

The Prime Minister could not stop himself from spreading more falsehoods throughout the rest of his video. My Conservative colleague from Ontario, MP Arpan Khanna, and I debunked the most misleading statements in a rebuttal video, including his claim that most temporary residents voluntarily go back home after finishing their work contracts or schooling in Canada. That is false. One in three study permit holders in Canada extend their stay, which is the highest of the 26 OECD countries, according to that international organization. Moreover, of the international students who received a study permit in 2015, 60% of them were still in Canada in 2020, again, the highest in the OECD.

The Prime Minister also said that before the COVID pandemic, temporary immigration was never a part of his government’s long-term immigration strategy. This is a self-defeating admission. Every prior government adjusted rules according to the inflow needs. The rate of temporary residents admitted into Canada has tripled over the past nine years, ballooning from 478,190 in 2015 to 1,497,920 in 2024. This created the feature of putting newcomers in greater competition for the few permanent resident spots available without informing them ahead of time. Worst of all, the NDP-Liberal government did not match the number of residents entering Canada to the rate of new housing starts or the available healthcare capacity in each province. There were adjustments made for labour needs, but they prioritized business demands for low-wage labour without much foresight for wage growth or the suppression of the wages of Canadians and permanent residents already in the workforce.

There are multiple other falsehoods the Prime Minister touted that MP Khanna and I debunked. I highly recommend you check out our response to see how the NDP-Liberals oversaw the breaking of Canada’s immigration system.

---

The NDP-Liberals are trying to distract Canadians from this country’s dire economic situation with a two-month temporary tax trick. It’s no wonder why they are trying to foist this on Canadians. Consider that food prices have risen 36 percent faster in Canada than in the United States, and now approximately two million people use food banks every month. Millions more are struggling to pay their rent and mortgage payments. This is all because of the economic vandalism this government has caused through their tax and spend inflationary policies, including its punitive carbon tax that is set to quadruple by 2030.

So what are the NDP-Liberals proposing to Canadians to make amends for their economic vandalism? A temporary two-month GST break on select consumer items, introduced under Bill C-78. The GST break would extend from December 14, 2024, to February 15, 2025, and cover products such as certain food and drinks, restaurant meals, alcoholic beverages, children’s clothing and footwear, toys, and newspapers, among other items. Like many Liberal policies, while it seems like a decent proposal on the surface, they have created a nightmare for small businesses. For example, Pokémon cards are GST-exempt, but not hockey cards. Train and Lego sets for children are GST-exempt, but not train and Lego sets for adults. Physical video game purchases are GST-exempt, but not downloadable ones. If you have teenagers, like I do, with bigger feet than their parents, children’s shoes are exempt but not adult-size shoes. The list goes on. The NDP-Liberals are forcing small businesses to make these ridiculous tax calculations or be forced to pay hefty fines to the CRA if they get one thing wrong. The randomness with some of these selected items adds to the burden on businesses to sort out how to comply. Like the carbon tax, this is punitive.

These GST exemptions will do nothing to fix this country's affordability crisis. They are just delaying some of the financial misery they created. In fact, the Liberals tried to add another trick into the bill by proposing an inflationary $250 cheque to Canadians earning under $150,000, but this was rejected by all opposition parties, including the NDP. Even Liberal MP Chad Collins from Ontario was opposed to this giveaway but was threatened with consequences by his own party if he dared to speak out and vote against it.

I want to make one thing clear: I believe in permanent tax cuts, not temporary cuts, because I want to see residents of Calgary Shepard and Canadians have permanent tax relief that is funded out of a surplus and not large new debt borrowing. Let’s also remember that as soon as the temporary tax trick is over, the NDP-Liberal coalition will hike the carbon tax by 19 percent in April 2025, which will make life more unaffordable for everyone. The government is also projected lose billions in revenue from this tax trick. Instead of cutting spending to account for this loss, they will borrow more money, which will inevitably raise inflation again, making life even more unaffordable. Conservatives know that this temporary tax trick will not fool Canadians.

I voted against Bill C-78 — which was considered a confidence vote — because I have no confidence in the prime minister or the NDP-Liberals. I have heard countless times from residents that we need a carbon tax election, and so I voted against the NDP-Liberal government’s temporary tax trick. The Conservatives and Bloc voted against the bill, but the NDP and Liberals voted together to pass the bill on a 176 to 151 vote count.

Conservatives are offering Canadians better solutions, including axing the punitive carbon tax and implementing a dollar-for-dollar rule when it comes to any new government spending. This also means tax cuts will be funded by cutting government spending. Governments cannot keep borrowing money. Today’s borrowing for a 2-month limited and temporary tax reduction is passed on future taxes and debt payments for the next generation. Only Common Sense Conservatives will bring home lower prices by axing the carbon tax and fixing the budget.

---

The NDP-Liberal immigration minister does not know how many international students residing in Canada on study permits have left the country since the start of the year and how many will leave by the end of next year. A few times a year, the Minister of Immigration must testify in front of members of the immigration committee, where he is expected to be prepared with data and briefs from the department he leads – this is part of ministerial accountability to Parliament. When I asked some basic questions regarding his department’s immigration-level plans, specifically on international students, he wasn’t aware and didn’t have an answer to nearly all of my questions. Tracking renewal rates and stay rates for certain types of visas are basic government operations, and an immigration minister should be prepared to respond as well as defend his decision-making.

While we don’t know those numbers, Conservatives were able to press the government to give us answers on how many temporary foreign workers and students are supposed to leave by the end of 2025. We also pressed him for answers on what is the plan to remove those who refuse to leave once their visa expires. According to the government’s own published documents, there are 4.9 million visas and permits issued to people here temporarily who are supposed to leave by December of next year. This, of course, includes all tourist visas, work permits, study permits and electronic travel authorization. There is some overlap between the categories. This is still a high number for the government to keep track of, so I asked the immigration minister how his department would do that. His response was that the temporary visa holders who do not obtain a renewal will be “expected to leave.” In other words, the immigration minister expects them to do so voluntarily. The immigration minister also could not explain the overlap or how the government tracks departures by visa category. Like the prime minister, the minister also claimed that the “vast majority” of visa holders leave the country. Again, that is false, as MP Khanna pointed out in our response to the Prime Minister’s video. Before his committee appearance, the immigration minister made numerous statements, such as that there are a record number of asylum applications, and tens of thousands of them are international students who are overstaying their visas before applying for asylum. The immigration minister even admitted that many of those asylum seekers, in his opinion, do not have a legitimate claim.

As someone who immigrated to Canada and followed all the rules, it is concerning to see the NDP-Liberal government destroy our immigration system. Canada’s immigration system used to be the envy of the world when Conservatives were in government nine years ago.

Watch Trudeau’s minister's big fumble at the immigration committee—completely unprepared!

---

Conservatives successfully passed Bill C-368, which restores access to natural health products for Canadians, through committee this week with two notable amendments. Earlier this year, the NDP-Liberal government forced through in an omnibus budget bill a change to label natural health products as therapeutic products, meaning that natural health products would have been subjected to the same monitoring regime as pharmaceutical drugs. This would have placed unnecessary red tape and regulations on common products Canadians buy every day, such as protein powders, vitamins, probiotics, and more. The red tape and regulations would have resulted in numerous natural health companies withdrawing certain products from the market or exiting altogether. Access to these products was going to disappear in many cases because of red tape labeling laws that are expensive to comply with in full. ​Before C-368 passed the parliamentary committee, the NDP and Liberals working in coalition passed through a last-minute amendment that gives the government ability to recall certain products. The other notable amendment was to carve out changes to exclude nicotine pouches and nicotine salts. I want to extend a big congratulations to my Conservative colleague, MP Blaine Calkins, who introduced the bill and worked hard to get it passed. Common Sense Conservatives will protect the freedom of Canadians to access the health products they desire and make their own health choices.

---

The academic journal Science favourably covered the Canada-People’s Republic of China parliamentary committee’s report calling for a ban on government-funded research cooperation with China in sensitive technology areas. In last week’s edition of Resuming Debate, I wrote about how the committee that I am a vice-chair on recommended that the Wuhan lab be added to this restriction list so that it will never have a chance of receiving taxpayer research dollars. The committee also recommended that Canada create a list of “trusted” countries that will be the sole possible partners for medical research virus samples. The recommendations were also made on the heels of the NDP-Liberal government acting very slowly on taking Canada’s national security from hostile foreign actors, especially regarding sensitive information and advanced technology research. It is great to see academic journals taking an interest in a technical report prepared by our committee that calls for better protection of sensitive research and making national security the higher priority. As the world has changed, so should our priorities, especially with the increasingly uncertain geopolitical situation in the Indo-Pacific.

---

I met, alongside a group of Canadian parliamentarians, the former Ukraine president and now leading opposition leader, Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko has come face to face numerous times with the current Russian regime and is the main political opposition to current Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Since leaving the presidential office in 2019, Poroshenko has remained an active leader of the "European Solidarity" opposition party in Ukraine’s Parliament, advocating for the country's sovereignty and Euro-Atlantic integration. He has been instrumental in strengthening the military by personally funding and fundraising the critical supplies, including drones and armoured vehicles, while actively lobbying Western allies to impose sanctions and provide military aid to counter the Russian invasion.

During our meeting, we discussed the importance of Canada supporting Ukrainians, including ensuring they have the necessary arms and equipment to achieve their strategic goals and defend themselves against indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure as well as on the battlefield along the line of contact.

---

I will be at the Auburn Bay Parade of Lights, spreading Christmas cheer later today. This parade will bring the community together with a parade of festive floats and hot chocolate stations located along the parade route. The parade route will take place along Auburn Bay Boulevard and will start at 5 pm. Stop by my hot chocolate station and let me serve you a cup of hot chocolate, hear your views and answer your questions. Remember to dress for the weather!

---