Trudeau pledges to reduce immigration numbers as public support plummets
This year’s Immigration Levels Plan will cut back the number of permanent residents Canada plans to accept through 2027, from 485,000 this year to 395,000 in 2025. It also plans to cut numbers to 380,000 in 2026 and to 365,000 in 2027.
The Trudeau government has agreed to a major reduction in the number of permanent residents it will permit entry to each year, amid dwindling public support.
“Today, we're announcing that we will reduce the number of immigrants we bring in over the next three years, which will result in a pause in the population growth over the next two years,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters.
“It is time to make the adjustments to stabilize the immigration system that we need and get it working right for Canadians for right now,” he acknowledged.
This year’s Immigration Levels Plan will specifically cut back the number of permanent residents Canada plans to accept through 2027, from 485,000 this year to 395,000 in 2025. It also plans to cut numbers to 380,000 in 2026 and to 365,000 in 2027.
A previous plan tabled 500,000 additional permanent residents in each of the next two years. “We didn't get the balance quite right,” admitted Trudeau.
On February 12, MPs demanded a review of federal immigration policy after the House of Commons adopted a non-binding Bloc Québécois motion to revise quotas. The proposal passed by a vote of 173-150 but was ultimately ignored by the federal government.
“Canadians strongly disagree with the immigration policies of what is left of this government,” said Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet, sponsor of the motion. He insisted the Liberal Party “could not have cared less” about costs incurred by taxpayers.
A 2020 memo forewarned current targets could pose serious challenges to housing, education and health service infrastructure for provinces and municipalities.
“Everyone is being crushed by health care costs, education costs and other costs,” Blanchet told MPs at the time. “This used to be a Québec thing,” he added. “Now it is a Canada-wide issue.”
Trudeau, now with a change of heart, says the revised targets aim to “give all levels of government time to … make the necessary investments … to accommodate more people in the future.”
The policy reversal follows a sharp drop in public support for current immigration levels, according to recent polling.
A Leger poll published last November showed three-quarters of Canadians oppose more immigration owing to the curtain strain on the housing market and essential services, like health care. Compared to March 2022, the number of people who want more immigration has halved to 9%.
A separate but related poll earlier this month showed 58% of Canadians opposed current immigration quotas, up 14% from similar research last year. That followed a 17% increase between 2022 and 2023.
Trudeau acknowledged that recent polling meant Canadians are in favour of more restricted immigration targets. “As a federal government, we have to make sure that that pride, that faith in immigration is not undermined,” he told reporters.
“With the plan we're announcing today along with previously announced measures, we're making our immigration system work better.”
Immigration officials earlier said that annual targets account for demographic and regional needs, including the labour market, humanitarian commitments, family reunification and processing capacity. But it does not contain targets for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
Now, for the first time, the Trudeau government also set targets for the number of temporary residents, who include international students and temporary foreign workers.
The Senate social affairs committee earlier found out the ‘true number’ of non-citizens permitted entry is quadruple the official figure. Most recent immigration data uncovered 471,550 permanent residents, 766,520 temporary foreign workers and 1,040,985 recipients of foreign study permits.
The Department of Immigration plans to reduce temporary resident numbers from 6.5% of the total Canadian population to 5% over the next three years. Their numbers exploded to 7.3% earlier this year.
Canada’s population, according to Statistics Canada’s real-time population clock, is now 41.7 million.
Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.