Canada slashing immigration targets, eyes ‘pause’ on population growth

globalnews.ca:

Canada will reduce the number of new permanent residents to the country by 21 per cent by next year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced on Thursday.

It’s part of a major series of changes to immigration targets that Trudeau says aims to freeze population growth.

“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,” Trudeau told reporters Thursday.

“We didn’t get the balance quite right.”

As reported by Global News on Wednesday, the federal government is reversing course on a plan to hold its immigration targets steady for 2026. According to the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan, Canada will reduce the number of new permanent residents from 500,000 to 395,000 in 2025.

Next year, 40 per cent of all new permanent residents will come from those temporary residents who are already here, Miller said while making the announcement.

The federal government said this number is expected to fall further to 380,000 by 2026 and 365,000 by 2027.

Trudeau said that while the realities of the pandemic meant Canada needed more workers, the situation in the labour market had changed.

According to the plans laid out last year, the federal government said it would maintain previously-set targets of welcoming 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024 and 500,000 new permanent residents for 2025. According to last year’s plan, the number would stay at 500,000 in 2026 and “stabilize.”

Thursday’s plan also lays out levels of temporary residents, with the aim of reducing temporary resident volumes to less than five per cent of the general population. Canada plans to welcome 445,901