Marc Miller met with his provincial counterparts for the first time since he announced a plan to set limits on the number of new temporary residents to rein in runaway growth
Montreal — The immigration minister stated on Friday that one strategy Canada intends to use to reduce the number of temporary residents is to give them the option to stay permanently. However, this does not mean that everyone who wishes to stay will be allowed to do so.
For the first time since announcing an unusual plan to cap the number of new temporary residents, Marc Miller met with his provincial and territorial counterparts.
The goal is to control unchecked expansion, which has strained the real estate sector and other sectors. The minister established a target to lower the percentage of temporary residents from 6.2% of Canada’s population in 2023 to 5% during the next three years.
A number of ministers cautioned that when temporary residents request to remain in the nation, the new policy will increase demand for their respective province immigration programs. They presented the expansion of their provincial programs as a mutually beneficial way to maintain permanent residency in Canada.
“The fact people are already here, their impact on affordability has already been baked in, so it’s smart,” Miller said.
“But it doesn’t mean by extension that everyone’s entitled to stay here or be here in Canada.”
He said that when it comes to federal permanent residence programs, Ottawa could do more to find those who are currently in the country.
Over the course of the summer, the new goals for temporary residents will be established and released in the fall. The administration is still debating how many new visas it should restrict in order to lower the number of temporary residents.
Miller requested information from the provinces about the number of temporary residents inside their boundaries, particularly the number of those who remain there permanently as a result of provincial nominee schemes. Additionally, he has requested more information about their ability to accommodate newcomers and the strain that population expansion is putting on their jurisdictions.
Miller has already made measures to reduce the number of foreign students by capping new enrollment in January at two years.
Along with trying to expedite the processing of asylum applications, the administration also added legislative provisions in the federal budget that will expedite the deportation process in the event that asylum claims are refused.
The last and most significant group that has not yet been covered is those with temporary work permits.
The emphasis of the discussions was how to distribute a limited quantity of temporary visas, the ministers stated in a press statement following their meeting.
There were 337,460 individuals with temporary work permits in 2018. That figure shot up to 605,851 by 2022.
According to Miller, the labor market has grown dependent on this workforce in recent times.
Each province will have to figure out its own strategy for kicking that addiction.
Although his province hasn’t had a similar surge of temporary residents as some others, Saskatchewan Immigration Minister Jeremy Harrison says the objective is still to move as many of them toward permanent status as feasible.
However, a massive spike in applications to the provincial nominee program for permanent residency has occurred in Manitoba in response to pronouncements from Ottawa regarding the reduction of temporary immigration.
Earlier this week, Miller agreed to Manitoba’s request to extend the federal work permits for some 6,700 newcomers whose visas were set to expire by the end of the year, to give them time to apply to stay in Canada permanently through the provincial nomination program.
Manitoba’s immigration minister hopes to see the provincial immigration program expanded down the line as a result.
Manitoba Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino stated, “My understanding was that if we are able to do this successfully then (Ottawa is) going to be looking upon that favorably and be able to increase our federal allocations,” in reference to the province’s immigration policy.
The majority of provinces have requested additional authority over immigration and want to customize how the decrease in temporary residents would affect their particular labor markets.
The population growth will be considerably slowed by the new temporary visa objective. As per Andrew Grantham, an executive director at CIBC Economics, in research released last month, there might be a result of worker shortages even though it could relieve some pressure on housing costs and availability.
Limitations on population growth may push businesses to pay more to get people to stay in or return to labor. If they are unable to use low-paid foreign labor, we could lose certain businesses that are just not lucrative, according to Grantham.
While the federal and provincial governments promised to figure out that balance, labor economist Mikal Skuterud said work visas shouldn’t be considered in isolation.
According to University of Waterloo economist Skuterud, “You can’t do that; it’s part of the whole system.”
He was one of the first to advise the government to moderate the sharp increase in the number of persons coming to Canada temporarily for employment or education.
Skuterud attributes that rise to modifications to the requirements for permanent residents, which were made in order to close certain labor shortages. Lower-skilled workers now have an incentive to immigrate to Canada in the hopes of obtaining permanent status thanks to those improvements.
That’s what’s drawing in a ton of people, and it’s making the population of (permanent residents) problematic, he claimed.
