Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen pauses in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen says he is concerned by numbers in a new poll that suggest a majority of Canadians believe the government should limit the number of immigrants it accepts since the country might be reaching a limit to its ability to integrate them.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
June 16, 2019 - 9:00 PM
OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen says he is concerned by numbers in a new poll that suggest a majority of Canadians believe the federal government should limit the number of immigrants it accepts.
Sixty-three per cent of respondents to a recent Leger poll said the government should prioritize limiting immigration levels, while just 37 per cent said the priority should be on increasing the number of immigrants to meet economic demands.
Hussen says the result is concerning because he has heard directly from employers who are in desperate need of workers, and immigration is key to meeting those needs.
He says he understands some Canadians may be worried about the ability of communities to absorb more newcomers due to housing and other infrastructure shortages, but he says the answer is to invest more in those areas rather than cut immigration.
The poll suggests Conservative voters are far more likely to disagree with Hussen — 81 per cent of Conservative respondents said they favoured limiting immigration levels, while 41 per cent of Liberals, 44 per cent of NDP supporters and 57 per cent of Greens were in favour.
The online survey of 1,528 Canadians, randomly recruited from Leger’s online panel, was conducted between June 7 and 10 for The Canadian Press.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2019