section_path: Prime Minister of Canada (2015–2025)/Domestic policy
section_name: Domestic policy
paragraph_text: Domestic policy
  
  The Trudeau government's economic policy initially relied on increased tax revenues to pay for increased government spending. While the government has not balanced the budget, it reduced Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio every year until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Trudeau's self-described progressive and feminist social policy has included strong advocacy for abortion rights. His government introduced the bill that made conversion therapies illegal in Canada.
  
  Before winning the 2015 election, Trudeau promised to accept 50,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq by the end of 2016. In 2016, Trudeau's advisors recommended drastically increasing immigration levels to stimulate the economy. Despite warnings about the impact of rapid population growth on housing and services, Trudeau's government increased targets each year, reaching almost 1 million newcomers (permanent and temporary residents) in both 2022 and 2023. Trudeau initiated measures to combat housing inflation such as banning foreign buyers and creating the Housing Accelerator fund but asserted in a May 2024 interview that "housing needs to retain its value." In October 2024, as Canadians endured a cost of living and housing crisis, and Trudeau's unpopularity grew, he announced cuts to immigration targets in a video message. This had little effect on Trudeau's approval rating, which had plummeted from 65% in 2016 to 22% in December 2024. Reports released in early 2025, suggested population growth would not be significantly slowed even with the Trudeau government's proposed cuts.
  
  In 2021, Trudeau touted his Child Benefit Program, claiming it had lifted 400,000 children out of poverty. In 2024, food bank usage was at an all-time high and more working people than ever were using food banks. This occurred amidst global food crises at the time.
  
  Canada introduced the right to medically-assisted dying in 2016. and legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2018. In 2021, Trudeau announced the creation of a national child care plan with the intention of reducing day care fees for parents down to $10 a day per child within five years. In November 2022, the Trudeau government announced that Canada would admit 500,000 immigrants per year by 2025.
  
  His environmental policy included introducing new commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% before 2030, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. His main tool for reaching this target is a federal carbon pricing policy. Trudeau's parliament also adopted legislation for marine conservation, banning six common single-use plastic products, and strengthening environmental impact assessments. Trudeau pledged to ban single use plastic in 2019. In 2022 his government announced a ban on producing and importing single use plastic from December 2022. The sale of those items will be banned from December 2023 and the export from 2025. However, Trudeau is in favour of oil and gas pipelines to bring Canadian fossil fuel resources to foreign markets.
  
  As prime minister, Trudeau launched three major independent investigations: the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIWG), the Joint Federal/Provincial Commission into the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks (in partnership with the Government of Nova Scotia), and the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions. The latter was called in response to allegations of Chinese government interference in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections, but also deals with interference from other states deemed hostile to Canada. The MMIWG investigation found that Canada's response to this issue amounts to genocide, a finding Trudeau said he accepted.
  
  On September 22, 2023, Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian Canadian who fought in the SS Division Galicia of the military wing of the Nazi Party, the Waffen-SS, was invited to the House of Commons of Canada to be recognized by Speaker Anthony Rota, the Member of Parliament for Hunka's district. Hunka received two standing ovations from all house members, including Justin Trudeau, other party leaders, and visiting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The incident, seen as a political blunder and a scandal, such that it drew comparisons to the most embarrassing moments in Canada's history, was leveraged by the Russian establishment to further its justifications for waging war in Ukraine. Trudeau said, "This is a mistake that deeply embarrassed parliament and Canada" and apologized to President Zelenskyy.
  
  Trudeau chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada: Richard Wagner (as chief justice), Malcolm Rowe, Sheilah Martin, Nicholas Kasirer, Mahmud Jamal, Michelle O'Bonsawin, and Mary Moreau. He appointed the first visible minority and Indigenous Canadian to the court.