that his department was working on a “broad and comprehensive” plan to “regularize” the status of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who either came to Canada illegally or overstayed their visas.
There should always be room for exceptions on humanitarian grounds. But blanket amnesty for undocumented immigrants would send a clear message to the vast majority of the country’s, who are legally obligated to leave when their student visas or temporary work permits expire, or if their asylum claims or applications for permanent residency are rejected. It would encourage temporary residents to go underground in the belief that Ottawa would eventually grant them amnesty, too.
These numbers are all the more concerning considering that, over all, Canada’s economy has continued to grow over the past year, however modestly. Rising unemployment among young people and new immigrants outside of a recession augurs poorly for how such groups can be expected to fare during an economic downturn, the likelihood of which appears to be rising, as the U.S. and global economies show signs of sputtering to a halt.
Over all, Canada lost 2,800 jobs last month, but that figure belies a growing imbalance between the public and private sectors. Private-sector employment declined by 42,000 last month, after staying flat in May and June; the public sector continued to add jobs in July, and accounts for about 60 per cent of all job growth in the past year. The government hiring spree cannot continue indefinitely, as a weaker overall job market begins to eat into tax revenues.