OP-ED: What is Doug Ford doing?
Immigration: it’s the issue that only threatens to get worse. And Ontario’s premier has played a pronounced role in making matters worse.
By Alexander Brown
Alexander Brown is the Director of Communications & Campaigns for the National Citizens Coalition (NCC). Ever week, Brown hosts ‘Not “Sorry’” exclusively on Juno News. This column is based on his most recent episode.
Doug Ford sparked controversy to close the July 2025 premiers’ conference by suddenly announcing that Ontario would issue its own work permits to asylum seekers, citing labour shortages and frustration with federal processing delays. Ford argued that provinces should have more control over immigration to address economic needs, while conveniently ignoring Ontario’s generational 15-24 youth unemployment crisis – with unemployment figures reaching as high as 20%.
Ford highlighted the backlog of nearly 100,000 asylum seekers in Ontario, claiming many are waiting years for work permits. Ford emphasized Ontario’s need for workers to support its growing economy, but his words don’t match Ontario’s harsh reality: where a near-growthless economy has been flooded with low-wage, low-skill labour, and where tens of thousands of young Ontarians are out of work, sending out hundreds of resumes, and struggling to get by.
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In further proof of Ontario’s ongoing crisis, over 54,000 job applications were made to Toronto’s annual summer Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) fair, up sharply over past years.
Ford’s haphazard proposal drew sharp backlash from across the spectrum, with concerns mounting that the federal government’s belated, tepid steps towards immigration reform were about to be undone in one fell swoop by a premier often criticized as “conservative in name only.” Critics have argued it would incentivize a flood of asylum seekers, exacerbate housing and healthcare pressures, and undermine Canadian workers by further prioritizing cheap labor for corporate interests.
On Monday July 28, under immense pressure, Ford abruptly walked back his pledge, saying that Ontario would not issue work permits while urging the federal government to expedite processing and to fund asylum-seeker support, such as housing and healthcare.
This reversal followed questions about the legal feasibility of bypassing federal authority, with internal sources at Queen’s Park confirming with ‘Not “Sorry” with Alexander Brown’ that the Premier “got it wrong,” and showed a lack of understanding of the provincial asylum issue. (Whether wise policy or not, asylum-seekers are already eligible for work permits in a matter of weeks, not years.)
Speaking outside his Queen’s Park office alongside Labour Minister David Piccini, Ford expressed frustration with supposed federal delays but clarified that Ontario would seek closer collaboration with Ottawa rather than unilateral action. The about-face was seen as a response to conservative outrage and logistical realities, though it left Ford open to criticism for flip-flopping on a high-profile commitment.
The timing here could not have been worse. In a moment of potential mild optimism among some Canadians, and with the federal government beginning to adjust for some of the worst excesses of the Trudeau years, the Ford camp risked adding to a worsening labour market with 100,000s of new applicants, and risked encouraging a flood of new questionable asylum claims to the province.
If Ford is truly serious about protecting Canadian jobs, he can start by showing real leadership on abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), fraudulent asylum claims, the diploma mills that negatively impact Ontario towns, and by cracking down on more of the illegal trucking yards and trucking certification fraudsters that threaten the GTA, areas like Dufferin County, and make roads less safe for families.
This is a moment to fix what’s been broken on immigration, to abolish a Temporary Foreign Worker Program that has undercut the Canadian worker to the tune of 19% foreign employment, and to listen to the majority of Canadians – as well as an even stronger majority of non-white Canadians – who believe proposed changes to immigration still don’t go far enough.
It is ultimately good that Ford quickly withdrew his foolish proposal, but it should be concerning that the premier of Canada’s largest province has little understanding of the policy implications for Ontarians while seemingly holding no ideological principles for running his ‘conservative’ government.
Yes…we all know Doug Ford is a mouthpiece for Mr.Carney instead of Pierre Poilievre! Our hope was for Pierre to be leader when we voted for Ford!! NOT because we wanted to vote for Ford!! It was to get Pierre in….if we were to vote today would Ford get in? I think NOT!! It was his plan all along to do this before the Federal Election!
Every day this FOOL makes himself more irrelevant.His days are done as leader of anything. Not a Conservative but we must always remember the party name is Progressive Conservative. Progressive is another name for Liberal so how is it possible to be both a Con. and a Liv. at the same time - - Red Tory. He thinks he can run for leadership of the CPC in the fall of this year. What a joke this man is!