OTTAWA — The government’s updated immigration plan looks to maintain broad targets for permanent and temporary resident admissions while offering permanent status for up to 200,000 longtime temporary residents.
The government says its 2027-2029 immigration levels plan will admit 380,000 permanent residents and 370,000 temporary residents each year. Those targets for 2027 and 2028 are the same as they were in the plan released last year.
The 2026 federal budget, released Thursday, says the government plans to reform the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The stated goal of the reform is to ensure the program lines up with regional labour market needs, improve processing times and strengthen employer compliance.
Details of the program review are scarce at this point, although the budget sets aside $151.5 million to implement the reforms. The federal government says it will work on the program reform with the provinces and territories.
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab said early Thursday she had no plans for a press conference to explain the planned changes at her department.
Between the broad target, the new program to grant permanent status to 200,000 temporary residents and the final year of a two-year program to give permanent residency to about 140,000 temporary residents, Canada could add more than 600,000 new permanent residents next year.
The government’s stated goal is to reduce the temporary resident population to five per cent of the total population by the end of 2027. The temporary resident population peaked at 7.4 per cent of the total population in October 2024 before dropping to 6.7 per cent, according to a Statistics Canada estimate released on July 1.
The government says it plans to work closely with the provinces and territories on the plan to give permanent status to 200,000 people. This work will include finding 100,000 temporary workers who are eligible for either Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program.
The budget document says this is Ottawa’s way of giving the provinces and territories more control over permanent economic immigration.
Immigration has become an increasingly fraught political topic in recent years, and has been blamed by the government and others for affordability and housing challenges.
Numerous polls, including the federal government’s own research, suggest that about half of Canadians think too many immigrants are coming here.
Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative immigration critic, suggested before the budget’s release that the government would “cook the books” by not including all new permanent residents in the broader target. She pointed out that the plan to grant permanent residency to temporary residents was not included in the broad target last year.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said immigration is back under control, citing significant reductions in the number of temporary workers and students coming to Canada since 2024.
The Bank of Canada published an article last month saying an aging population, a lower birthrate and lower immigration will all reshape the economy.
The bank said Canada’s population grew 0.5 per cent in 2025 — the slowest growth rate in more than a century, down from a historic annual average of 1.2 per cent. The bank said it expects that slower growth rate to continue for the foreseeable future.
The bank said this economic shift is being driven by multiple factors: more retirees and fewer young workers replacing them, changing consumer habits and changes in the housing market as people downsize their dwellings as they age.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2026.
David Baxter, The Canadian Press
