Trudeau said some exploited the new system, which accepted a large number of immigrants to accommodate the nation’s labor shortage. Canada has now restricted immigration to combat the population boom.

“In the last two years, our population has grown really fast, like a baby boom,” he said. “… Increasingly bad actors like fake colleges and big chain corporations have been exploiting our immigration system for their own interests.

“We are reducing the number of immigrants who are coming to Canada for the next three years,” he said. “We made some mistakes, and that’s why we are taking this big turn.”

The prime minister said corporations and colleges have taken advantage of the system to “raise their bottom line.”

“We have seen way too many large corporations doing this,” Trudeau said. “Far too many colleges and universities used international students to raise their bottom line, because they could charge these students tens of thousands of dollars more for the same degree. And then there are really bad actors who outright exploit people who target vulnerable immigrants with promises of jobs, diplomas, and easy pathways to citizenship promises that would never come true.

“Looking back when the postpandemic boom cooled and the businesses no longer needed the additional workforce, as a federal team, we could have acted quicker and turned off the taps faster,” he added.

The new immigration reforms will cut down on the population influx and “help stabilize population growth while housing stocks catch up.” Trudeau said the pause will “give our economy and our communities the chance to catch up with things like our plan to build more homes.”

The plan, put forward by Immigration Minister Marc Miller, calls for a 20% reduction in permanent residents in 2025, then continue to drop by roughly 4% annually through 2027, Bloomberg reported. From 2024 to 2025, the total planned number of immigrants will be reduced from 500,000 to 395,000.

In another unprecedented move, the number of temporary residents faces its first-ever limit, declining the expected number by hundreds of thousands. Trudeau also adopted some rhetoric previously used by President-elect Donald Trump in blaming corporations for using immigrants to undercut the wages of native Canadians.

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After the immigration pause, Trudeau will then consider letting population growth continue once again if the Canadian economy catches up.

The substantial move comes as Trudeau faces an election in 2025 that will determine the future of the Liberal Party leader. A poll showed a majority of Canadians want Trudeau to be replaced as the party’s leader.