Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained the government’s reasoning for relaxing Canadian immigration law after the pandemic, and for the recent restrictions imposed, in a YouTube video released Sunday. Trudeau admitted that the federal government could have taken action earlier when companies and universities exploited the policy and immigrants.

Within the video, Trudeau explained how Canada first suffered a serious labour shortage amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau claimed the government loosened temporary foreign worker requirements and foreign student work regulations to avoid a recession. Over time, however, the loosening in immigration policies encouraged “bad actors” such as for-profit colleges to bring in unsustainable numbers of international students, which Canada’s minister of immigration, Marc Miller, has analogized to “puppy mills.” Reduced regulations on temporary foreign workers were also cited as a reason behind businesses opting to hire temporary foreign workers over domestic Canadian workers.

The video comes shortly after the Canadian government announced a plan to significantly reduce permanent and temporary resident entries for the next 2 years, with future permanent resident admissions dropping by nearly one-hundred thousand applicants next year, and temporary residents capped at 5 percent of the Canadian population. Included within the policies is a 10 percent reduction in international student study permits, restrictions on post-graduate work permit access, and limitations on the working rights of newcomers on spousal visas.

Canada’s temporary foreign-worker plan has been subject to extensive criticism internationally for human rights abuses and alleged rampant fraud from employers. The UN has raised concerns about the foreign worker program serving as a breeding ground for “contemporary slavery” due to extremely poor working conditions, limited bargaining rights, and fraudulent claims by employers over potential pathways to permanent residency.  These conditions, the UN Human Rights Council alleges, put Canada in contravention of multiple international human and labour rights treaties it is a signatory to, such as the International Labour Organization protocols and Sustainable Development Goal 8.7, which seeks to eliminate all forms of forced labour.