- Title: Canada should have acted sooner on migration, minister says
- Date: 25th October 2024
- Summary: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA (OCTOBER 25, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CANADIAN IMMIGRATION MINISTER, MARC MILLER, SAYING: "It's fair to say we've had to make some changes that reflect concerns by Canadians - our own concern - about the impact. of the flow of migration that has been aggressive in, particularly, the last couple of years, it's safe to say we own a part
- Embargoed: 8th November 2024 23:05
- Keywords: Canada Marc Miller economy immigration
- Location: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
- City: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
- Country: Canada
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,North America,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001480925102024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The Canadian government should have acted sooner to stem the flow of temporary migration into the country, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told Reuters on Friday (October 25).
This week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, facing low approval ratings and anger over a housing shortage and high cost of living, announced it is reducing both permanent and temporary immigration and shrinking Canada's population slightly for two years. The flow of migration became "aggressive," Miller said. "It's safe to say that we own a part of that. It's also safe to say, particularly on the inflow of temporary residents, that we perhaps should have acted a little sooner."
Miller said he is conscious of the role he and government can play in the perception, reflected in polls, that Canada has too many immigrants.
"We have to be very careful in where we ascribe the challenge, the correlation, the causation. We don't want this dialog to become weaponized," he said.
Under the plan, Canada expects more than 1 million people in the country on a temporary basis to leave of their own accord in coming years as their visas expire. The immigration levels plan is not rash, Miller said.
"We have been working on this for a long time ... Perhaps if we'd taken draconian measures last year, that would rightly have been characterized as reactive," he said.
(Production: Kyaw Soe Oo, Kristin Neubauer) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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