By 1909, Immigration Minister Frank Oliver was already at work on a new Immigration Act. Passed in 1910, the Act gave the government discretionary powers to regulate the volume, ethnic origin and occupation of immigrants. It did not bar any specific group.

In the last year of the Laurier Liberal government, 1910-1911, the Immigration Branch of the Interior Department commissioned two well-known Canadian photographers, William James Topley and John Woodruff, to photograph immigrants arriving at Quebec City. No matter what their country of origin, these carefully-chosen families and groups all appear to be the "right type" of people to succeed in Canada. Perhaps these photographs were intended to placate critics in a pre-election year. Many of those pictured were Canadian Pacific Railway passengers in transit, judging by tickets tucked into their hats.