Newly released cabinet records show Brian Mulroney’s government privately raised concerns more than three decades ago that Canada’s immigration system was facing growing public opposition, lengthy backlogs and an inability to remove failed refugee claimants.Blacklock's Reporter says minutes from a secret June 4, 1992 cabinet meeting, obtained through Access To Information, show then-Immigration Minister Bernard Valcourt told ministers there were fiscal and political reasons to overhaul the system.“Polling showed that Canadians perceived the immigration system to be out of control,” Valcourt was quoted as telling cabinet.The minister said the refugee system was being abused while the number of unsuccessful claimants who could not be removed from Canada was increasing by about 1,000 each month.“Processing delays involving backlogs of up to five years were making a mockery of the system,” the minutes quoted Valcourt.Valcourt proposed legislation that would give the federal government greater power to limit the number of immigration applications processed. His proposal also contemplated placing conditions on visas requiring immigrants to settle in designated areas.Prime Minister Brian Mulroney agreed changes were necessary, according to the minutes, citing “tremendous pressures on the immigration system.”Multiculturalism Minister Gerry Weiner was the only cabinet minister identified in the records as opposing immigration reductions.Weiner warned cuts “could be divisive and heighten insecurity among cultural communities that were already feeling left out.”Canada's annual target for permanent residents was 250,000 at the time. Admissions later declined, reaching 174,200 in 1998.More than two decades later, the last Conservative government set its 2014 immigration target range at between 240,000 and 265,000 permanent residents, with a planning level of 250,000.Immigration levels subsequently increased substantially under Liberal governments, with Canada admitting a record 483,640 permanent residents in 2024..Then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser defended higher immigration at a 2022 Commons immigration committee hearing, arguing Canada needed more newcomers to maximize its economic potential and help pay for government programs and services.The federal government has since moved to reduce immigration from those peak levels.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in 2025 that immigration levels should be tied to Canada's ability to provide housing, employment and health-care services.“I think we should go back to immigration levels that are such that the population never grows faster than the number of housing starts, jobs or health care services that are available,” said Poilievre.Prime Minister Mark Carney also acknowledged during the 2025 Liberal leadership campaign that immigration levels had contributed to rapid population growth and needed to be restrained.“Our population has gone up at about 3% per year because of immigration,” Carney said during a leadership debate. “That’s why we need to have a cap for a certain period of time.”Asked by a moderator whether Canada's immigration system had “gone off the rails” during the previous seven or eight years, Carney replied: “Well, yes.”“The system isn’t working,” he said.Canada's permanent resident target for 2026 is 380,000. The federal government's immigration plan also includes temporary residents such as foreign students and migrant workers as Ottawa seeks to reduce temporary resident levels while managing permanent immigration.
