Immigration minister looking to reduce number of temporary residents by making them permanent

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
  |   May 13, 2024   |   Be the first to comment

The Canadian government will work to decrease the number of temporary residents by offering them the opportunity to remain in Canada permanently, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on Friday.

Miller met with his provincial counterparts for the first time since he announced his plan to set limits on the number of temporary residents back in March.

The plan will look to limit Canada's immigration which is a large contributing factor in Canada's housing crisis. Over the next three years, Canada will reduce the amount of temporary residents from 6.2 percent of its population in 2023 to 5 percent.

“The fact people are already here, their impact on affordability has already been baked in, so it’s smart,” Miller said, reports the Canadian Press.

“But it doesn’t mean by extension that everyone’s entitled to stay here or be here in Canada.”

Miller said that the federal government and the provinces were generally on the "same wavelength" when it comes to broader immigration policy.

"For the big, broad brushstrokes that we need to do a better job in coordinating our responsibilities, our respective responsibilities that are shared jurisdiction for immigration and do better planning when it comes to integrating people, making sure that when we take broad policy decisions that no Canadians would forgive us if we didn't take, for example, welcoming Afghan refugees, welcome Syrians, Ukrainians, that we plan a little better on what the impact will be on provincial areas of jurisdiction," he said.

The Liberal government is also looking to expedite the processing of asylum claims, implementing legislative measures in the recent federal budget to streamline deportation proceedings for denied claims.

Another issue yet to be taken care of is the status of temporary work permit holders.

Miller said that the labour market has grown dependent on this workforce in recent years.

In 2018, the number of temporary work visa holders stood at 337,460. By 2022, this figure had surged to 605,851.

A recent poll on Canadian immigration shows that immigrants are the group who want immigration reduced the most. Two in three Canadians (67%) believe the current immigration target is too high.

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