Carney Government Announces World-Leading Pace for Immigrant Admissions to Canada in 2027

TORONTO — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government says it will grant permanent residency next year to a record 580,000 persons — a rate more than four times higher per capita than in America — in the latest twist in a whipsawing immigration policy in what still ranks in surveys as the most immigrant-friendly country in the world.The total includes the one-time admission of an extra 200,000 applicants who are already living in Canada, a move aimed at reducing a backlog of applicants resulting from recent immigration cutbacks. The extra admissions will boost Canada’s total intake of permanent residents — equivalent to American green card holders — to 1.4 percent of its total population in a single year. That is a vastly higher rate than in any other major developed country, with Australia ranking second with a projected 2027 rate of 0.68 percent.“The 2027-2029 Immigration Levels Plan will continue to seek a balance between the needs of Canada’s employers, industries, and communities and our ability to meet the needs of newcomers, while avoiding undue pressures on housing, health care, and social services,” the government said in a budget document released Thursday. “The Plan will also support pathways for people already living and working in Canada to continue contributing to our shared economic future.”The reality is a little more complicated.Facing a severe labor shortage during the recovery from the Covid pandemic, the previous government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opened the doors wide to immigration in the early part of this decade, with permanent admissions rising to a peak of 483,285 in 2024 — equalling almost 1.2 percent of the total population. That same year the country admitted 686,010 temporary residents, most of them as guest workers or students.The influx changed the face of Canada, leaving its largest city, Toronto, with almost half its population foreign-born and hailing from more than 100 countries. It also tested Canada’s consistent top ranking in the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index, as longtime citizens complained of fast-rising property prices and strains on social services — especially the taxpayer-funded health care system. In a series of down-ballot questions on last month’s Alberta independence referendum, citizens strongly approved a series of measures demanding greater provincial control of immigration policy.The Trudeau government responded in October 2024 by scaling back its immigration cap to 395,000 persons per year — still a rate three times higher per capita than in the United States — and Mr. Carney trimmed it further to 380,000 after taking office in March 2025. Admissions of temporary residents were also slashed to 370,000 a year — down 46 percent from the peak.The cuts, however, left a mushrooming backlog in applications for permanent residency from temporary workers and students already in Canada. And that bottleneck was jeopardizing another government promise: to reduce the number of temporary residents to no more than 5 percent of the total population. The one-time intake of an extra 200,000 immigrants next year is designed to help the government meet that pledge.But the plan has sparked immediate criticism from the opposition Conservative Party, whose immigration spokeswoman, Michelle Rempel Garner, denounced it as a plan to “cook the books” by claiming to maintain a permanent target of 380,000 annual admissions while sneaking in an extra 200,000 persons.“Canadians were told to expect a sustainable plan,” she said following the budget’s release. “But based on today’s numbers, what Mr. Carney meant by ‘sustainable’ is sustainable for corporate profit models, not for workers or Canada’s social infrastructure.”A spokesman for the Migrant Rights Network, on the other hand, argued that the 200,000 admissions are far too few to meet the demands of the estimated 2.15 million persons living in Canada on work or study permits as of August 2026.“These additional spaces recognize the injustice facing migrants who already live and work here,” the advocacy group’s Syed Hussan told the Toronto Star. “But what about the millions of migrants shut out of existing programs, who are also building and sustaining the economy?”And a spokesman for the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association pointed out that the policy applied only to persons already in the country, so would create no new strains on housing and social services. “These people in most cases have been here for quite a while, living in this temporary, suspended existence,” Rick Lamanna told the Star. “They’ve been vetted. It’s good for them, it’s good for Canada.”

Carney Government Announces World-Leading Pace for Immigrant Admissions to Canada in 2027

Carney Government Announces World-Leading Pace for Immigrant Admissions to Canada in 2027

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