Justin Trudeau announces massive drop in immigration targets

Canada has unveiled a new immigration plan that will pause population growth over the next few years by lowering immigration targets.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced Thursday a new 2025-27 Immigration Levels Plan that will reduce the number of permanent resident targets over the next few years.

Miller says the plan is in response to the evolving needs of the country, in that it will alleviate pressures on housing, infrastructure and social services.

Compared to the previous immigration plan, the number of permanent resident targets are:

• Reducing from 500,000 permanent residents to 395,000 in 2025
• Reducing from 500,000 permanent residents to 380,000 in 2026
• Setting a target of 365,000 permanent residents in 2027

The new immigration plan expects a population decline of 0.2 per cent in 2025 and 2026 before a population growth of 0.8 per cent in 2027.

Ottawa says that the country’s population will decline by:

• 445,901 people in 2025
• 445,662 people in 2026
• Increase of 17,439 people in 2027

The plan also includes transitioning more temporary residents who are already in Canada as students and workers to permanent residents.

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Ottawa is also saying they will strengthen Francophone communities outside Quebec and raise the number of Francophone immigrants in the permanent resident population.

There were slightly over three million residents in Canada in the third quarter of this year according to Statistics Canada.

The announcement follows as federal ministers have said the rapid increase of new and temporary residents has put pressure on housing, health care and affordability in Canada.

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Trudeau posted on X after the announcement saying the new immigration plan is a temporary measure to “let our economy catch up.”

We’re going to significantly reduce the number of immigrants coming to Canada for the next two years. This is temporary — to pause our population growth and let our economy catch up.

We have to get the system working right for all Canadians.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 24, 2024

“We’re bringing in stricter rules for companies to prove why they can’t hire Canadian workers first,” he added in another post.

The Migrant Rights Network released an open letter Thursday morning ahead of the announcement calling on the government to stop cuts to the immigration system.

They’re urging the government to ensure permanent resident status when it comes to migrants.

Spokesperson for the network Syed Hussan disagreed in the statement with the Liberal party’s decision to slash permanent resident numbers.

“We are witnessing one of the most egregious rollbacks of migrant rights in Canadian History,” said Hussan.

With files from The Canadian Press.