CONSERVATIVE Leader Pierre Poilievre and Conservative critic for immigration Michelle Rempel Garner on Monday slammed Prime Minister Mark Carney for what they called “disastrous Q2 immigration numbers.”

They said in a statement: “A Canada First immigration and refugee system should only invite the right people in the right numbers so our jobs, healthcare and housing can catch up. Instead, the Liberals’ radical open-borders policies broke Canada’s immigration system and made all these problems worse, which isn’t fair to anyone.

“Mark Carney promised to fix it, but these results show he’s worse. He supports the same out-of-control Liberal immigration policies that delivered a triple-header crisis in housing, health care, and youth unemployment.

“These breaking numbers blow through the government’s own targets midway through the year, with some on course to be the highest on record.”

The promised cap on visas for Temporary Foreign Workers was 82,000, but 105,000 TFW visas has been issued so far, they noted.

(The Globe and Mail reports that an immigration department official said the 105,000 figure includes both new visas and renewals for people already in Canada — only 33,722 of that number was for new arrivals, or about 42 per cent of the government’s targeted number for the year.)

The promised cap for the International Mobility Program was 285,000, but 302,000 had been admitted in the first six months.

They said: “Moreover, their so-called caps on permanent residents were already among the highest in our history, yet they’re on track to exceed their own reckless targets, welcoming the equivalent of twice the population of Guelph and four times the population of Abbotsford.

“While Canada faces the lowest youth employment since 1998, the Liberals are on track to issue the most temporary foreign worker visas in a single year.”

They also noted: “Meanwhile, our asylum system is facing collapse, with a 2,920% increase in the backlog since 2015. Wait times for hearings have already been stretched beyond four years. These new numbers mean more delays, turning Canada’s asylum process into a waiting-room of broken promises.”

Poilievre and Rempel Garner said: “Only Conservatives will propose plans this fall for an immigration system that fixes what the Liberals broke.”