Canada's updated immigration plan offers more chances to stay permanently | Daily Hive

Crowding at SkyTrain's Renfrew Station in Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan)

The Government of Canada plans to welcome 370,000 new temporary residents annually from 2027 through 2029, while setting an annual target of 380,000 permanent resident admissions, under the latest immigration plan.

The measures, outlined in the 2026 federal budget released on Nov. 5, 2026, also include a new initiative that would give up to 200,000 temporary residents already in Canada an opportunity to become permanent residents by the end of 2027.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration notes that its approach aims to meet labour market needs while keeping immigration levels manageable for housing affordability and supply, healthcare services, and other public services, with a greater emphasis on helping people already living and working in Canada settle permanently.

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Broadly, this immigration plan still continues the federal government’s revised strategy of reducing immigration levels compared to the heightened volumes recorded earlier this decade, from the far more ambitious targets implemented by the former administration of Justin Trudeau.

The federal government points to declines already underway. The budget reports that new international student arrivals between January and August 2026 were 71 per cent lower than in the same period of 2024. New worker arrivals were down 57 per cent, while new asylum claims fell 68 per cent over the same comparison period.

The earlier immigration surge helped drive rapid population growth in Canada’s largest metropolitan areas, adding demand to already constrained housing markets. New housing completions had failed to keep pace with growing demand, putting additional upward pressure on home prices and rents and worsening living-cost pressures. The initial impact was particularly pronounced in rental housing markets, where most newcomers first find housing, while high construction costs, restrictive zoning, and lengthy approval processes continued to constrain supply.

The pressures extended beyond housing, as the population surge had intensified existing strains on healthcare, education, and social services. Meanwhile, the growing number of people seeking work coincided with weaker hiring. Last year, the Bank of Canada noted that strong population growth during 2023 and much of 2024 — combined with reduced demand for workers partly resulting from earlier interest rate increases — had contributed to rising unemployment, particularly among young people and newcomers.

With all that said, the federal government’s earlier immigration cuts have also helped cool the housing market considerably. Substantially slower population growth and more rental housing availability have helped lower asking rents in the key markets of Metro Vancouver and Greater Toronto, giving renters more choice. It has also weakened home sales considerably, alongside high borrowing costs and economic uncertainty.

However, the increase in the new permanent residency opportunities in 2027 — for those who are temporary residents already in Canada — could also remove a barrier to homeownership for some newcomers, as permanent residents are not covered by Canada’s federal foreign homebuyer ban. Furthermore, in the 2026 federal budget, Carney intends to extend the overall foreign buyer’s ban on purchases of existing and resale homes to Jan. 1, 2029, while exempting new residential properties to encourage investment in new housing.

According to the 2026 federal budget, the overall targets for 2027 and 2028 carry forward the targets in the previous immigration plan, with those levels now extended through 2029.

However, the federal government is changing the allocation of spaces within some immigration categories. Moving forward, the annual target for new temporary resident arrivals falls from 385,000 in 2026 to 370,000 in 2027. The annual permanent resident target remains at the same 380,000 level set for 2026.

For each of the three years covered by the new plan, the temporary resident target consists of 150,000 international students and 220,000 workers. These compare with 2026 targets of 155,000 students and 230,000 workers.

The worker allocation includes 170,000 arrivals through the International Mobility Program and 50,000 through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program each year.

These temporary resident figures cover specified categories of new student and worker arrivals. They exclude visitors, asylum claimants, permit extensions, and study or work permit applications made from within Canada. Post-graduation work permits are also excluded because they represent a change or extension of status rather than a new arrival. Some seasonal workers are excluded from the targets as well.

The figures therefore do not represent every person entering Canada temporarily or the total number of temporary residents living in the country.

The planned levels remain substantially below earlier immigration volumes. The annual temporary resident target of 370,000 is about 602,000 below the peak of 971,815 new arrivals recorded in 2023. The annual permanent resident target of 380,000 is about 104,000 below the peak of 483,655 admissions recorded in 2024. Permanent resident admissions can include people already living in Canada who obtain permanent status, as well as newcomers arriving from abroad.

Economic immigration will account for 244,700 permanent resident admissions annually or about 64 per cent of the overall target.

Family immigration will account for 81,000 permanent resident admissions each year, including 66,000 spouses, partners, and children, and 15,000 parents and grandparents.

A further 49,300 spaces annually are planned for refugees and protected persons, alongside 5,000 in the humanitarian, compassionate, and other category.

The plan also sets rising targets for French-speaking immigrants as a share of permanent resident admissions outside Quebec: 9.5 per cent in 2027, 10.5 per cent in 2028, and 12 per cent in 2029.

Alongside these annual targets, the new temporary-to-permanent residency initiative would include transitioning 100,000 workers eligible for Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program by the end of 2027, working with provinces and territories to address local labour needs.

The Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada notes that this new measure will provide additional processing space in 2027 for two groups: workers already in Canada and their accompanying family members, and people with longstanding humanitarian cases who are also already in the country.

This department will also continue initiatives announced in the 2025 federal budget to accelerate permanent residency for up to 115,000 protected persons and their dependants in Canada, and 33,000 work permit holders, during 2026 and 2027.

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