Senator Gold: Colleagues, immigration is clearly the key to helping businesses find the workers that they need as they continue to grow our economy and our country. The 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan will ensure that Canada continues to welcome immigrants at ambitious levels to meet our needs. With a focus on regional immigration, this plan will help strengthen our system and spread the benefits of immigration to communities across the country — the Prairies and elsewhere. This includes, of course, and importantly, francophone immigration outside of Quebec.

The government does know that affordable housing has become a barrier to pursuing those opportunities in many communities.

The government’s 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan selects individuals with the skills to build homes and encourages them to settle in parts of the country that have housing capacity issues. Again, the government will do its part in terms of housing capacity. It looks to provinces, municipalities and the private sector to do their parts. It’s crucial that we factor in immigration, as you properly point out, in addressing our housing shortage because newcomers are undoubtedly part of the solution.

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