The government hopes to reduce the proportion of temporary residents to 5% of the total population.
Ottawa:
Canada plans to reduce the number of temporary residents and cap temporary immigration for the first time in history, Immigration Minister Mark Miller said Thursday, the government’s latest move to address housing shortages and strains on basic services.
The number of international students, foreign workers and other temporary residents coming to Canada on limited-time visas has increased dramatically in recent years as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government relies on immigration to drive economic growth and fill labor gaps.
But the Liberal government has also faced political pressure over its immigration policies, which critics say have exacerbated the housing crunch. Some services provided by provinces, such as education and health care, are also struggling to keep pace with population growth.
Miller said the government hopes to reduce the proportion of temporary residents to the total population from 6.5% in 2023 to 5% in the next three years. This means that by 2023, the number of temporary residents in Canada will decrease by approximately 20%.
Miller will hold a meeting with provincial and territorial counterparts in May to finalize the plan.
“We need to make sure the number of temporary residents coming into the country is at a sustainable level,” Miller told reporters in Ottawa.
“Beginning this fall, for the first time, we will expand our immigration levels program to include temporary resident arrivals and permanent resident arrivals,” he said, referring to the federal government’s immigration goals.
In November, the Trudeau government stated that it would stop increasing permanent resident immigration from 2026.
In January, Canada announced a two-year cap on foreign student enrollment and said it would stop issuing work permits to some post-graduation students in an effort to rein in record numbers of new immigrants.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
