The federal government has backpedalled on its ambitious immigration plans, reducing immigration targets for the next three years by over 20%.The Trudeau Liberals announced Thursday morning a reduction in immigration next year from the current projection of 500,000 allowed to 395,000.In 2026, the number will drop to 380,000, and 365,000 in 2027, where it will “stabilize.”Immigration minister Marc Miller estimates the lower permanent resident and temporary resident targets will impact the housing supply gap by 670,000 units by the end of 2027.“That means we will not have to build an additional 670,000 housing units by that time,” said Miller.“This is significant.”More than 40% of permanent resident permits will go to temporary residents already in Canada. “These people are a young labour pool, they’re skilled, they're here, they’ve begun their process of integration,” said Miller, adding this method wouldn’t be so strenuous on housing and healthcare. .Poilievre not buying Trudeau's 'about-face' on immigration.Miller called on provinces to submit “data” on immigration statistics and tell the federal government “what they’re needs are.”“In the temporary residents space, over 50% of that is international students and post graduate work permits,” he said, touting “measures instituted” by his department last year “that are important to highlight the success of.”“Thanks to that reduction of 43% in the number of new study permits accorded,” rent has gone down in cities like Vancouver, Surrey and Toronto by 8% to 10%, claimed Miller.“The caps that we put in place are not measures that we took lightly without reflection, we are an open country, but not everyone cannot come to this country.”“Permanent residency is something we hold dear. It has a value, as does Canadian citizenship.”“We’ve been a very generous country, and will consider to do so. The numbers we announced today roughly take us back to a very ambitious plan that was put forward in 2020.”“It reflects that we have, and we’ll continue to, listen to Canadians.” .UPDATED: Poilievre promises to axe GST on new homes under $1M and reverse ‘Trudeau’s housing hell’.Immediately following the Liberals’ announcement, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre made one of his own. He slammed the Trudeau government for “breaking our immigration system.”“Today's immigration flip flop is a massive admission of failure by Justin Trudeau, an admission that he's not worth the cost or the corruption,” said Poilievre.With his own MPs working to throw him out, and less than a year from the carbon tax election, Trudeau has suddenly admitted that radical uncontrolled immigration and policies related to it are partly to blame for joblessness, housing and healthcare crises.”A reporter, who pointed out parliament has been on hold for weeks due to Trudeau’s refusal to hand over to the RCMP all the documents requested for an investigation into the Liberals' $400 million green energy subsidy program, asked if the current government would follow through on its new immigration targets.“No, they won't do it,” said Poilievre.“And yes, they do need to put these changes through parliament. Trudeau has paralyzed parliament by refusing the Speaker's order to hand over criminal evidence in the RCMP's investigation into the $400 million green slush fund scandal.” .WATCH: Trudeau says ‘older folks’ have ‘too much house’ to shift blame for housing crisis.Poilievre said he doesn’t know what will happen to those who have come to Canada “as international students that Trudeau let in, in record smashing numbers without housing, jobs, admissions letters to real educational institutions or money to pay their bills.”“He claims he's going to be kicking some of them out. He'll never do that and he can't even control our borders,” he said.“We can't expect that Justin Trudeau will keep any of these frantic, panicked, last minute promises that he's making to reverse his earlier decisions that he's making now when his own MPs in the liberal party are trying to fire him in an election year, he is a panicked, incompetent, failed prime minister who is not worth the cost, the chaos and the corruption.”The opposition leader would not say if there was a number his government would cap immigration at if elected, however he did say he would “link population growth to the number of houses, the amount of healthcare and jobs that are available.”“So we will have a mathematical formula that ensures that we never grow our population at a faster rate than we grow the availability of jobs, homes, and healthcare,” he said.
