Foreigners are filling up our homeless shelters, emptying our food banks and taking our kids’ jobs. It’s not something many people expected to hear out of the mouth of BC New Democrat Premier David Eby, but there it was Thursday, tossed out haphazardly in the middle of an unrelated press conference in response to an unrelated question from reporters.

The comments landed with a thud amongst New Democrat supporters, who have been stewing over them since.

They heard what sounded like a frustrated premier lashing out at immigrants over challenges his government has been unable to solve in housing affordability, economic growth, employment levels, school construction and infrastructure.

“Here in British Columbia, we see unacceptably high level of unemployment among young people, which has been linked both to the international student visa program as well as the temporary foreign worker program,” said Eby.

“It's time for a serious and adult conversation about addressing these immigration issues in our province and in the country.

“We can't have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks, we can't have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing, and we can't have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment.”

The premier said the temporary foreign worker program “needs to be either reformed significantly or cancelled,” aligning himself with federal Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in opening the door to shut it down entirely.

“The Liberals have to answer, ‘Why is it that they are shutting our own youth out of jobs and replacing them with........

© BIV