Ottawa to drastically lower immigration thresholds

Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make the announcement Thursday morning with his immigration minister, Marc Miller (pictured).

Sarah R. Champagne

Published yesterday at 18:38

• Canada

Ottawa will accept 90,000 fewer permanent residents next year, after several years of increasing its thresholds. Nationally, the number of permanent immigrants will drop from 485,000 this year to 395,000 next year.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make the announcement Thursday morning with his Immigration Minister, Marc Miller. The change in direction comes after a tense Liberal caucus where several dissatisfied MPs made their voices heard on Wednesday.

The initial reduction, effective in just over two months, represents nearly 20% of the current target. The federal permanent immigration thresholds will then increase to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027, a government source confirmed.

After three years, 120,000 fewer people will be accepted, marking a turning point since Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015. Last year, the federal government had instead decided to maintain the number of new permanent residents at around 500,000.

Minister Miller had already hinted that a “significant” drop would be announced at a recent press conference. The permanent immigration threshold was, however, to be revealed on November 1, as in previous years.

Thursday’s announcement will also come after several months of tightening temporary immigration. For the first time, targets will also be explicitly announced for its different categories, namely foreign students and temporary foreign workers.

The number of temporary workers will decrease by 30,000, to just over 300,000. Minister Miller and his colleague from Employment, Randy Boissonnault, have already said they want to reduce the number of non-permanent residents to 5% of the total population.

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