John Lorinc: This is the real crisis of Canadian immigration

2026/02/24 Leave a comment

Valid concern although I think Alberta is more open to immigration than Premier Smith calculates:

…Just think about Alberta premier Danielle Smith’s address to the province last week, in which she mentioned immigration no fewer than 17 times, disparaging the “status quo” system, and claiming that current (and significantly reduced) immigration levels are “out of control” and “overwhelming our core social services.” Those are the words of someone making hay.

It is worth noting that Trump hasn’t yet targeted Canadian immigration and diversity policies in his obsessive campaign to subsume America’s closest ally in the name of hemispheric hegemony. Yet. But even a cursory scan of the cultural horizon — Bad Bunny’s Spanish lyrics, Trump’s determination to edit out Black Americans’ experiences in the name of national pride — would indicate we are as just likely to become targets of his white supremacy as Europe.

Culture warriors don’t care about policy or data, and if the Carney government doesn’t get that basic fact, it will lose the existential fight to rebuild public confidence in our migration system, whether or not we continue to tell ourselves that diversity is our strength.    

Source: Opinion | John Lorinc: This is the real crisis of Canadian immigration

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Nadeau | Une aubaine!

2026/02/24 Leave a comment

Good critique of some Quebec immigration discourse:

..Au temps où Gérald Godin était ministre des Communautés culturelles et de l’Immigration, il écrivait ceci dans sa lettre type adressée aux immigrants : « Avec tous les Québécois, je me réjouis de votre arrivée chez nous. Je suis persuadé que votre dynamisme est le meilleur gage de votre adaptation à notre collectivité. Bienvenue au Québec. » Et il ajoutait ces mots : « Nous vous attendions. »

En plusieurs pays, le mépris envers les immigrants est aujourd’hui inouï. Pas une semaine ne passe sans que l’on désigne « les étrangers » comme les coupables commodes de tous les maux. Rien de plus facile que de crier au loup. Mais il faut distinguer les faits des fantasmes qu’entretient une idéologie de repli : pendant qu’elle désigne les étrangers comme coupables, elle épargne toute l’année les milliardaires qui se croient tout permis, comme l’affaire Epstein le montre.

La suspension d’une mesure d’immigration comme le Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ) profite désormais au reste du Canada, qui pourra attirer les immigrants francophones rejetés du Québec. Radio-Canada nous apprend que le nombre d’immigrants temporaires francophones du Québec qui cherchent désormais à s’installer ailleurs a quadruplé en un an. Plusieurs expliquent ce départ par l’abolition controversée du PEQ.

“Tout en répétant que la francophonie canadienne a des allures de mouroir, les nationalo-conservateurs québécois se privent paradoxalement de ceux qui pourraient l’aider à vivre. Ils dénoncent le déclin, mais ferment la porte à ceux qui pourraient l’enrayer. Ils invoquent la protection d’une culture, tout en sabotant les conditions mêmes de sa régénération et de sa transmission.

À force de confondre protection et fermeture, identité et repli, ces gens-là en viennent à transformer un projet de société en forteresse médiévale. Ce faisant, ils condamnent lentement mais sûrement ce qu’ils prétendent sauver. Qui en tire profit ?

Source: Nadeau | Une aubaine!

.. At the time when Gérald Godin was Minister of Cultural Communities and Immigration, he wrote this in his standard letter addressed to immigrants: “With all Quebecers, I look forward to your arrival with us. I am convinced that your dynamism is the best guarantee of your adaptation to our community. Welcome to Quebec. “And he added these words: “We were waiting for you. ”

In many countries, contempt for immigrants is now unheard of. Not a week goes by without being designated “foreigners” as the convenient culprits of all evils. Nothing is easier than shouting wolf. But it is necessary to distinguish the facts from the fantasies of a retreat ideology: while it designates foreigners as guilty, it spares billionaires all year round who believe everything is allowed, as the Epstein case shows.

The suspension of an immigration measure such as the Quebec Experience Program (QEP) now benefits the rest of Canada, which may attract Francophone immigrants rejected from Quebec. Radio-Canada informs us that the number of temporary French-speaking immigrants from Quebec who are now looking to settle elsewhere has quadrupled in one year. Many explain this departure by the controversial abolition of the PEQ.

“While repeating that the Canadian Francophonie looks like dying, the Quebec National Conservatives paradoxically deprive themselves of those who could help it live. They denounce the decline, but close the door to those who could stop it. They invoke the protection of a culture, while sabotaging the very conditions of its regeneration and transmission.

By dint of confusing protection and closure, identity and retreat, these people come to transform a society project into a medieval fortress. In doing so, they slowly but surely condemn what they claim to save. Who benefits from it?

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Conservatives call for investigation into asylum seekers’ access to health care

2026/02/24 Leave a comment

Safe target for the CPC… Arguably, recent changes by the government provide a needed correction:

The Conservatives plan to put a motion before the House of Commons on Tuesday aimed at reviewing how health benefits are provided to asylum seekers and restricting who has access to those services.

The planned text of the motion, which has been shared with The Canadian Press, says the cost of the Interim Federal Health Program has more than quadrupled since the 2020 fiscal year, growing from $211-million to $896-million in 2024-25.

That data was pulled from a report by the parliamentary budget officer published earlier this month.

In that report, which was requested by the House of Commons health committee, the PBO projects the program’s cost will reach $1.5-billion annually in 2028-29.

The federal government provides a host of medical services to asylum seekers, refugees and other protected persons through the Interim Federal Health Program.

Those services include routine medical treatment, hospital visits and lab work, and supplementary coverage for services like urgent dental procedures, some vision care, psychological therapy and prescription drugs. 

The Conservative motion calls for a review of the benefits provided to asylum claimants to find savings, and for asylum seekers appealing a rejected claim to be covered only for emergency, life-saving care. 

The motion also calls for an annual report to Parliament on program usage, with a specific focus on supplementary benefits, which generally aren’t covered for Canadians.

The PBO report says about 624,000 people were beneficiaries of the Interim Federal Health Program in 2024-25, up from about 200,000 people in 2020-21. A majority of those beneficiaries are asylum claimants….

Source: Conservatives call for investigation into asylum seekers’ access to health care

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Réussite des immigrants hautement qualifiés: Une étude souligne l’importance du statut à l’entrée

2026/02/24 Leave a comment

Interesting study and conclusion:

La réussite des immigrants hautement qualifiés dépend souvent moins de leur profil que de la façon dont ils arrivent. Une nouvelle étude de HEC Montréal montre que ceux qui entrent avec un permis fermé obtiennent en moyenne les meilleurs résultats, que les étudiants étrangers rattrapent leur retard et que le système de sélection ne choisit pas toujours les candidats les plus performants.

L’étude compare les trajectoires de plusieurs groupes d’immigrants économiques arrivés depuis 2015 : titulaires de permis de travail fermé ou ouvert, étudiants étrangers et résidents permanents admis directement de l’étranger.

Premier constat : la façon d’entrer au pays change beaucoup la suite des choses.

Les immigrants arrivés avec un permis de travail fermé gagnent davantage et se situent plus haut dans la distribution des revenus que les autres immigrants hautement qualifiés, y compris certains résidents permanents admis directement.

« Le statut à l’entrée est un fort prédicteur du succès économique », notent les auteurs, Xavier Dufour-Simard, Jean-François Gauthier et Pierre-Carl Michaud.

Ces travailleurs ont un emploi dès leur arrivée. À l’inverse, les titulaires de permis de travail ouverts ou les nouveaux résidents permanents doivent parfois chercher un premier emploi, faire reconnaître leurs diplômes ou acquérir une première expérience.

Les étudiants étrangers constituent un cas à part. Ils commencent avec des revenus plus faibles, mais une fois sur le marché du travail, leur progression est plus rapide que celle des autres groupes.

Un modèle en deux étapes

Depuis une dizaine d’années, de plus en plus d’immigrants passent d’abord par un statut temporaire avant d’obtenir la résidence permanente. Ce modèle en deux étapes est souvent présenté comme une voie d’intégration plus efficace.

L’étude invite à nuancer cette idée.

Dans l’ensemble, les résidents non permanents ne rattrapent pas les travailleurs nés au Canada plus rapidement que les résidents permanents admis directement de l’étranger. Il n’y a pas non plus de preuve d’une intégration économique plus forte pour ce groupe, sauf pour les personnes arrivées initialement comme étudiantes.

Le fait d’avoir déjà vécu ou travaillé ici ne garantit donc pas automatiquement de meilleurs résultats économiques. Tout dépend du type de parcours.

L’étude montre aussi que le système de sélection ne permet pas toujours d’identifier les candidats qui obtiendront les meilleurs résultats une fois installés.

Le système de points utilisé pour sélectionner les immigrants économiques ne repère pas systématiquement ceux qui auront les revenus les plus élevés ou la progression la plus rapide. Ces critères actuels donnent une bonne indication du potentiel, mais ne suffisent pas toujours à prédire le parcours réel sur le marché du travail, analysent les auteurs.

Il serait possible d’ajuster ces critères pour mieux tenir compte des résultats observés, disent-ils.

« Parmi les personnes hautement qualifiées, dans tous les programmes, il y en a qui sont très bonnes, que ce soit les résidents permanents ou les résidents non permanents. C’est que le système actuel ne va pas nécessairement sélectionner les meilleurs dans chacun des programmes », explique Jean-François Gauthier.

« Il faudrait peut-être les écouter »

L’étude, qui est basée sur une enquête menée en 2025 auprès de 2500 immigrants récents, principalement des diplômés universitaires, apporte aussi un éclairage sur ce qui les pousse à rester au pays. Ce n’est pas seulement le niveau de salaire qui compte, mais aussi la progression.

Les personnes dont les revenus augmentent rapidement sont beaucoup plus susceptibles de vouloir s’établir durablement et de demander la résidence permanente.

« On parle beaucoup des immigrants en termes d’effectifs. Mais on n’entend jamais parler de leurs aspirations, souligne Pierre-Carl Michaud. On les a amenés ici, il faudrait peut-être les écouter un peu, puis voir ce qu’ils ont à nous dire. »

Pour les chercheurs, le message principal est de regarder l’ensemble des données pour ajuster les politiques d’immigration. Il ne s’agit pas d’opposer les personnes déjà au pays à celles recrutées à l’étranger, mais de mieux repérer celles qui ont le plus grand potentiel d’intégration.

Source: Réussite des immigrants hautement qualifiés: Une étude souligne l’importance du statut à l’entrée

The success of highly qualified immigrants often depends less on their profile than on how they arrive. A new study by HEC Montréal shows that those who enter with a closed permit get the best results on average, that foreign students catch up and that the selection system does not always choose the best performing candidates.

The study compares the trajectories of several groups of economic immigrants who have arrived since 2015: holders of closed or open work permits, foreign students and permanent residents admitted directly from abroad.

First observation: the way of entering the country changes the rest of things a lot.

Immigrants arriving with a closed work permit earn more and rank higher in income distribution than other highly qualified immigrants, including some permanent residents admitted directly.

“Entry status is a strong predictor of economic success,” note the authors, Xavier Dufour-Simard, Jean-François Gauthier and Pierre-Carl Michaud.

These workers have a job as soon as they arrive. Conversely, open work permit holders or new permanent residents sometimes have to look for a first job, have their diplomas recognized or gain initial experience.

Foreign students are a separate case. They start with lower incomes, but once in the job market, they are growing faster than that of other groups.

A two-step model

In the last decade, more and more immigrants have first gone through a temporary status before obtaining permanent residence. This two-step model is often presented as a more effective integration pathway.

The study invites us to qualify this idea.

Overall, non-permanent residents do not catch up with workers born in Canada faster than permanent residents admitted directly from abroad. There is also no evidence of stronger economic integration for this group, except for people who initially arrived as students.

Having already lived or worked here does not automatically guarantee better economic results. It all depends on the type of course.

The study also shows that the selection system does not always make it possible to identify the candidates who will obtain the best results once installed.

The points system used to select economic immigrants does not always identify those who will have the highest income or the fastest progress. These current criteria give a good indication of the potential, but are not always enough to predict the real journey on the labor market, analyze the authors.

It would be possible to adjust these criteria to better take into account the results observed, they say.

“Among the highly qualified people, in all programs, there are those who are very good, whether permanent residents or non-permanent residents. It is that the current system will not necessarily select the best in each of the programs,” explains Jean-François Gauthier.

“Maybe we should listen to them”

The study, which is based on a survey conducted in 2025 of 2,500 recent immigrants, mainly university graduates, also sheds light on what drives them to stay in the country. It is not only the salary level that counts, but also the progression.

People with rapidly increasing incomes are much more likely to want to settle permanently and apply for permanent residence.

“We talk a lot about immigrants in terms of staffing. But we never hear about their aspirations, says Pierre-Carl Michaud. We brought them here, maybe we should listen to them a little, then see what they have to tell us. ”

For researchers, the main message is to look at all the data to adjust immigration policies. It is not a question of opposing the people already in the country to those recruited abroad, but of better identifying those who have the greatest potential for integration.

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Immigration program’s new focus on military recruits unlikely to solve shortages, experts say

2026/02/23 Leave a comment

Of note. USA also had a program, not sure if continued under Trump, that provided a pathway to permanent status and citizenship for military recruits. This proposed EE pathway is more for support staff, doctors, nurses, technicians than active combatants save for pilots:

…Defence policy experts say that the CAF doesn’t struggle to attract Canadian citizens interested in serving in the military. Instead, they argue, there are significant bottlenecks in the recruitment process that result in applicants frequently being rejected or waiting unduly long periods to obtain responses to their applications.

Charlotte Duval-Lantoine, vice-president of Ottawa operations at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, described the recruitment of foreign service members as a new move for the country.

She cautioned, however, that the success of this immigration pathway will depend on improving a recruitment system that’s struggled domestically.

In October, 2025, the federal Auditor-General’s office published a scathing report on the CAF’s recruiting problems, stating that “ineffective” decision-making and “disjointed” ownership of the recruiting process between various committees and groups had affected its operational readiness and ability to respond to threats. 

The report found that in the period between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2025, almost 192,000 people applied to the CAF, but only 15,000 were accepted. The CAF had planned to recruit roughly 19,700 people in that period. Moreover, it often took twice as long to recruit than the target of between 100 and 150 days, leading to more than 100,000 applicants voluntarily withdrawing from the recruiting process.

“The system is broken. Recruiting has been a chronic, ongoing problem for many years. Young people are coming to CAF’s doors, they are just not getting through,” said Grazia Scoppio, professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada….

Source: Immigration program’s new focus on military recruits unlikely to solve shortages, experts say

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Ottawa places a sensible limit on the right to claim asylum

2026/02/23 Leave a comment

Agree. Previous approach not sustainable:

…Refugee advocates have said the idea that students here for more than a year are more likely to submit fraudulent claims is unfounded. However, the government shouldn’t wait until problems mount to fix vulnerabilities in the system, especially given that Immigration Ministry staff say the measures are needed to ward off future misuse. 

There are trends that justify pre-emptive action. In 2024, international students filed a record 20,245 asylum claims, six times more than in 2019. In 2024 alone, 720 claims came from students at Conestoga College, which had a massive surge in international enrolment. Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said that last year, 17 per cent of asylum claims came from students. 

Many students who are claiming refugee status are from India, which is also the home of the largest number of international students. There are certainly groups of people at risk from India – about half of refugee claims regarding India were accepted between 2018 and 2024 – but it’s not a country generally considered to be a huge source of refugees. There were just 375 refugee claims from Indian citizens in 2015, compared with 17,180 last year. 

The federal government needs to make sure it can quickly identify legitimate refugees, while at the same time, reduce abuses, such as the recent instance where 14 temporary residents suspected of extortion claimed refugee status to avoid deportation. 

Canada must maintain its status as a safe haven for people facing persecution, and the best way to do that is by carefully managing the immigration system. Streamlining the process for refugee claimants already in Canada is a good step to maintaining the public trust needed to help the world’s most vulnerable.

Source: Ottawa places a sensible limit on the right to claim asylum

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Some employers using foreign worker program facing bigger fines for violations

2026/02/23 Leave a comment

Encouraging:

Amid increasing scrutiny on the use of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, the total dollar amount of fines imposed on employers who are found to violate the terms of the program has risen dramatically.

However, some observers think changes to monitoring and enforcement of the program are still required.

Catherine Connelly is a professor of human resources and management at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., who has studied the temporary foreign worker program.

She says the federal government historically seemed to take an “educational approach,” with fines that were usually in the hundreds rather than the thousands of dollars.

“There just didn’t seem to be too much of a deterrence in terms of how they were approaching the enforcement of the rules of the program,” she said.

But Connelly says as public perception of the program soured, she noticed a gradual change that built into a “dramatic shift” over the last year.

“Now the approach seems to be more of a deterrence approach and we see fines easily into the tens of thousands, if not the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she said.

In the 2018-19 fiscal year, 74 companies faced a total of $102,250 in fines.

By comparison, during the last fiscal year, 147 companies faced $4,882,500 in fines.

Connelly believes the number of companies caught and fined is likely a “fraction” of those who are actually breaking the rules. But she says large fines may catch the attention of companies that are using the program.

“They are risk-averse and they are strategic in their planning. And so a well-run company will see that non-compliance with this complicated program is a serious issue that needs to be avoided,” she said.

Meanwhile, the number of employers applying to use the temporary foreign worker program has dropped in the last two years, according to recent numbers released by the federal government.

After hitting roughly 150,000 applications in the 2023-24 fiscal year, the number fell to roughly 63,000 so far in the current fiscal year. …

Source: Some employers using foreign worker program facing bigger fines for violations

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Quebec’s bid to limit public prayer felt in far-flung parts of the province

2026/02/23 2 Comments

Reality check:

…But Mr. Roberge said police are reluctant to act when people use prayer as a form of protest, for fear of being seen as infringing on their Charter rights. “The guidelines are not clear enough in situations involving religious demonstrations,” he told the committee. The minister declined an interview request. 

The scope of the new legislation is wide-ranging. In addition to tackling public prayer, it would extend the province’s workplace ban on religious symbols to anyone working in daycares, colleges, universities and private schools. Quebec’s original secularism law, which is now being challenged at the Supreme Court of Canada, banned religious symbols for some public-sector employees, including elementary and high school teachers, police officers and judges. 

The new bill would also prohibit prayer and other religious practices in public institutions, effectively banning prayer rooms at Quebec colleges and universities. 

Critics say the legislation is a thinly veiled attempt to exploit anti-Muslim sentiment for political gain. In a brief presented to the committee, the National Council of Canadian Muslims said Quebec Muslims “feel less and less that they belong” in the province. 

Bishop Poisson said there’s no reason to treat religious demonstrations any differently from other public events. “We must be careful not to build a society where the laws prohibit everything except what is permitted,” he said. 

“I want to live in a country where everything is permitted except what is prohibited. There’s a big difference.”

Source: Quebec’s bid to limit public prayer felt in far-flung parts of the province

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Alberta to hold wide-ranging referendum in October, Danielle Smith says [immigration]

2026/02/23 Leave a comment

As many have pointed out, the Alberta government and Premier never questioned the increases under the Trudeau government and generally advocated for higher numbers particularly for the Provincial Nominee Program. Appears more a deflection technique and perhaps part of a flood the zone to reduce attention to the ill-advised referendum on Alberta separation. May be popular with the UCP base but Alberta has been one of the more welcoming provinces for immigrants:

…Ms. Smith, on Thursday evening, described her immigration proposals as “a significant departure from the status quo” requiring consent from a majority of Albertans.

It’s not yet clear whether the immigration referendum questions would be binding.

The sweeping proposals would dramatically alter how, and if, services are delivered to certain immigrants in Alberta. One question asks if voters support mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and those with an “Alberta approved immigration status” should be eligible for provincially funded programs, including health and education. 

Another asks if residents support charging “a reasonable fee or premium” for health care and education to people with non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta.

“The fact is, Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization and federal transfers, permit the federal government to flood our borders with new arrivals, and then give free access to our most-generous-in-the-country social programs to anyone who moves here,” Ms. Smith said. 

The proposals mark a significant shift in thinking for the Premier who, as recently as two years ago, said her government was preparing to more than double Alberta’s population to 10 million by 2050.

Droves of people have moved to Alberta over the past five years, from inside and outside Canada. 

Alberta’s population hit five million in 2025, up 14 per cent compared with the province’s headcount of 4.4 million in 2020, according to data compiled by the Alberta government, based on federal statistics.

Net migration climbed sharply between early 2021, when it was essentially flat, to peak at around 58,649 in the third quarter of 2023. Since then, Alberta’s net migration has been on a slide. The province absorbed 37,625 migrants in the first three quarters of 2025, down 73 per cent compared with the 140,490 people who came to Alberta in the same timeframe in 2024. 

Just 197 international migrants landed in the province in the third quarter of 2025, a drop of 99 per cent compared with 32,046 in the same quarter in 2024. 

The significant growth was partly abetted by the province’s highly successful Alberta is Calling advertising campaign, which used billboards and transit ads across Canada, tax credits and promises of a lower cost of living in an effort to entice people to move there.

The Premier described the potential program cuts to immigrants as her “short-term plan” as the province works to grow its Heritage Savings Trust Fund to $250-billion by 2050, with the goal of limiting Alberta’s reliance on resource revenues.

Ms. Smith justified the proposed immigration changes as a way to deal with Alberta’s grim economic picture without drastic cuts to social services for all citizens. In November’s fiscal update, Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner projected a $6.4-billion deficit….

Source: Alberta to hold wide-ranging referendum in October, Danielle Smith says

Snyder: How Alberta fell out of love with mass immigration

No serious explanation how it did so but useful list of just how large and multi-faceted reversal:

A few short years ago, before she had proposed a new set of referendum questions on Thursday aimed at curbing rapid population growth, Premier Danielle Smith was actively courting newcomers to the province. Indeed, with the private sector facing a shortage of skilled workers, the premier could hardly bring in enough people to satisfy her appetite.

Smith’s latest referendum push, then, seems like a dramatic shift in policy. Instead, the premier told reporters on Friday, her change in tone is the result of a stark mismatch between Alberta’s efforts to recruit skilled workers and changes to Canada’s immigration system made under former prime minister Justin Trudeau.

“We were doing a very targeted ask to get skilled workers here,” Smith said on Friday. “But as I said, we had no idea that Justin Trudeau was taking all limits off all those (immigration) programs, because they didn’t ask us, they didn’t tell us. They just did it.”…

Source: “How Alberta fell out of love with mass immigration”

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Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

2026/02/20 Leave a comment

Further dilution of the human capital approach and the CRS. Better than the Francophone category but still…:

Canada is expanding its Express Entry immigration program, adding three new permanent residency streams that cover a range of professions the Liberal government says are needed to fill critical labour gaps, including researchers and military personnel, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced Wednesday.

The new categories under the Express Entry stream will give priority to researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience; applicants with work experience in transport occupations, including pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors; and highly skilled foreign military applicants.

The new streams are part of what Diab calls a federal strategy to attract “top talent” to the country.

“We’ve identified these sectors as areas in critical need,” Diab said in a speech in Toronto. “Strengthening those helps us move goods across the country and to new markets, supporting trade, supply chains and economic resilience.”

Diab said the decision to have a new category for skilled foreign military applicants, along with other categories, “supports Canada’s defence industrial strategy,” and aims to “strengthen our armed forces, defend our sovereignty and to keep Canadians safe.”

This announcement comes after a new category for foreign medical doctors with Canadian work experience was announced in December. Diab at the time said this was part of a broader plan to move away from a “one-size fits all” immigration approach and make it easier for people in certain professions to come to or remain in Canada.

The 2026 immigration levels plan prioritizes permanent economic immigrants while reducing temporary admissions, particularly for students, as Ottawa ramps up its efforts to attract highly skilled workers and scientists from around the world.

The federal government in December announced it would spend more than $1 billion over the next decade to attract and retain leading international researchers to Canada. The funding is slated to support salaries, new infrastructure, grants and the recruitment of more than 1,000 doctors, researchers and scientists.

“Our Express Entry system is at the core of our approach for attracting and retaining the skilled workers Canada needs,” Diab said Wednesday.

“We’re not waiting for the right people to find us,” she said. “We will go out into the world to recruit the people our country needs, to connect them with Canadian employers and to highlight why Canada is the place” to build their careers and lives.

Canada has long struggled to retain in-demand, highly skilled workers. A November report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada, titled “The Leaky Bucket 2025,” found that one in five immigrants are leaving Canada within 25 years of landing and highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels.

Many newcomers remain stuck in precarious, low-wage work due to a labour market that continues to undervalue international experience. More than 30 per cent of newcomers ages 25-54 with a post-secondary education reported they were overqualified for their job compared to 19.7 per cent of Canadian-born workers, according to Statistics Canada.

Source: Canada to add three new permanent residency streams to Express Entry immigration program

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