Canada to cut immigration numbers, government source says

By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada will sharply lower the number of immigrants it allows into the country for the first time in years, marking a notable shift in policy for the government as it tries to remain in power.  

Canada will bring in 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027, down from 485,000 in 2024, according to a government source.

The number of temporary residents, meanwhile, will decrease by about 30,000 to around 300,000 in 2025, the source said.

The new targets were first reported by The National Post. 

Canada has long prided itself on welcoming newcomers, but in recent years, the national debate around immigrants has shifted in part due to rising housing prices.

Many Canadians have been priced out of the housing market since interest rates started rising two years ago. At the same time, a huge influx of immigrants has pushed Canada's population to record levels, further boosting housing demand and prices.

The issue has become one of the most contentious in Canadian politics, with a federal election due no later than October 2025. Polls show a growing share of the population thinks Canada has too many immigrants.

There has been a backlash against newcomers and more reported hate crimes against visible minorities, advocates and community members say.

Migrant advocates slammed the change.

"We are witnessing one of the most egregious rollbacks of migrant rights in Canadian history," Syed Hussan, spokesperson for the Migrant Rights Network Secretariat, said in a statement.

"Cutting permanent resident numbers is a direct assault on migrants who will be forced to remain temporary or become undocumented, pushed further into exploitative jobs."

The office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not immediately available to comment.

The new immigration targets also mark a shift from the pandemic era when the government loosened rules on temporary residents to help fill labor shortages. Last year, Canada had planned to bring in 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025 and the same amount in 2026. As of the second quarter of 2024, there were 2.8 million temporary residents, including workers and students, in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

In an August interview, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told Reuters "Canadians want a(n immigration) system that is not out of control." 

Canada's Liberal government, trailing in the polls as some legislators seek to oust their leader, has been trying to regulate immigration. 

Under Trudeau, Canadian immigration officials have approved fewer visas this year and border officials turned growing numbers of visa-holders away, data obtained by Reuters showed.

The government promises to reduce temporary residents' share of the population to 5% over three years; it was 6.8% in April. 

It also capped the number of international students Canada will bring in and tightened the rules on temporary foreign workers under a program that brings non-Canadians to the country to work on a temporary basis. The program has come under fire for suppressing wages and leaving workers vulnerable to abuse. 

(Reporting by Anna Mehler PapernyEditing by Caroline Stauffer, Bill Berkrot and Lisa Shumaker)