Ontario Premier Doug Ford says deporting economic migrants whose visas have run up is “the craziest thing” he’s ever heard of and said that a declining population with fewer immigrants is the “worst thing” that could possibly happen to an economy.
During a joint discussion with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on energy policy hosted by Enserva in Calgary, Ford joined Smith in calling for more provincial autonomy over immigration but blasted the federal government for telling migrants they have to return to their countries of origin after their visas expire.
During the talk on energy policy, Danielle Smith mentioned a need for her province to have more autonomy over immigration, a question being posed to Albertans in a referendum question later this month.
“If you look at the number of people who came to Alberta in five years, 600,000 people, 400,000 were temporary residents in one way or another,” Smith said. “We only got an opportunity to select 6,400 of them for provincial nominee status.”
She said Alberta has a backlog of migrants hoping to gain permanent resident status, but the province has to say no due to not having complete control over its own immigration numbers.
“The workers who are here, do they want to be out doing the hard work that you’re doing, or are they wanting to have office jobs?” She said.
“You know we need some office jobs, but we sure need a heck of a lot more factory floor jobs and field jobs, and so that’s part of the reason we want to try to get a mandate so that we can manage that whole process from the beginning to the end. “
While agreeing with Smith that jurisdictions know what’s best for their own economies and wanting more control over provincial immigration numbers, Ford noted problems with Ontario’s ability to approve individuals for permanent residency.
“When I took office eight and a half eight years ago, we had 14 million people. We’re at 16.3 million. But all of a sudden, you know, the feds bring in people. We train them up, and we’ve had this discussion with all the premiers and the prime minister at the table, and we’re all in 100 per cent agreement,” he said.
He said “hardworking people” who migrated to the province might even have families, children in school, and be renting or buying a home in some cases when they receive a letter in the mail telling them they have to “go back where they came from.”
“That is the craziest thing I have ever heard. We need people. We need people to stay here in the companies; who’s going to fill these jobs, folks?” Ford said. “And all of a sudden, we saw a decline for the first time about 50,000 people. That is so dangerous for our country.”
He said a declining population is “the worst thing you can do to your economy.”
“We need to bring in people that want to work hard, which I believe the majority who come here that want to work their backs off, get their kids in school, second generation, obey the laws, give back to the communities, that’s what a great Canadian does,” Ford said. “I’ll take hardworking people all day long.”
