Poilievre accuses government of cooking books on immigration

Detailed summary

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the government is hiding the facts on the number of newcomers it’s bringing to Canada, despite the focus in the new immigration levels plan on people who are already here.

OTTAWA -- Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Friday accused the government of hiding the facts on the number of newcomers it’s bringing to Canada, despite the focus in the new immigration levels plan on people who are already here.

In Winnipeg on Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the one-time permanent residency measures in the levels plan are about making longtime temporary residents permanent.

But Poilievre said at a news conference in Brampton, Ont., the current government is blowing past the Trudeau government’s immigration numbers with plans to grant permanent residency to 200,000 temporary residents this year, in addition to the broad target of 380,000 permanent residents.

“It will bring the total number of new permanent residents to 650,000, by far a record and much bigger than any of the years when Justin Trudeau was prime minister,” Poilievre said.

“We love immigration for people in numbers that we can absorb, where there are jobs, health care and housing, but not when the numbers exceed our capacity to absorb people. It is not fair to immigrants. It is not fair to people already here.”

Carney said the workers expected to receive permanent residency under the new levels plan are people who have been in Canada for years and whose workplaces apply annually to renew their permits.

“They are members of the community, as I say, and they are in many respects -- in all respect -- permanent residents of the country and we’re formalizing it,” Carney said Friday.

Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s office declined a request to interview her about the newly tabled immigration levels plan. She also did not take questions after the plan was tabled on Thursday.

Diab did not face any questions on the levels plan from the opposition during Friday’s question period, despite being in the chamber on a day when many MPs are on their way back to their home constituencies.

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