The Conservative politician who’s trying to take down Justin Trudeau said that if he’s elected, he would link Canada’s immigration levels to the number of homes being built.
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, pledged that if became prime minister he would link the nation’s immigration levels to number of homes being built. Canada accepted approximately 455,000 immigrants in the 12-month period to Oct. 1. However, only 219,942 new homes were built in 2022, the most recent year for which complete data is available, and Poilievre warned the Trudeau government was enabling immigration without being able to accommodate the new arrivals.
“We need to make a link between the number of homes built and the number of people we invite as new Canadians,” Poilievre said, speaking at a news conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, adding that his Conservative Party “will get back to an approach of immigration that invites a number of people that we can house, employ and care for in our health care system.”
Poilievre also cited data showing Canada’s population nearly doubled from 22 million in 1974 to around 41 million today. However, he did not make a public commitment to restricting immigration and has previously declined to confirm if that was his intention.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is behind Poilievre in polling among potential voters, has linked immigration to housing by stressing the new arrivals could be employed in the home building industry.
“Construction workers and availability of labor is a challenge we’re facing, which is why we continue to have ambitious immigration targets,” he said in a press conference last October.
Photo by Humerland / Wikimedia Commons
;
