Carney is at it again — recycling the same inflated immigration numbers in today’s Alberta referendum presser that he used on Red FM and elsewhere
He claims:
* Asylum seekers down 70%
* Temporary foreign worker flows down 60%
* Foreign students down 80%
“over the course of the last 18 months.”
Here’s the actual data from IRCC and government sources:
* Asylum: Full-year 2025 was only a 34% drop (114,515 claims vs ~173,000 in 2024). The ~68–70% figure only appears when you compare early-to-mid 2026 against the 2024 peak. That’s not “the last 18 months.”
* Temporary workers: Full-year 2025 new arrivals were closer to 47% lower than 2024. Jan–Aug 2026 vs the same period in 2024 is ~57%. The 60% is a selective partial-year snapshot, not the sustained 18-month reality.
* Students: Full-year 2025 new arrivals fell ~61% from 2024. The 80% figure is for January–July 2026 versus the same months in 2024. Again, cherry-picking the steepest recent window.
The temporary-arrival cuts from the 2023–24 peak are real. Presenting the most flattering partial-period percentages as if they describe the entire last 18 months is not. Permanent resident targets remain near 380,000 — still far above pre-Trudeau historical norms — and one-time programs plus existing temporary residents keep the overall numbers elevated
This is the same pattern: take the most dramatic recent comparison, drop the full-year context, and sell it as “we’ve taken back control.” Albertans voting on the other nine questions (including greater provincial say on immigration) heard a carefully edited version of the record
Strange how the paid press gallery keeps hearing Carney utter the same false numbers and go silent
@MarkJCarney