Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that a major reduction in the number of permanent residents will pause population growth over the next two years, admitting that the government had not got the balance between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth “quite right.”
At a press conference in Parliament on Thursday, Mr. Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller unveiled plans to reduce permanent resident numbers from 500,000 to 395,000 in 2025 and from 500,000 to 380,000 in 2026. They set a target of 365,000 permanent residents in 2027.
The reduction marks a policy U-turn for the government, and is the first time that Ottawa has reduced targets for permanent residents, after freezing immigration levels last year.
Mr. Trudeau said after the pandemic, “we didn’t get the balance quite right” between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth. He said the changes, including reducing the number of immigrants over the next three years, are aimed at “making our immigration system work better.”
Mr. Miller said that he had taken into account waning public support for increasing immigration, and acknowledged that high immigration levels, including among international students, had put pressure on housing.
He forecast that 670,000 fewer homes will need to be built by the end of 2027 as a result of the drop in numbers. He also projected that the new targets will result in a small population decline of 0.2 per cent in the next two years, returning to population growth of 0.8 per cent in 2027.
For the first time the government published targets for the number of temporary residents living in Canada including international students and people with work permits, whose numbers have risen steeply over the past few years. But it stopped short of setting targets for the number of asylum seekers it will allow, or for seasonal workers, for example those working on farms.
The plan creates a new pathway for temporary residents to transition to permanent residence. It forecasts that 1.2 million temporary residents are expected to leave Canada next year.
It set targets for temporary residents at 673,650 next year, reducing to 516,600 in 2026 and 543,600 in 2027.
It calculates that, with the changes, Canada’s temporary population will decline by 445,901 in 2025 and 445,662 in 2026. There would be an increase of 17,439 in 2027.
Mr. Miller also confirmed he was not proceeding with a program to allow migrants without valid papers, including people whose visas expires, to become permanent residents. He has previously estimated that they could number up to 600,000 people. Mr. Miller said he was pursuing a scaled-down program, such as for health care workers to allow them to stay.
Syed Hussan, spokesperson for the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, expressed outrage at this announcement, accusing the government of “a disgraceful assault on migrant rights in Canada as this government continues to scapegoat migrants for the housing and affordability crisis.”
“These Conservative-like policies are a gut-wrenching betrayal of their commitments to migrants, undocumented people, refugees and Canadians alike,” he added.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that the “significant reduction announced today for the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan is disappointing for businesses across the country that, in recent months, have had to deal with abrupt and constant changes to immigration policy.”
“Significantly decreasing our labour pool will impact thousands of these employers across Canada struggling to find the workforce they need to operate and grow. Today’s announcement will also reduce Canada’s capacity to attract foreign direct investment,” spokesperson Rewa Mourad said.