OTTAWA — New targets tabled in Parliament show the government plans to level out the number of new permanent residents to Canada in 2026, forecasting an end to record-breaking year-over-year immigration.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller submitted new targets for the next three years, which call for the number of new permanent residents to hold steady at 500,000 in 2026.
The plans show that the targets for 2024 and 2025 will increase as planned.
The Liberals have aggressively increased their targets over the past several years, and surpassed records for the number of permanent residents admitted in a year in both 2021 and 2022.
The minister said last week that Canada needs immigration to fuel Canada's gross domestic product and there would be an economic cost to lowering yearly targets.
The government says the levelling off in 2026 will allow time for new permanent residents to integrate successfully while still augmenting the labour market.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2023.
The Canadian Press
