A Canadian cabinet minister has deleted a post accusing Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre of pandering to communities with promises of visas and direct connectivity to Amritsar.
The post by Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, said, “As soon as we reduced immigration, both temporary and permanent, you continued to scurry around Canada, Pierre, pandering to communities promising visas to people you’d just met, promising no deportations, and, to top it all off direct flights to Amritsar. Embarrassing.”
Miller had served as Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship from July 2023 to March 2025. While immigration levels surged while he was in charge of the ministry, it was also under him that the government started introducing policies to reduce the intake of immigrants, particularly temporary residents like international students.
His post came in response to one from Poilievre attacking former Liberal immigration minister Sean Fraser of having “destroyed the immigration system in Canada.” Poilievre also accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, stating that his “promise to fix (immigration) it was another illusion. He keeps foreign criminals here, allows them to get sentencing discounts, and pays deluxe benefits to fraudulent asylum claimants — benefits that Canadians don’t get. Liberals will never clean up their own mess.”
Immigration remains an emotive subject in Canadian politics after the surge of newcomers during the tenure of then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caused anti-immigration sentiment, bordering on xenophobia, to increase in the country.
In a speech in Toronto last month, Canada’s current Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Lena Metlege Diab, said when she was appointed to the post by Carney last spring, “the task was clear” and included restoring control and balance, and rebuilding confidence in the immigration system.
As part of the process, Canada has capped international student numbers, made acceptance letter review mandatory to prevent study permit fraud and raise financial requirements.
The decline follows policies instituted in the last quarter of 2023, as further restrictions were ordered in the months following amid concerns in the country over a surge in temporary immigrants contributing towards a spike in housing affordability and placing pressure on public infrastructure.
In its levels plans announced in November last year, the government projected a 7% decrease in the total number of international students issued permits this year. IRCC noted that the total number of study permits to be issued in 2026 will be capped at 408,000, including 155,000 visas issued to newly-arriving international students plus 253,000 extensions for current and returning students.
“This number is 7% lower than the 2025 issuance target of 437,000 and 16% lower than the 2024 issuance target of 485,000,” IRCC said.
IRCC said that the cap that was first introduced in 2024 “has been an effective tool in slowing the growth of Canada’s temporary population” as the number of study permit holders has fallen from over a million in January 2024 to about 725,000 by September 2025.
“While this progress is significant, further reductions are needed to meet our commitment of reducing the share of Canada’s temporary population to below 5% of the total population by the end of 2027,” it added.
The immigration levels plan introduced in Parliament earlier this month had Canada sharply reducing its intake of temporary residents, including workers and international students, by nearly 43 per cent.
In its previous levels plan, the government looked at admitting 305,000 new international students each year. However, the latest plan showed the target at 155,000 this year, reducing further to 150,000 in 2027 and 2028.