Ottawa, ON – Today, the Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative Shadow Minister for Immigration, released the following statement in response to the Liberal proposal to expand Express Entry immigration for skilled workers:

“The Government of Canada has the responsibility to prioritize our youth, and all efforts should be directed to giving jobs and training to unemployed young Canadians. Yet the Liberals are only focused on expanding immigration streams that push our young people further away from jobs that would set them on a path to success. 

“At the same time, the Liberals have neglected to propose a plan that would ensure 3 million non-citizen temporary residents whose permits expire by the end of 2026 will leave Canada once their visas are up. 

“The Liberals’ decade-long abuse of a once well-functioning immigration system is already overextending Canada’s healthcare system and housing market, while taking job opportunities for Canadians, with no long-term solution in sight. 

“Conservatives renew our calls on the government to hire Canadian and bet on Canadians by:

  • Abolishing the Temporary Foreign Worker program, while creating a designated agricultural stream for legitimately hard-to-fill seasonal agriculture, agri-food and seafood roles;
  • Producing a plan to get millions of foreign workers with expired or expiring visas to leave when they’re supposed to;
  • Introducing bold labour mobility and skills-retraining strategies;
  • Incentivizing Canadians from high-unemployment areas to move to underserved rural, remote, and tourist communities while reducing barriers and costs for employers in these regions to attract, train and retain unemployed or underemployed Canadians; and
  • Integrating the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on Canada’s labour force into immigration plans.

“As of January of this year, non-permanent residents outnumbered unemployed Canadians. The government has the responsibility and duty to prioritize our youth and our people, and all efforts should be directed to giving jobs and training to unemployed young Canadians.

“Conservatives are calling on the Liberals to bet on Canadians, especially Canadian youth, ready to join our job market and want to contribute to our society. We must ensure that our young people are well-positioned to obtain good-paying jobs and are able to build a strong future right here in Canada.”