(Ottawa) Noting the need to match the arrival of new arrivals to reception capacity, the federal government is capping the number of new arrivals at 500,000 per year for 2026.
The stabilization of the reception target was presented Wednesday by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Marc Miller, in his Immigration Levels Plan for 2024-2026.
In the November 2022 plan, the objective was to welcome 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. The threshold of 500,000 for 2026 thus constitutes a freeze in the annual increase in the welcoming new arrivals to the country.
The Liberal plan will ensure “viable” population growth and ensure the sustainability of its social programs, the minister argued at a press conference, stressing that we must look at “both sides of the equation”.
The government continues its long-term focus on economic growth, with more than 60% of permanent resident admissions devoted to the economic category by 2025, the plan said.
“We know that businesses across Canada are struggling to find enough workers to fill vacant positions,” and these same businesses are “thriving” by hiring newcomers with “skills and talents that are in demand everywhere.” said Marc Miller.
The unveiling of the thresholds, an annual exercise which generally does not make many waves, was eagerly awaited this year. This is because the housing crisis which is hitting from one end of the country to the other has undermined the capacity to welcome new arrivals.
At the same time, the labor shortage has led associations representing the business community to say that more immigrants must be welcomed – particularly in the construction industry, where additional pairs of hands are needed to to build the housing we need.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, must react to the announcement of the new targets late Wednesday afternoon. During question period in the House on Wednesday, MP Alain Therrien criticized the Trudeau government for not having consulted the Legault government.
In the Conservative Party, where the position on immigration targets remains unclear, we have not confirmed whether we will comment on the Liberal plan immediately. Several Conservatives ignored journalists’ questions on this subject, and no questions on this topic were asked in the House.
French-speaking immigration outside Quebec
The federal government, which reached for the first time in 2022 the target of 4.4% French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec which was set in 2003, also plans a gradual increase in this threshold to 6%, 7%, and 8%.
This is a long way from meeting the “remedial target” of 12% demanded by the Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities of Canada (FCFA). But according to the Trudeau government, it is better to achieve a realistic target than a theoretical target.
“What disappoints me is when we set goals and don’t meet them […] I believe that it is completely normal that we go step by step, otherwise we will shoot ourselves in the foot, and it is our communities that will lose confidence in our immigration system,” argued the Franco-Ontarian. Francis Drouin.
He made the comments in a press scrum before the figures were revealed in the Commons.
Immigration: not a panacea, but “essential”
Even if the targets are the subject of discussions at the cabinet table, and some have argued in favor of a reduction in the thresholds, Minister Miller himself has stated several times that he does not see “a scenario where we would decrease the levels.”
In a policy document released the day before the thresholds were announced, Minister Miller stressed that it was necessary to “ensure that the conditions are in place so that people who come to Canada can establish themselves and successfully integrate.
“We must work closely with federal, provincial, territorial and societal partners on issues ranging from housing and infrastructure to jobs and health care,” he wrote in the preface .
Because ultimately, if immigration “is not the solution to all our problems”, it remains “essential to the growth of our economy and the strengthening of our communities”, and “its future is important to all of us », concluded the Quebec minister.