Immigration Department survey asks how many newcomers Canada wants

Temporary residents have soared from 1.4 million two years ago to 2.5 million

- NICHOLAS KEUNG

Lou Janssen Dangzalan of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association said these Immigration Department surveys are "more important than ever."

Amid a tidal change in public opinion toward immigration, the federal government is seeking Canadians’ help in shaping its coming plan for how many newcomers should be welcomed to the country. The Immigration Department’s annual online consultation has been a yawn in the recent past, but this year’s survey is expected to draw a lot of eyeballs because of the rapid population growth that’s been blamed for Canada’s housing crisis and straining public resources.

For the first time, officials are including in the plan the targets for temporary residents, whose population has soared from 1.4 million two years ago to today’s 2.5 million: About 42 per cent of them are here on study permits, 53 per cent on work permits and five per cent as asylum seekers.

“These surveys and consultations are more important than ever before because the context this time around is very different than it was even from last year,” said Lou Janssen Dangzalan, vice-president of policy at the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association.

“They used to be such a mundane topic but now it’s become a hot-button issue, because it takes on a new dimension with temporary residents and then the economic hardship in Canada. What does that mean?”

Twelve months ago, then-immigration minister Sean Fraser was still talking about the significant role of immigration in addressing labour shortages, the aging population and the worker-to-retiree ratio. Earlier this year, the tide quickly shifted as his successor Marc Miller began reining in the numbers of study-permit and work-permit holders welcomed to the country.