Andrew Griffith: The Stakeholders Who Cheered Liberal Immigration Expansion Share Responsibility
In October 2024, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a startling admission regarding Canada's immigration policies, stating: "We didn't get the balance quite right." According to former immigration official Andrew Griffith, this ranks among the most significant understatements in recent political memory, as record-breaking immigration levels have contributed to severe housing shortages, strained public services to their breaking points, suppressed wage growth, and shattered Canada's once-stable pro-immigration consensus.
The Roots of Expansionary Policy
The policy framework that led to this situation originated in 2016 with the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which advocated for increasing immigration levels from 300,000 to 450,000 over five years based on economic and demographic arguments. Simultaneously, the Century Initiative promoted growing Canada's population to 100 million by the century's end. While the Liberal government implemented these policies starting in 2021, Griffith emphasizes that responsibility extends far beyond federal decision-makers alone.
Broad Stakeholder Support for Increased Immigration
Between 2020 and 2022, numerous business organizations, educational institutions, and non-governmental groups actively supported raising both permanent and temporary immigration levels while advocating for eased restrictions on temporary workers. The provinces, with Quebec as the notable exception, generally aligned with federal immigration strategy, particularly regarding international students whose higher tuition fees helped subsidize post-secondary education funding.
Ontario's particularly egregious approach saw the province, which ranks last in government funding for post-secondary education, relying heavily on international students to maintain financial stability at universities and colleges. This strategy compensated for frozen provincial funding since 2019, a policy only recently reversed.
Education Sector's Financial Motivations
The education sector demonstrated similar enthusiasm for international student enrollment, driven by limited provincial funding and the lucrative financial benefits of higher enrollments. Universities Canada urged federal investment in "diverse talent, both undergraduate and graduate, domestic and international," while Colleges and Institutes Canada argued that "international talent will play a critical role in tackling skills gaps in many sectors and meeting the labour needs of Canadian employers."
According to Griffith, these organizations failed to adequately consider the broader, longer-term societal impacts of their advocacy. While some academics noted the growing "education-immigration nexus" and institutional implications, few questioned the societal effects of high immigration levels.
Academic and Business Community Support
Many academics and numerous conferences, including Metropolis and Pathways to Prosperity, supported higher immigration levels. The Canadian Council for Refugees predictably advocated for increased refugee numbers following the pandemic. Meanwhile, the business community prioritized immigration as a cost-effective means to address labour-market needs rather than investing in wage increases or technological advancements.
The collective effect of these stakeholder pressures created an environment where immigration expansion faced minimal resistance despite its significant consequences for housing availability, public service capacity, and wage dynamics across Canada.
