Conservatives demand immigration levels drop before Liberals table annual plan

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner called on the Liberal government to reduce immigration levels in the coming weeks, when the Liberals are legally required to table their next Immigration Levels Plan setting out admission targets for the next three years.

Rempel Garner and associate shadow minister Brad Redekopp held a news conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday, outlining six demands the Conservatives want met when the plan is tabled. "The Official Opposition's position is that immigration levels should be going down, not up," Rempel Garner said at the news conference.

Rempel Garner said Prime Minister Mark Carney had told an American newspaper he foresees higher immigration, and that Immigration Minister Lena Diab had also indicated levels would rise. "Whatever Mark Carney claims, Canadians know that immigration levels are not down," she said.

The six demands include reducing overall admission numbers, restoring what Rempel Garner called integrity to the system by removing people with no legal right to remain in Canada, setting levels in consultation with provinces and territories, and establishing real exit tracking for temporary permit holders.

Rempel Garner cited a March 2026 Auditor General finding that of roughly 39,500 international students whose permits expired in 2024, the government could confirm only about 16,000 had left. She also said Statistics Canada had revised its population figures after missing roughly 300,000 people.

The Conservatives also called on the government to be transparent in the levels plan about any labour mobility provisions tied to trade agreements, and to oppose what Rempel Garner described as attempts to import the European Union's open-borders approach into Canada.

On economic conditions, Rempel Garner cited a Desjardins 2024 report she said found high immigration was masking underlying economic weakness, with real GDP per capita falling in seven of the previous eight quarters. She said 2.3 million food bank visits were recorded in March 2026, the highest on record and more than double 2019 figures, and that about a third of food bank clients in 2025 were newcomers in Canada 10 years or less. Youth unemployment she put above 14 per cent.

Redekopp addressed Express Entry changes he said take effect Nov. 3, arguing the changes would allow employers to suppress wages in the skilled worker category and that fraud would grow under the scheme.

In a news release dated Oct. 1, Rempel Garner said the government had issued 112,000 new Temporary Foreign Work permits and 174,000 foreign student work permits between January and July of 2026.

"Canadians and newcomers alike are not units of production. They're people," Rempel Garner said at Thursday's news conference.

The federal government has not publicly said when it will table the Immigration Levels Plan. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada can be reached at 1-888-242-2100.