Fix Liberal Immigration Chaos

5 March 2026

Immigration has long been a pillar of the Canadian story, a testament to the enduring promise of freedom and opportunity. To be an immigrant is to leave behind the familiar in search of a better life, just as my parents did in the 1950s. They, like all newcomers throughout our history, arrived with little more than hope and a hard work ethic. That hope and work ethic turned into a beautiful family, a loving home, and a successful life. My parents’ story is one of millions that show a working immigration system is a powerful economic driver, a source of cultural vitality, and reinforces the idea that anyone, regardless of their origin, can live a good life in Canada.

Unfortunately, polling shows the consensus that has sustained public support for immigration is being pushed to a breaking point. Under the Liberals, our immigration system has turned into an unmitigated disaster. By allowing immigration numbers to spiral out of control without a plan to build the necessary capacity in housing, healthcare, or jobs to support them, the Liberals have failed both newcomers and Canadians. What was once a source of national pride has been transformed into a symbol of incompetence and a lack of accountability.

This is most evident in the breakdown in our asylum system. The system is overrun with fraudulent claims, abuse, and a waitlist that will take years to alleviate. Data from the Immigration and Refugee Board showed that between 2019 and 2023, over 24,500 claimants were accepted in Canada without an in-person hearing or questioning. A fair system requires a human element to verify stories and assess credibility; bypassing personal interaction undermines our refugee protections. It invites abuse and allows claimants to be accepted with just a letter in the mail in a vast sea of unverified paperwork.

Further, those who have asylum claims rejected often continue to draw on taxpayer funded healthcare coverage that includes many services which Canadians do not have access to. This includes vision care, physiotherapy, speech-language therapy, and many more! Seniors on fixed incomes or families struggling with rising costs can only dream of this level of coverage. We are a compassionate country, but our primary responsibility must be to our citizens. Maintaining a gold-standard of benefits for those who have no legal right to remain in Canada, at a time where Canadians face long wait times at hospitals and pay out-of-pocket for medical expenses, is fundamentally unjust.

The cost to taxpayers for this program reached $1 billion in 2025. By comparison, the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital cost $1.7 billion to build. This means that every two years the Liberals spend on gold-standard health coverage for those with no legal right to remain in Canada, we could have fully funded a brand-new hospital in our own community.

While Liberals dish out dollars to asylum claimants with no legal right to be in Canada, their soft on crime policies have created a growing trend of “relaxed sentencing”. Non-citizens are receiving lighter punishments specifically to avoid the 6-month threshold that triggers deportation. This practice creates a two-tiered justice system where the primary concern is not the gravity of the crime or the safety of the victim, but the immigration status of the perpetrator.

When the government allows the threat of removal to dictate judicial outcomes, it sends a message that our laws are flexible depending on who commits the crime. We have seen examples where lighter sentences were given to criminals who are non-citizens, for very serious crimes, so that their immigration status would not be affected and they would not be deported. Prioritizing someone’s right to stay in Canada should never supersede the rights of Canadians to feel safe in their own communities.

The path forward requires a return to the principles that once made our system the envy of the world: order, transparency, and fairness. Immigration levels must be aligned with our actual capacity to house and support newcomers, ensuring they can succeed upon arrival. We need to restore mandatory in-person interviews for asylum seekers to protect the integrity of the process and ensure that resources go to those in genuine need. Above all, we must ensure that the law is respected and that our borders are secure. By replacing the Liberals’ chaotic immigration system with a Conservative one that is based on order, transparency, and fairness, we can restore public trust and ensure that our immigration system becomes a strength for Canada once again.