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“The current government recognized the existence of this fiscal problem and initiated a series of new policies to reduce it,” Mr. Grubel noted in his report, which assesses Jason Kenney’s reforms from 2008 until his shuffle out of the immigration portfolio last month.

The new policies on economic and family-class immigration, and especially a tougher approach to asylum-seekers, will have some success in reducing the so-called burden caused by immigrants who cost more in social services and general government expenses than they contribute in taxes.

But Mr. Grubel said Canadians should be allowed to debate the broader question of just how many new Canadians are needed in coming years.

The federal government has brought in on average about 250,000 immigrants and refugees annually, and in 2013 is expecting between 240,000 and 265,000.

“No explicit economic rationale exists in the economic literature or government documents to justify the current level of annual immigration. Nor are there explicit discussions of its cultural and social implications,” according to Mr. Grubel.

A broad public policy debate involving politicians, academics and interest groups, whether it results in lower or higher immigrants, would at least ensure there is a “better informed and more rational Canadian immigration policy,” he concluded.