Feds admit to ignoring impacts of mass immigration on Canadians

Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s department in an internal report admits it did not bother to determine if foreign workers took Canadian jobs or kept wages low, per Blacklock’s Reporter. “Impacts are not monitored,” said the report.“The program is built on the assumption that benefits to Canada from the facilitation of select foreign workers exceed any potential harm to the domestic labour market,” said the evaluation of the International Mobility Program.“However document review and key informants pointed out that labour market impacts are not monitored.”Auditors examined the program that let more than 3,970,000 foreign workers into Canada in the period from 2014 to 2022. Most were men under 34, typically from India and China. Almost half, 46%, subsequently applied to remain in Canada as permanent residents, wrote the Department of Immigration.The evaluation report said managers made no attempt to ensure Canadian workers and wages were protected. “The program is less aligned with commitments to consider Canadian workers first especially given the program’s continued growth,” it said. “The department does not systematically monitor labour market impacts of the program and data gaps, particularly for open work permits, make it difficult to measure the full extent of program benefits relative to risks for unintended consequences such as displacement of Canadian workers and wage suppression.”Cabinet on October 24 tabled a new Immigration Levels Plan that proposed to cut the number of foreign worker permits by about a tenth. A total 765,262 foreign workers were let into Canada last year.“Document reviews revealed concerns that program objectives are broad and ambiguous,” said the report.“For example, while exemptions under Canada’s international education strategy provide open work permits to students and recent graduates, the department does not measure whether this type of employment displaces Canadian workers or suppresses wages.”Cabinet in 2022 rewrote regulations to permit a million foreign students to work unlimited hours. Foreign students previously had been limited to 20 hours’ work per week.“I don’t think students are taking jobs away from other people given the labour shortages that are happening in Canada,” Miller earlier told reporters.“My focus primarily is to make sure the public policy we have in place is one that reflects the ability of the student to actually do what they’re supposed to be doing, which is study without bankrupting themselves.”The cap on foreign students’ weekly hours was restored on April 29 after figures showed rising jobless rates for Canadian students by one full point, from 9.2% to 10.2%. “The idea behind the international student program is to study, not to work,” Miller said in reimposing the restrictions.

Feds admit to ignoring impacts of mass immigration on Canadians

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