Geoff Russ: Doug Ford walking back initiative allowing asylum seekers to work was right choice

National Post

4 days ago

If Canada's leaders will not put young Canadians first, they should not be surprised when those same people abandon a country that abandoned them first.
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After a meeting in Huntsville, Ont., on July 24, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the rest of the premiers made it clear that they want greater powers over immigration.
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Ford specifically mentioned that his government was examining Section 95 of the Constitution Act to find a way to bypass Ottawa and unilaterally grant work permits for Ontario. Section 95 allows the provinces to make immigration decisions, 'as long and as far only as it is not repugnant' to any federal law.
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On Monday, however, Ford announced he was walking back that initiative, and this is a tiny spot of good news for young job seekers in the province.
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There are nearly 100,000 unemployed asylum seekers currently housed in hotels in Etobicoke. Prior to his retreat on the policy, Ford wanted to put them to work, even though the unemployment rate of Ontario residents aged 15 to 24 stood at 16.4 per cent, higher than the national average of 14.2 per cent.
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During the short time he considered the initiative, Ford's elbows were up, displaying a willingness to throw them at his province's youngest and most vulnerable adult citizens.
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Trying to add another 100,000 people to the workforce would have been a cruel strategy when youth unemployment is rampant in the Greater Toronto Area. Between January and July of 2024, it spiked from 13.2 per cent to 19.8 per cent.
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The Ontario government would not be helping by pushing for even more cheap foreign labour, which has already likely already suppressed wages and worsened housing affordability for Canadians.
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This combination has grown alongside a national immigration policy that saw an average of 612,000 permanent and temporary residents admitted to the country yearly between 2016 and 2023. The policy of mass, low-wage immigration had a considerable effect on the Canadian economy, according to Michael Bonner, a former policy advisor in the Harper government and later Director of Policy for the Government of Ontario.
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'The consequences are structural underemployment, stagnant wages, and a climate in which businesses are rewarded for failing to invest in hiring, training, and retaining a domestic workforce,' wrote Bonner.
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Despite his modest promised reductions in yearly immigration, Prime Minister Mark Carney is still planning to admit 400,000 permanent residents annually by 2027, far more than the average during the years of the Harper government.
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Housing unaffordability is a crippling fact of life for those under 40. During the spring election, the Liberals pledged to deliver a housing plan that was the 'most ambitious since WWII' and build 500,000 homes per year.