Canada tightens borders to prioritize economic strengthening and infrastructure recovery

Journalist: Adrian Reece

Canada’s immigration rate has been a controversial topic for the last few years. Exploding under the last Prime Ministers’ rule in Canadian politics, we have seen our country change visibly in economics and housing.

Foreigners have made it difficult for citizens to continue to operate the way we are accustomed to in the country.

Lately Canada has slowed the rate at which newcomers can come into the country through school visas and work permits.

According to Canada’s immigrations states, we have let in 155,000 students on visas this is 49% less than last year and new temporary workers are down 37% from last year at 230,000. While these numbers are large, we are reducing the number of foreigners who are entering the country all at once. This allows Canada to improve its infrastructure and create more jobs and more housing for the increase in population.

Canadians themselves are feeling overwhelmed even with the decrease in number of foreigners entering the country. Many believe immigration should be completely halted until the economy recovers to a place where Canadians aren’t living paycheck to paycheck anymore. This is great news for Canadians, and they are hoping immigration takes a back seat to economic strengthening for the next few years.

Canada has also started cracking down on illegal immigration, deporting immigrants back to their home countries after discovering falsified documents, fake school acceptances and work permits. So far over 18,000 people have been sent back to their home countries, and Canadian citizens are hoping to see these numbers increase as they feel that the immigration has drastically affected the country’s standard of living.

New laws have been implemented as well that will dissuade immigration, one of those is a new law surrounding drivers licenses and foreigners. Now anyone who comes into the country must wait a minimum number of months before being eligible for a class A license.  They will also need to accumulate a minimum of 12 months driving experience in order to qualify for a commercial license. This will make it more difficult for foreigners to come over and jump right into a higher class of license without going through the proper channels and gaining the right amount of driving experience as required by Canadian standards. They must now also provide proof of legal presence in Canada in order to apply and obtain a commercial license. Visitors will no longer be able to obtain a commercial license, this includes tourists, or anyone who is not a permanent resident or citizen.

Moving forward Canada will cap the number of immigrants coming in to Canada to 380,000 between 2026-2028. A slowdown in immigration will greatly help the cost of living, the housing shortage and the ability to obtain jobs and consistent income in 2025.

Immigrants who are let in will also need to demonstrate some sort of usable skill that will benefit the Canadian economy in some way. This will interest business owners, as they will have more qualified candidates to choose from, and Canada will get a boom to the workforce and economy that it desperately needs.

Canada will finally transition over 100,000 protected persons to permanent resident status between 2026-2027, recognizing their contributions to the economy. Immigration will need to be based on how can someone make the country better instead of simply entering our home with no ability to pour into the viability of the country.