The federal government’s updated 2027–2029 immigration levels plan would admit 380,000 permanent residents and 370,000 temporary residents each year and offer permanent status to up to 200,000 longtime temporary residents.
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Ottawa’s updated immigration levels plan for 2027–2029 would keep broad annual targets for permanent and temporary resident admissions while also expanding pathways to permanent residency for longtime temporary residents.
Under the plan, Canada would admit 380,000 permanent residents and 370,000 temporary residents each year. The temporary resident targets for each year are split between 220,000 workers and 150,000 students, with the 2027 and 2028 figures said to match the levels plan released the previous year.
The government says more than 64 per cent of new permanent resident admissions will be economic immigrants, according to a document provided by the department.
The federal government’s 2026 budget, released Thursday, also outlines a reform of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, aiming to align the program with regional labour market needs, improve processing times, and strengthen employer compliance. The budget sets aside $151.5 million to implement the reforms, and the government says it will work on the program review with provinces and territories.
Ottawa plans to offer permanent status to up to 200,000 longtime temporary residents who have already applied. The plan also includes a two-year program that will grant permanent residency to about 140,000 temporary residents, alongside the broader annual targets.
The government says it aims 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.
Ottawa says it will work closely with provinces and territories on the pathway for the 200,000-person permanent status plan. The work is described as including finding 100,000 temporary workers who are eligible for either Express Entry or the Provincial Nominee Program, while the other 100,000 are expected to come from humanitarian programs.
In the minister’s office backgrounder, the humanitarian permanent residency plan is described as including people who came to Canada through the Hong Kong permanent residence pathway and the Ukraine Family Reunification Pathway that started after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
The backgrounder document also says the humanitarian pathway would allow processing of family sponsorships of permanent residents already living in Canada and bring wait times closer to the 12-month target. It lists the current humanitarian and compassionate permanent residency application wait time as more than 10 years.
Ottawa also says it intends to increase permanent residency spaces in the Provincial Nominee Program to give provinces and territories greater ability to nominate people based on local labour market needs. It also plans to make the Rural Community Immigration Pilot permanent; the pilot involved 14 communities.
During a Thursday spokesperson update, Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s spokesperson said Diab had no plans for a press conference to explain the changes.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said during an embargoed media briefing before the budget was released that pressures vary by region and sector. He said, “Depending where you are, there's more pressure, the unemployment rate is not the same,” adding, “In a nutshell, we're trying to be more bespoke, to respond to our market needs in a way that would support our businesses who need these temporary workers without putting pressure on places where the unemployment level is high.”
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said before the budget’s release that the government would “cook the books” by not including all new permanent residents in the broader target. After the budget’s release, Rempel Garner accused the Carney government of structuring immigration intake numbers “to benefit wealthy corporate interests, at the expense of Canadian and newcomer workers alike,” and said, “Canadians were told to expect a sustainable plan. 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.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said immigration is back under control, pointing to reductions in the number of temporary workers and students coming to Canada since 2024. The Bank of Canada also published an article last month saying slower population growth tied to factors including an aging population, a lower birthrate, and lower immigration is expected to continue.
The immigration annual report tabled Thursday said Canada welcomed about 393,000 new permanent residents in 2025, in line with the broad target of 395,000. It also said almost 324,000 new permanent residents arrived in 2025, well below the almost 674,000 target in that year’s levels plan, and that more than 3.3 million people held permits to work or study in Canada throughout 2025.
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