The federal government’s new immigration levels plan will stabilize population growth and relieve pressure on the housing market, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Thursday.
As CBC News reported Wednesday, the government is cutting the projected number of new permanent residents from 485,000 this year to 395,000 in 2025, with further cuts to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
Under the previous plan released last November, Canada was expected to admit about 500,000 in both 2025 and 2026.
“We have a lot of challenges in this area,” Miller told a press conference Thursday.
“But today with this plan, we’re proposing a managed migration that … will contribute to a positive future for all Canadians and one where we can serve both Canadians and immigrants better.”
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the government’s new immigration plan should help relieve pressure on the housing market. The federal government is reducing the projected number of new permanent residents from 485,000 this year to 395,000 in 2025.
In March, Statistics Canada reported that the population grew faster in 2023 than it has at any time since the 1950s.
Across Canada, the population rose by about 1.3 million between Jan. 1, 2023 and Jan. 1, 2024. Statistics Canada says 97.6 per cent of that population growth was the result of immigration, with just under 472,000 immigrants settling in the country last year and the number of temporary residents — most of whom are foreign workers — rising by around 805,000.
The new immigration levels plan will cause a 0.2 per cent population decline over the next two years, a government press release said. It said the plan will also “reduce the housing supply gap by approximately 670,000 units” over the next few years.
“That means we will not have to build an additional 670,000 housing units by [2027],” Miller said.
Under the new plan, more than 40 per cent of new permanent residents next year will be drawn from the pool of temporary residents already living in Canada.
“These people are a young labour pool. They’re skilled, they’re here, they’ve begun their process of integration and it doesn’t place additional demands on housing, health care and social services,” Miller said.
The plan also emphasizes bringing in more skilled workers. It draws more than 62 per cent of new permanent residents from the economic stream, especially the health sector and the trades.
Recent polls have shown that Canadians’ attitudes toward immigration have soured. An Abacus survey released last week found that more than half of respondents held a negative view of the immigration system.
When asked about the rise in negative views in immigration, Miller said it’s easy to blame immigration for societal challenges but it “doesn’t make sense.”
“It is easy to blame immigrants for everything. It’s also undeniable that the volume of migration has contributed to affordability [issues], but there’s some nuance there,” he said.
“You can’t go around saying that all the ills of society are caused by immigration. It doesn’t make sense.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who joined Miller at the press conference, said the government needs to ensure Canadians retain their trust in the immigration system.
“Canadians are justifiably proud of our immigration system,” he said.
“As a federal government we have to make sure that that pride, that faith in immigration is not undermined.”
Opposition, advocates criticize new plan
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the new plan amounts to an admission by the Liberals that they “broke” the immigration system.
“We had a controlled, common sense immigration system that had worked for a century and a half — and Justin Trudeau came along and with reckless abandon totally demolished it,” Poilievre told reporters on Thursday.
Poilievre has said previously that immigration levels should be tied to housing starts.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the cuts to the immigration plan is a sign that Trudeau “messed up.”
“He’s acknowledging that there’s been problems in the immigration system, but more so that there’s been serious problems with his lack of action on building adequate housing and investing sufficiently in the health-care system,” Singh told reporters Thursday.
“That is fundamentally what Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have failed to address, the underlying problems. And this tweak doesn’t address the real root causes.”
Immigration advocates said Thursday’s announcement “scapegoats” immigrants. They accused the Liberal government making the cuts in an effort to turn around their sinking poll numbers.
“We are witnessing a disgraceful assault on migrant rights in Canada as this government continues to scapegoat migrants for the housing and affordability crisis,” Syed Hussan, spokesperson for the Migrant Rights Network, said in a media statement.
“These Conservative-like policies are a gut-wrenching betrayal of their commitments to migrants, undocumented people, refugees and Canadians alike.”
Plan includes targets for temporary residents
Miller said the plan released Thursday is the first to include targets for temporary residents. Miller announced in March that Ottawa would attempt to reduce their share of the population from 6.2 per cent to five per cent by 2027.
To that end, the government announced in August that it also would be reducing the number of temporary foreign workers in Canada.
The government loosened temporary foreign worker (TFW) restrictions during a severe post-COVID labour shortage — a decision that led to a spike in the number of low-wage workers.
Ottawa also has tightened the cap on the number of student visas it issues.
The government has been under pressure from groups representing migrants, including the Migrant Rights Network, which in May urged Miller to follow through on a proposal to broadly give residential status to undocumented migrants working in Canada.
Miller said this past summer that the government wouldn’t be following through on that proposal. Hussan said Thursday that the government must recommit to broad regularization.
“The government must abandon this dangerous path of using immigrants for political football, focus on rights instead of just numbers, and end the exploitation and abuse of migrants by ensuring permanent resident status for all,” he said in his media statement on Thursday.