Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the Canadian population has grown out of control and is calling on the Liberal government to further reduce immigration.
“We want severe limits on population growth to reverse the damage the Liberals did to our system,” Poilievre said during a press conference Tuesday in the foyer of the House of Commons.
“The population has been growing out of control, our border has been left wide open. This has caused the free flow of drugs, illegal migration, human trafficking and much worse.”
Poilievre did not take followup questions from reporters on what he meant by “severe limits on population growth.”
Global News has reached out to the Conservative Party of Canada for clarification but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Canada’s population saw a substantial surge between 2021 and 2024, jumping by nearly nine per cent, according to Statistics Canada. In March of 2024, Canada’s population reached 41 million people, the fastest domestic growth in over 60 years.
Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberal government said it would reduce the number of permanent residents admitted annually by 21 per cent from 500,000 to 395,000 in 2025, then falling further to 380,000 by 2026 and 365,000 by 2027.
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The Trudeau Liberals also promised to cap the number of temporary residents admitted from 6.5 per cent to five per cent of the total population by the end of 2026.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has broadly accepted the previous Trudeau targets, writing in his mandate letter to cabinet ministers that he wants to return “overall immigration rates to sustainable levels.”
During the election, the Conservative platform promised the party would cut permanent immigration levels “to a sustainable rate similar to the levels under the Harper government.”
Under former prime minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s permanent immigration levels ranged between 240,000 in 2006 and 285,000 in 2016, but it was unclear if the Conservative proposal was an absolute reduction in immigration or proportional to current population levels.
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