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Two former immigration ministers \u2014 one Liberal, one Conservative \u2014 were in agreement about the failings of Canada\u2019s immigration system at a recent policy forum.<\/p>\n
At a Sept. 23 Canada 2020 event, Marc Miller and Jason Kenney both said Canada should keep immigration at the heart of its economic strategy. But both also said Canada needs to take major steps to fix the system before public confidence frays further<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always seen immigration as a key lever to increase human capital,\u201d said Kenney, who served as immigration minister for five years during the Harper government and later served as premier of Alberta.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we now have a system that does almost the opposite. And that is what the public is picking up on in those polling numbers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n These polling numbers show 58 per cent of Canadians now think the country accepts \u201ctoo many immigrants,\u201d panel moderator and former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan told the audience. This is up 14 points since 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the speed of that change has to tell you something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Miller, who oversaw the immigration portfolio from 2023 until March 2025 and remains a sitting MP, agreed the system had experienced \u201coverheating\u201d in recent years, especially in non-permanent immigration streams.<\/p>\n Statistics Canada estimates<\/a> there were nearly three million non-permanent residents in the country in April, representing 7.1 per cent of the population. This is up from about 1.5 per cent of the population in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miller acknowledged that the student visa system in particular drifted from its original purpose during the Trudeau years.<\/p>\n \u201cAt some point along the road, we started tacking on all these advantages that made [the student immigration stream] look more like a back-way entry into Canada, as opposed to bringing in the best and brightest [who] then go home and make their own countries shine,\u201d he said. He noted as examples the decisions to lift a 20-hour-per-week cap on student work and to permit graduates to work up to three years in Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the effects of these changes, Kenney noted, was the rise of \u201cdodgy diploma mills\u201d and exploitative immigration consultants.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened was in Ontario [and] B.C. in particular, these listed community colleges wanted to increase their [student] volume. But the way they did that was to sign these [Memorandums of Understanding] with these dodgy diploma mills.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd through that, those kids got access to the work permit, which is why they come to Canada and pay the immigration recruitment agents obscene amounts of money to access Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2024, Ottawa responded by capping the number of new study permits, among other changes. That cap, which cut 2024 permits<\/a> by 35 per cent from 2023 levels, has hurt legitimate universities, Kenney said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy is the University of Alberta or McGill being [made to] suffer as a result by constraining the overall access to visas for students going to first-tier degree-granting institutions?\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was minister, we required provinces to submit a list of credible post-secondary institutions who would be eligible to invite people to come as foreign students.\u201d<\/p>\n