Plateauing Canada's immigration levels 'step in the right direction,' say economists
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government’s decision to not increase its immigration targets this week is being described as a step in the right direction by economists, but they’re urging Ottawa to provide more insight on how they plan to deal with the steep rise in the number of temporary residents.
The immigration targets announced on Nov. 1 predict the number of permanent residents that Canada hopes to welcome in the coming years. Canada brought in more than 400,000 permanent residents last year, but also admitted about 700,000 temporary residents, foreigners who either have a work or study permit, or have claimed refugee status.
“The government has made some steps in signalling they hear and understand the current challenges of Canada’s immigration systems,” Rebekah Young, an economist at the Bank of Nova Scotia, said. “But holding the 2026 target flat is mostly just signalling at this point. The big numbers come from non-permanent streams and we don’t have a great line of sight where these are going.”
Canada depends on immigrants to boost its economy and its annual immigration plan doesn’t generally attract much debate. But the country is now battling rising prices and a housing crisis, so economists and national studies have urged the federal government to provide more clarity on how it plans to accommodate hundreds of thousands more newcomers.
As such, Canada decided against increasing its targets and will stick to last year’s stated goals of 485,000 permanent residents in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. The 500,000 cut-off figure will remain for 2026 as well.
CIBC World Markets Inc. deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal said the decision was a “step in the right direction” and added that it reflected the pressure
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