The federal government slashed immigration targets to levels that will flatten population growth as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted Thursday the government did not get the balance right after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government had targeted bringing in 500,000 new permanent residents in both 2025 and 2026.
Next year’s target will instead be 395,000 new permanent residents, and that will fall to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
"In the tumultuous times as we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth, we didn’t get the balance quite right," Trudeau said Thursday morning.
"With the plan we’re announcing today, along with previously announced measures, we’re making our immigration system work better."
The change comes after significant criticism of the Liberal government’s increases to immigration and the impact of strong population growth on housing availability and affordability.
The federal government estimates Canada’s population will decline slightly by 0.2 per cent in 2025 and 2026, before returning to growth of 0.8 per cent in 2027.
Statistics Canada recently reported that the population on July 1 was a whopping three per cent higher than a year earlier. Between 1998 and 2018, annual population growth was less than 1.5 per cent.
The Canadian Press reported in January that internal documents obtained through an access-to-information request showed federal public servants warned the government two years ago that large increases to immigration could affect housing affordability and services.
But Trudeau said on Thursday that businesses and provinces have also been part of the reason why the immigration system got out of control.
"Far too many corporations have chosen to abuse our temporary measures, exploiting foreign workers while refusing to hire Canadians for a fair wage," Trudeau said.
"All while under the watch of provinces, some colleges and universities are bringing in more international students than communities can accommodate, treating them as an expendable means to line their own pockets. That’s unacceptable, and it needs to change."
Ottawa is also aiming to reduce the proportion of temporary residents — which includes temporary foreign workers and international students — to five per cent of the population over the next three years, down from 7.2 per cent in July.
The federal government says that means the non-permanent resident population will decrease by 445,901 in 2025, 445,662 in 2026 and will increase modestly by 17,439 in 2027.
Business groups reacted negatively to the news, arguing it will hurt the ability of employers to fill labour shortages.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said the plan is "disappointing for businesses across the country that, in recent months, have had to deal with abrupt and constant changes to immigration policy."
"Significantly decreasing our labour pool will impact thousands of these employers across Canada struggling to find the workforce they need to operate and grow," the chamber said in a statement.
The Canadian Federation for Independent Business said the "dramatic cut" to the targets will hurt businesses who, despite rising unemployment, are facing hundreds of thousands of job vacancies.
The Bank of Canada’s recent business outlook survey found labour shortages are now below the historical average.
The Liberals’ pivot on immigration follows a rapid increase to the number of new permanent residents in Canada and a ballooning number of people coming to the country on a temporary basis. Federal ministers have conceded that has put pressure on housing, health care and affordability.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre both reacted by blaming Trudeau for ruining the immigration system in the first place.
"Trudeau’s last minute pre-election reversal cannot be believed. He can’t fix the immigration system that he broke," Poilievre said.
Singh said Trudeau’s announcement is a "minor tweak of 20 per cent" and doesn’t address the "serious challenges" Canadians are facing when it comes to housing and health care.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the lower numbers will help with the housing shortage, estimating that by 2027, Canada will need to build 670,000 fewer homes to close the gap.
The federal government plans to prioritize temporary residents for permanent residency, expecting they will fill more than 40 per cent of the permanent residency spots.
"These people are a young labour pool. They’re skilled, they’re here," Miller said.
"They’ve begun their process of integration and it doesn’t place the additional demands on the housing, health care and social services that we see with someone that comes directly from another country. It makes sense."
The federal government is also increasing its francophone admission target for outside of Quebec to 10 per cent in 2027, up from six per cent this year.
In a new report published by BMO, senior economist Robert Kavcic writes that the plan will "take stress off the economy and infrastructure that has become almost debilitating in recent years."
In addition to taking pressure off home prices and rents, Kavcic says the slowdown in population growth will also help reduce slack in the job market.
As high interest rates sent a chill through the economy, Canada’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.5 per cent in September, up a full percentage point from a year earlier.
Young people and newcomers have felt the brunt of the job market slowdown, facing significantly higher unemployment rates compared to other workers.
With files from Rosa Saba and David Baxter
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
Ontario says it will not allow international students in medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026.
An Ontario police force has been accused of letting a deputy chief off the hook for speeding tickets. The results of an investigation into the allegations have not been provided, despite repeated requests for details.
A Montreal man is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of a woman at a park in Ottawa’s south end on Thursday.
The federal government allowed 30-year mortgage amortizations for first-time homebuyers purchasing new builds in August, and the new rules are set to expand in December to everyone looking to buy a newly-constructed home.
A Quebec mother of six, once detained in northeast Syria, has died while waiting for repatriation. The Canadian woman was known only by her initials F.J.
Crews removed approximately 50 tonnes of 'fatbergs' from the sewer system in Richmond, B.C., earlier this month, according to Metro Vancouver.
Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
A New Mexico judge has upheld her decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
Jack Jones, a Grammy-winning crooner known for 'The Love Boat' television show theme song, has died. He was 86.
A Montreal man is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of a woman at a park in Ottawa’s south end on Thursday.
An infant has died and a woman is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after they were pulled from a burning home in the city's west end overnight.
Five years after a 16-year-old boy was intentionally struck by a vehicle in East York and left for dead, police say they are still searching for the driver and pleading for the passenger to speak to investigators.
An unusual item was found parked at the bottom of the historic Rideau Canal as Parks Canada drained the water this week – electric scooters.
An Ontario police force has been accused of letting a deputy chief off the hook for speeding tickets. The results of an investigation into the allegations have not been provided, despite repeated requests for details.
Crews removed approximately 50 tonnes of 'fatbergs' from the sewer system in Richmond, B.C., earlier this month, according to Metro Vancouver.
Israeli strikes killed 36 people, many of them children, in Gaza and three journalists in Lebanon on Friday, as worries grew about supply shortages in Gaza and international pressure for a ceasefire mounted.
As the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor sought war crimes charges this year against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over actions in Gaza, he was engulfed in a very different personal crisis playing out behind the scenes.
Tropical Storm Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 82 people dead in landslides and extensive flooding that forced authorities to scramble for more rescue boats to save thousands of terrified people, who were trapped, some on their roofs.
North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Friday.
The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse have agreed to pay more than US$102 million in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department, officials said Thursday.
An Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to neglect after a rat attacked her 6-month-old son and left him with disfiguring injuries has been sentenced to probation, weeks after her husband received a lengthy prison term.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada's long-held consensus on immigration is under threat, but has not disappeared.
A Quebec mother of six, once detained in northeast Syria, has died while waiting for repatriation. The Canadian woman was known only by her initials F.J.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces growing pressure from within his own caucus to step aside, former B.C. premier Christy Clark says she is open to returning to politics.
Ontario says it will not allow international students in medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026.
Quebec's health department says it will be ready to meet the expected demand for advanced applications for medical assistance in dying when it begins accepting those requests next week.
A Colorado man has filed the first lawsuit against McDonald’s relating to its E. coli outbreak linked to Quarter Pounders that, so far, has led to at least 49 illnesses across 10 states, including one death.
Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
London Ont. born astronaut and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen spoke with thousands of high school students across the country today about the upcoming Artemis II mission.
Diverse firefly species lit up the night during the late Mesozoic period, scientists have confirmed.
A New Mexico judge has upheld her decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
Jack Jones, a Grammy-winning crooner known for 'The Love Boat' television show theme song, has died. He was 86.
A new organization that aims to help people struggling with addiction officially launched in Ottawa Thursday, named after the late Matthew Perry.
Natural gas producers in Western Canada have white-knuckled it through months of depressed prices, with the expectation that their fortunes will improve when LNG Canada comes online in the middle of next year.
Iceland’s economy is outperforming most European peers after the nationwide introduction of a shorter working week with no loss in pay, according to research released Friday.
It's a dream for many Canadians, trying to save up enough money for a down payment on their very first home. That was also the dream for the Esmeralda family, a family of five with two dogs who currently live in a Scarborough apartment building.
In early 2018, Amanda and Sunil started chatting, messaging back and forth on Instagram, introducing themselves and talking a little about their lives. Fast forward to August 2018, the couple got engaged on vacation in Thailand and a year later, after Amanda moved to India, got married.
A Toronto man who only recently checked a Lotto 6/49 lottery ticket he bought back in June is now $2.5 million richer.
Within a year of dating, 31-year-old Siara Rouzer crossed a major relationship milestone. The guy she was seeing was no longer a boyfriend but her partner.
A Sherpa teenager who's won mountaineering celebrity as the youngest person ever to summit the world's 14 highest peaks called for Sherpas to be recognized as athletes and expedition leaders as well as porters and guides.
Nikolaj Ehlers scored the winning goal 1:26 into overtime, and the Winnipeg Jets remained unbeaten this season with a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
Broadway vs. Hollywood has produced the starriest Series in decades, if not ever.
A town in southern Alberta will be one of the first to let golf carts be driven on select roads as part of a provincial pilot program.
An increased risk of fire has prompted the recall of thousands of Honda hybrid vehicles in Canada.
A senior executive for Volkswagen in China has been deported for allegedly using cocaine and marijuana while on vacation in Thailand, according to Chinese authorities and German media reports.
A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.
Hundreds of people ran to the music of German composer and pianist Beethoven Wednesday night in a unique race in Halifax.
He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.
A meteor lit up our region's sky last night – with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.
A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.
A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.
Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
Environment Canada has issued wind warnings for Metro Vancouver and much of Vancouver Island as a storm system is expected to ravage British Columbia's south coast.
An evacuation order for six properties in the hard-hit North Vancouver neighbourhood of Deep Cove has been lifted, the district says.
Elections BC is expected to provide a breakdown Friday of the number of uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots in each of British Columbia's 93 ridings, potentially making clearer the outcome of the weekend's nail-biting vote.
An infant has died and a woman is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after they were pulled from a burning home in the city's west end overnight.
Five years after a 16-year-old boy was intentionally struck by a vehicle in East York and left for dead, police say they are still searching for the driver and pleading for the passenger to speak to investigators.
Ontario says it will not allow international students in medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026.
The Alberta legislature is set to reconvene on Monday and the Danielle Smith government will be providing more details about its plans for the session.
An animal rights group is calling on the Calgary Humane Society and Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to launch investigations into a semi-truck crash in Calgary on Tuesday that left 17 cows dead.
The Royal Canadian Legion Poppy Campaign is launching Oct. 25, aiming to raise money to support Canada’s veterans and their families.
A Montreal man is charged with first-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of a woman at a park in Ottawa’s south end on Thursday.
An unusual item was found parked at the bottom of the historic Rideau Canal as Parks Canada drained the water this week – electric scooters.
The Ottawa Police Service says 17 vehicles have been taken out of service during the execution of a safety blitz this week in the capital.
A man and a woman are dead after a house fire west of the Island of Montreal in the municipality of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
Montreal police say four teenagers suffered stab wounds after an altercation near John F. Kennedy High School in the Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension borough.
A new tree-planting pilot project in Plateau-Mont-Royal is drawing criticism for eliminating parking spaces in a borough already facing limited parking, as well as for its cost.
A pair of struggling teams desperate to change their fortunes will hit the ice when the Edmonton Oilers play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
Some Edmonton public school support staff walked off the job Thursday morning, after the province stepped in on Wednesday to prevent strike action.
The man who cut up the body of his grandson's mother is going to prison after the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned his previous sentence.
The Maritime Sikh Society says the body of a young employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax last weekend was found by her mother.
Gas prices dropped slightly in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick overnight, while there was no change on Prince Edward Island for the second week in a row.
The Halifax Regional Municipality will soon be home to three new schools that will replace aging infrastructure and meet the new demands of the communities.
The Manitoba man who brutally murdered his partner and two young children stood in court, voice wavering, and apologized for his actions that ended the lives of three people he said he loved very much.
Manitoba’s police watchdog is investigating after an RCMP officer shot a suspect who allegedly stole a vehicle and tried to carjack another vehicle.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Canada's long-held consensus on immigration is under threat, but has not disappeared.
The Saskatchewan Party’s planned marshals service was under the spotlight Thursday, as the NDP revealed the government paid over $40,000 for fewer than 100 hats for the new officers' uniforms.
A man is dead and two other people were injured in a two vehicle collision north of Regina on Wednesday evening.
The federal government allowed 30-year mortgage amortizations for first-time homebuyers purchasing new builds in August, and the new rules are set to expand in December to everyone looking to buy a newly-constructed home.
People in the Weber Street East and Madison Avenue North area of Kitchener may need to find an alternate route this morning as police investigate a stabbing.
Fire crews responded to a house fire in St. Clements Thursday night.
A Kitchener man has been charged with arson after playground equipment was set on fire earlier this week.
A former tire recycling company in Saskatoon is announcing additional layoffs months after a dispute with the provincial government.
The Saskatchewan RCMP is calling off its dangerous persons alert after two people were arrested in the Tobin Lake area Thursday afternoon.
The Saskatchewan Party’s planned marshals service was under the spotlight Thursday, as the NDP revealed the government paid over $40,000 for fewer than 100 hats for the new officers' uniforms.
The president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce says that while there is a lot of concern around the provincial economy, northern business owners are the most confident about the current opportunity and growth.
Ontario says it will not allow international students in medical schools beginning in the fall of 2026.
The Maritime Sikh Society says the body of a young employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax last weekend was found by her mother.
Around 7:20 p.m. on Thursday, emergency services were called to the 700 block of Exeter Road after getting a 911 call about an unresponsive man.
Ther use of a search warrant on Walpole Island First Nation has netted over $500,000 in drugs. On Oct. 18, several agencies including Lambton OPP and Walpole Island Police Service responded to an address on Union Hal Road.
London police are asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect involved in a robbery on Sunday.
The cost of living is increasing, from groceries to gas, prices are consistently going up, and now there’s controversy surrounding paying for parking at hospitals.
OPP executed a search warrant at a Midland home address.
A haunted house in the Ontario Town of Innisfil is causing a real scare for some people a week before Halloween.
The Windsor Police Service is investigating a suspicious death in south-central Windsor.
Issues include benefits, wages, working conditions, contracting out/work ownership and getting union representation for staff.
Essex County OPP are searching for the driver of a pickup truck involved in a two-vehicle collision.
Environment Canada has issued wind warnings for Metro Vancouver and much of Vancouver Island as a storm system is expected to ravage British Columbia's south coast.
Elections BC is expected to provide a breakdown Friday of the number of uncounted mail-in and absentee ballots in each of British Columbia's 93 ridings, potentially making clearer the outcome of the weekend's nail-biting vote.
With the final results of the B.C. election still pending, speculation is rampant about what concessions the Greens might ask for to prop up a potential NDP minority – and it could be a common philosophy about health care that ultimately helps forge an alliance.
Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.
A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.
Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.
The Municipality of Crowsnest Pass deserves a better shot at becoming a significant tourism hub than the UCP government is giving it, an NDP shadow minister said as the southwestern Alberta community gears up for a coal mining plebiscite.
A three-game road trip across the prairies got off on a sour note Wednesday night as the Medicine Hat Tigers defeated the Calgary Hitmen 4-2.
A town in southern Alberta will be one of the first to let golf carts be driven on select roads as part of a provincial pilot program.
The president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce says that while there is a lot of concern around the provincial economy, northern business owners are the most confident about the current opportunity and growth.
A critical piece of the Sault’s homeless outreach strategy is almost ready to hit the road.
Police seized drugs, $70,000 and a large gold chain in a drug trafficking bust earlier this month in Thunder Bay.
Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland earlier on the weekend.
Police in western Newfoundland say a 77-year-old man visiting the province from Kansas is missing after a fire at a hotel in Deer Lake, N.L.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday, the scene at the Lions Club in Clarenville, N.L., rivalled any rowdy St. John's bar that thumps with music late on a weekend night.
© 2024 
All rights reserved. Use of this Website assumes acceptance of Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy