Your Voice in Ottawa

20 October 2025

In the roughly six months that have transpired since the federal election I have heard from thousands of people residing in our community. Listening to your concerns is a priority for me. It empowers me to act on your behalf and be a strong voice for Aurora and Richmond Hill in Canada’s Parliament.

This monthly column, along with the mailings and correspondence you receive from me, are a reflection of the issues you raise, the challenges being faced by so many families and businesses in our electoral district, and indeed by Canadians across our great country. I take my responsibility as your voice in Ottawa very seriously and I thank you for continuing to reach out to me.

Canada should be a country where hard work is rewarded with a good job and a great life. That’s the Canada we were promised—and the future we owe to our children.

After a decade of reckless and failed Liberal policies, Canada is facing an unemployment crisis.

Unemployment in the Greater Toronto Area has risen to 8.9 percent. Youth employment is at a point not seen in more than 25 years, outside of the pandemic. Even worse, youth unemployment in the Greater Toronto Area is hovering around 20%.

The oversaturated job market continues to drag down wages—even for those who are employed. The cost of living continues to rise, but wages are failing to keep up. In particular, many of our youth feel trapped. They need jobs to start their families, buy homes and fulfill their dreams. Sadly, many of those jobs are given to temporary foreign workers.

Too many corporations are relying on foreign labour while Canadians pay the price. Companies that traditionally gave a first paycheque to countless Canadian teens, have hired an almost unimaginable number of temporary foreign workers. Not long ago, young Canadians could gain vital skills in entry-level jobs, earn enough to pay for school, and build a future.

And what’s been the Liberal Government response? Mark Carney has not only failed to meet his own already excessive immigration targets—he’s now on track to issue the highest number of Temporary Foreign Worker permits ever in a single year— 105,000 new permits in the first six months of 2025 alone. His immigration policies have overwhelmed not just our job market, but also our health care system and housing market. In fact, Canada’s population has been growing by 3% per year, while the number of homes has been growing by only 1% per year. Under the Liberal government, the cost of rent has doubled, the cost of mortgage payments has doubled and the necessary down-payment has doubled.

These Liberal policies are also unfair to people who move to Canada in pursuit of a better life, only to find themselves unable to get a job, a home or a family doctor. This isn’t a question of whether to support immigration or not, it’s a question of social responsibility to Canadians and to folks we welcome to our country.

Our Conservative Party has a plan to fix this. Under our plan, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program will be permanently abolished. It will be replaced by a separate, dedicated program to address truly hard-to-fill agricultural jobs. For ultra-low-unemployment regions, there will be a transition period of, at most, five years while the program winds down, but no new permits will be issued anywhere in Canada. We will also put a cap on the International Students Program, which has also contributed to similar issues.

It’s time for a policy of Canadian jobs for Canadian workers. Conservatives will always fight to protect Canadian youth and workers from reckless policies that lock them out of opportunity and suppress their wages. Our immigration system must put Canada First. That means inviting the right people in the right numbers—numbers we can absorb into housing, health care and jobs. It means having a system that allows newcomers to succeed as part of the Canadian family.

Since the start of this Parliamentary sitting, I have raised these points several times in the House of Commons. I spoke about the impacts that Canada’s broken immigration policies have had on unemployment and housing prices—including the strain that food banks and homeless shelters are facing. As a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, I have had the opportunity to hear testimony from policy experts and stakeholders. These testimonies made it clear that the Liberal government did not consider the consequences of their actions when they recklessly implemented their open-borders policies.

If Mark Carney is serious about fixing the immigration system his party broke, he should immediately enact reforms to Canada’s immigration policies. Conservatives will continue pushing to end to the Temporary Foreign Worker program in Parliament this fall. We will always stand on the side of Canadian workers. I will continue to listen and ensure that your voice is heard loud and clear in Ottawa.