Poilievre: More immigrants must leave Canada than enter for next few years

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Canada needs fewer immigrants to come into the country than are leaving for the next couple of years, until Canada’s infrastructure and services can keep up.

Source: X, Pierre Poilievre

By Clayton DeMaine

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Canada needs fewer immigrants to come into the country than are leaving for the next couple of years, until Canada’s infrastructure and services can keep up with the increased demand.

While in Ottawa discussing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recently released ethics disclosure, Poilievre clarified what he means when he’s previously called to limit population growth over the next couple of years.

“We have roughly the same number of people who die as are born, so all of our population growth, in fact, in the last quarter, there were more deaths than births,” Poilievre said. “What I am referring to is net migration.”

He noted that the millions of individuals whose study or work visas are set to expire in the next couple of years are set to leave, and many will.

“We need to ensure that more leave than come in over the next couple of years, while we catch up, while housing, health care and jobs can catch up,” Poilievre said. “We've had population growth of roughly a million a year under the Liberals, while we barely build 200,000 homes, our job market is stalled, and yet we are adding more people to the workforce.”

He noted “generational highs” in unemployment for Canada’s youth and student population as jobs, particularly from multinational companies, are being given away to low-wage temporary foreign workers.

"Ultimately, this leaves our young people without opportunities," he said. "Our country is divided, and we're not able to integrate people at this pace. To fix the problem, we must impose very strict caps on immigration levels."

He noted that more people should be leaving Canada than arriving for the next couple of years so that Canada can "actually catch up."

"Our immigration policy should invite the right people in the right numbers, in a way that prioritizes Canada and Canadians," he said.

During the press conference, he listed several issues he believes need to be addressed to put Canada first.

"We have rising unemployment and a crisis of jobs for our young people. Housing is still unaffordable, and Mr. Carney has so far maintained the unsustainable immigration numbers that Justin Trudeau left behind—numbers that are overwhelming housing, healthcare, and jobs, dividing our country and breaking up any notion of integration," he said. "We need a prime minister who is fully focused on undoing the damage the Liberals have done, not continuing that damage and focusing on his private interests."

Poilievre pledged to learn from the mistakes of the previous election but affirmed that his party remains committed to the same vision of Canada that he outlined during the election.

"Our mission is to give people back control of their lives, to make this a country where anyone who works hard gets a good life, and where homes are affordable and our streets are safe. Immigration works for Canada first; those are going to be the things we focus on," he said.

He noted that although getting 41 percent of the vote was a record for the Conservative party and would typically win in any other election, it may not be enough to win next time, and he's looking to expand the way the party communicates its message.

"We'll do a great job as the official opposition, but we also need to present ourselves as a government in waiting so that when the time comes," Poilievre said, "Canadians can feel confident in choosing us to lead the country forward."

Notably, Poilievre answered six questions from the media at the press conference, a shift from the four questions he would take from the media during the election. Multiple journalists from various outlets complained about the strict rules Conservatives had for the media during the election.