Adil Boukind Le Devoir Invited by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed that we must target the annual entry of 500,000 immigrants to counter the labor shortage.
Pierre Saint-Arnaud – The Canadian Press
3:06 p.m.
- Canada
Justin Trudeau believes that universities that welcome foreign students and businesses that hire temporary workers must assume their responsibilities to accommodate these temporary immigrants.
It is the latter, according to him, who are at the origin of undue pressure on the housing market.
Invited by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal on Tuesday, the Prime Minister reaffirmed that we must aim for the annual entry of 500,000 immigrants to counter the labor shortage.
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According to him, Canada has a unique competitive advantage because Canadians remain “almost unanimous” in their support for immigration.
Mr. Trudeau stressed that at 460,000 immigrants currently, the country is slowly approaching the 500,000 where he would like to see this influx stabilize, because “this is the number we need to continue to create economic growth, opportunities, fill the labor shortage.”
Reception capacity
The problems of reception capacity in terms of housing and services, according to him, do not come from there, but from the approximately 2 million temporary residents in Canada, “especially international students and temporary workers.”
“These are the groups that we will have to put back under control a little,” he said.
One of the ways to achieve this, according to him, is to follow the intention of the Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, according to which post-secondary institutions that want to welcome international students should ensure that there are residences and housing for these international students.
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“It’s a way where we’re going to put a little bit of the responsibility [on the] institutions that make a lot of money [with] international students to also take care of housing and not just expect the municipality, or that the city or the community absorbs these people. »
The Prime Minister went on to say that the same should be true for industries that say they absolutely need temporary workers.
According to the Prime Minister, if Canada massively reduces its immigration targets, it will worsen the labor shortage and harm economic growth.