Will Mark Carney bring immigration into the growth conversation?
If we are going to build Canada, we need immigrants. But Mark Carney hasn’t offered much in the way of detailed immigration policy, despite his emphasis on the economy.
By: Gabriel Blanc, Cyrus Nagra and Kiran Gill
During last month’s federal election both of the major candidates for prime minister laid out ambitious plans for nation-building projects. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the story of Canada was the “story of hard work to build big things.” For his part, Liberal leader Mark Carney was also explicit in evoking a new national ambition, proposing a $5 billion infrastructure fund and a new public housing entity called Build Canada Homes. But oddly, both candidates went out of their way to downplay a key element of any plan to get Canada building again: immigration.
Poilievre was the most forceful on this. He repeatedly attacked Carney for wanting to “balloon” Canada’s population to 100 million. This was because Carney’s team of advisors included Mark Wiseman, co-founder of the Century Initiative, an organization whose primary objective is to get Canada’s population into the nine-digit range by 2100. But Carney himself laid out plans to reduce immigration targets, and put a cap on temporary residents.
It’s not hard to understand why both leaders found it tough to talk positively about immigration. In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau lost control of immigration and broke a decades-long Canadian consensus. Recent polls suggest that as many as 60 per cent of Canadians now think we are bringing in too many newcomers each year.
But the plain truth is, Canada needs immigrants, lots of them. Building a nation requires building up its population, and Canadians are not doing this on their own. Those arguing for taking in enough immigrants to reach 100 million Canadians and those arguing for grand nation-building projects are in violent agreement. Yet no politician has yet embraced both projects in tandem.
Carney won the election, and as his mandate letter to cabinet released this week makes clear, economic growth is job one. This is great — a pro-growth government in Canada is long overdue. But without a parallel effort to communicate a long-term vision for bringing in people to drive this growth, Carney’s builder agenda will never get off the ground.
Capping temporary residents and reducing immigration targets is one way to appeal to a scarcity mindset. More subtle reforms to the immigration system, however, could encourage a broader vision of opportunity and abundance. For example, Carney should reform the points system: Initially designed to assess immigrants based on skills, education, and language ability, the system has been hijacked, commodifying admission criteria to prioritize labour-market demand. The points system needs to return to evaluating immigrants first on their ability to succeed in Canada, by including metrics such as pre-immigration earnings. With a growing number of applicants for permanent residency having prior Canadian work experience, this is an increasingly useful metric.
While the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program received warranted backlash, it is not a lost cause. Most of the growth in TFWs during the Trudeau years was in the “Low-wage Stream.” The underutilized “Global Talent Stream” — currently only used for tech workers — could be used to bring in skilled trades workers who can address critical workforce gaps, deliver on infrastructure promises, and stimulate the economy. Carney should make the connection between labour force growth and infrastructure construction crystal clear. Canada’s immigration consensus can be rebuilt by crafting immigration policy that promotes inclusive growth.
One of the most significant barriers to successful immigration policy is a lack of trust in the government’s ability to manage growth. Housing shortages, crumbling infrastructure, and stagnant wages have bred a pessimism that limits Canadians’ faith in the country’s future. To rebuild the immigration consensus, Canadians must see that real growth is possible. This will require more than policy tweaks — it demands a shift in how leaders communicate about immigration. Political rhetoric must move beyond managing “burdens” to emphasizing shared benefits and mutual contribution. Public faith is more likely to return when Canadians see immigration not just as economically necessary, but as central to a shared story of progress. Undeniably, after the Trudeau government’s missteps, a course correction was needed. But placating a scarcity mindset can only get you so far. Canada’s leaders need to shift the question from how many immigrants to how much they might be able to contribute.
Long-term prosperity is only possible through a symbiosis of improved immigration and ambitious nation-building projects. These goals are not at odds. In 1904, Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier declared that Canada’s future would shine brightly, “as the star towards which all men who love progress and freedom shall come.” Laurier aimed for a population of 60 million by the year 2000, explicitly making growing the country’s population part of his nation-building project. To truly build, our leaders must start by rebuilding support for immigration through smarter policy, and committing to building a bigger, better country.
Gabriel Blanc, Cyrus Nagra and Kiran Gill are the winners of the Douglas-Coldwell-Layton Foundation’s 2025 Jack Layton Prize for a Better Canada for their essay “Peak Canada? Raising the Ceiling on Canadian Immigration.”
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No. No. No. This absolute belief that we must grow and have more immigration is based on the opinions of rich people and developers who benefit. Immigration keeps wages down and prices up for those of us who have worked to support ourselves. Limit immigration to close family of citizens and genuine refugees from camps and tent cities and no claiming at the border. Most of the border crossers are liars.
To touch on a sensitive topic sensitively...our necessary immigration requires greater selectivity. Our needs for newcomers must better match the integration potential of the immigrants. Simply importing culturally-based violence or culturally driven isolation contributes little benefit to Canada.