He plans to make changes in other non-permanent migration streams, too, though those will require more time. Those categories include everything from agricultural workers here for the summer, to temporary foreign workers at Tim Hortons, to the 220,000 Ukrainians that have arrived since Russia’s invasion two years ago.
“No one is asking us to take away work permits for the Ukrainians that are here,” he noted. “But we have to be quite clear to people that if we do do cuts, it can have a clear impact and make any recession, that we may or may not be in, worse.”
The minister also floated the idea of offering low-wage workers — and not just high-skilled migrants — citizenship. He noted labour needs exist across the spectrum.
This spring, Miller wants cabinet to offer undocumented workers a path to citizenship. His plan won’t make everyone happy, and it is likely to be met with criticism about line-skipping and preferential treatment.
“I can’t deny that there's a lot of resistance within the system … perhaps even in our own party,” he said. But he feels strongly that people without status, already living here, with housing, working under the table, should be paying taxes.
