Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s immigration plans have drawn sharp criticism from conservatives, who argue that rapid population growth is putting pressure on housing, jobs and public services.
The government’s 2027–2029 Immigration Levels Plan calls for 370,000 new temporary residents and 380,000 permanent residents annually over the next three years.
Permanent resident admissions in 2027 could reach about 660,000, however, because of several temporary measures. In addition to the 380,000 planned admissions, the government intends to grant permanent status to 100,000 foreign workers already in Canada and their families. It also plans to move up to 100,000 people in a humanitarian group, largely from Ukraine and Hong Kong, to permanent residency.
Carney told reporters Friday that he considers the targets consistent with “sustainable immigration” and described the one-time measures planned for 2027 as the right thing to do.
The Conservative Party says immigration should fall substantially to ease pressure on housing, employment and hospitals. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner also criticized the plans, saying the number of permanent residents expected next year is roughly equivalent to the population of Winnipeg.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called the targets “insane,” arguing that population growth had already outpaced housing, health care and job creation for years. He questioned whether the government’s approach was a mistake, then suggested it was deliberate. Poilievre also pointed to people close to Carney who are connected to the Century Initiative, a group founded in 2014 that aims to grow Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100.
Mark Wiseman, a co-founder of the Century Initiative, became Canada’s ambassador to the United States in February. The group says its work is intended to support Canadian sovereignty and prosperity. Poilievre offered a different explanation, saying mass migration makes corporate brokers richer.
The Century Initiative, for its part, criticized the government’s new targets as falling below its longstanding benchmark of annual population growth equivalent to 1.15% to 1.25% of Canada’s population.
The immigration plan was announced in the same week Statistics Canada reported an unemployment rate of 6.7% and another month of job losses. Canada’s population is estimated at about 41.8 million; more than 8.3 million residents were immigrants in 2021.
A federal report released the previous year found that immigration had accounted for 21% of the increase in median home values and 13% of the rise in median rents across 53 cities with populations above 100,000.
Data from the 2021 census, the most recent publicly available, shows that:
- Immigrants made up 23% of Canada’s population.
- They accounted for about half of people with STEM degrees.
- Migrant men had higher employment and labour-force participation rates than Canadian-born men.
- Immigrants were more likely to own businesses than people born in Canada.
- Ten years after admission, 6.2% of immigrants and 22.8% of refugees were still receiving social assistance.
- Second-generation individuals made up 17.6% of the population.
India, the Philippines and China were the most common birthplaces among immigrants to Canada, according to government data. India was also the leading source country for study permit holders and foreign worker permit holders last year, accounting for 24.6% and 28.9% of those groups, respectively. It was also the top source of economic permanent residents and family-sponsored admissions.
