Will Canada slow down immigration? Minister to announce new targets
Global News
Immigration Minister Marc Miller is set to announce new targets for how many new immigrants Canada aims to bring in over the next three years.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller is set to announce new targets for how many new immigrants Canada aims to bring in over the next three years — and the major question is, will Canada bring in more or fewer newcomers once current targets expire in 2025?
The Immigration Levels Plan sets guidelines and targets for how many permanent residents Canada plans to welcome under economic, humanitarian and family reunification streams. The previous levels were set in 2022, when the country welcomed 431,645 new permanent residents — which was a record high.
Those previous targets were revised, though, setting historically high targets for the number of newcomers Canada planned to bring in between 2023 and 2025.
The plan set a target of 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023; 485,000 for 2023 and 500,000 new permanent residents for 2025. Now, the new plan will lay out any revisions to those targets between now and 2026.
The new targets will also come as a growing number of Canadians appear to feel immigration to Canada is too high, spurred by worry about the cost-of-living crisis, according to a new survey from the Environics Institute and echoing polling done for Global News earlier in the month by Ipsos.
The Environics survey suggests that 44 per cent of Canadians agree with the statement that “overall, there’s too much immigration to Canada” compared with 51 per cent who disagree.
This view of immigration marked a significant shift from the results last year, when only 27 per cent said there was too much immigration, and a record high of 69 per cent of people disagreed.