Feds warned of ‘tipping point’ on immigration

OTTAWA • The federal government has been warned to take a cautious approach to publicly debating immigration over fears of reaching a “tipping point” that could undermine public support for welcoming immigrants.

Internal data prepared by the Immigration Department for a committee of deputy ministers suggests a majority of Canadians supports current immigration levels, but this support drops when they are informed of how many immigrants arrive every year.

“Public support (often aided by a diversity of prominent stakeholders) is indispensable,” the department told the co-ordinating committee of deputy ministers at a meeting in April 2017 to discuss immigrant outcomes.

“But there could be a tipping point that, once reached, undermines the history of relative Canadian consensus.”

The internal departmental data was obtained by The Canadian Press through access-to-information. It includes polling data that suggests just over 50 per cent of Canadians believe the number of immigrants who come to Canada every year is “about right” and this number has remained steady since 2012. But most of those respondents believed the number of immigrants arriving every year was under 150,000. After they were told it had been 260,000 for the past few years, the number of people who said they felt that was “too many” jumped to 32 per cent from 23 per cent.

“Engagement with the Canadian public is necessary, however, any high-profile debate will have to be carefully managed,” the department advised.