Achi news desk-
Federal and provincial ministers are meeting Friday in Montreal to figure out how to reduce the number of temporary residents in Canada.
Federal Immigration Minister Mark Miller is expected to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts in person for the first time since announcing an unprecedented plan to limit the number of new temporary residents.
The goal is to curb Canada’s runaway growth by reducing the number of temporary residents, from 6.2 percent of Canada’s population in 2023, to five percent in the next three years.
The new targets will be developed over the summer after the provinces and territories have had a chance to weigh in.
Labor economist Mikael Scottrod said they should not be considered in isolation.
“You can’t do that; it’s part of the whole system,” said Scottrod, an economist at the University of Waterloo.
He was among the first to warn the government to moderate the huge increase in the number of people migrating to Canada temporarily to work or study.
Miller announced plans to reduce the number of international students by placing a two-year limit on new admissions in January.
The government is also trying to speed up the time required to process asylum claims.
In the last federal budget, he included legislative measures designed to make the deportation process faster when those claims are denied.
The last and largest category that has not yet been addressed is temporary work permit holders.
Miller said it’s a workforce the job market has become addicted to in recent years.
In 2018, there were 337,460 temporary work visa holders.
By 2022, that number will swell to 605,851.
Scotroad credits that increase the changes in criteria for permanent residents, designed to fill specific job gaps.
These changes encouraged lower-skilled workers to come to Canada in hopes of obtaining permanent residency.
“This is what entices huge numbers to come, and it creates this problem in the (non-permanent) population,” he said. He suggests that the problem can be reversed by creating a more predictable path to permanent residency for new immigrants.
A key focus for the ministers will be negotiations on how to allocate fewer temporary visas, which employers have begun to rely on.
No matter what, adjusting the course is bound to come with some complications.
In Manitoba, for example, announcements from Ottawa to reduce temporary immigration have been met with a huge increase in applications for the Provincial Nominee Program for permanent residency.
Earlier this week, Miller agreed to Manitoba’s request to extend federal work permits for about 6,700 new immigrants whose visas were set to expire by the end of the year to give them time to apply to stay in Canada permanently.
The new temporary visa target will also significantly slow population growth.
While that could ease pressure on housing costs and affordability, it could also cause a shortage of workers, Andrew Grantham, senior director at CIBC Economics, said in a report published last month.
“Restrictions on population growth may mean that companies will have to offer higher wages to encourage people to stay in, or rejoin, the workforce. We may lose some companies that are simply not profitable if they can’t recruit low-wage foreign workers,” Grantham said. said.
The labor needs of each district are expected to take part in the discussions on Friday.
The new destinations for temporary visas will be announced in the fall.
— This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 10, 2024.
