May 10, 2024 - 13:23
By cbc.ca

Federal meeting of immigration ministers to look at cuts to temporary visas

Federal and provincial ministers are meeting in Montreal on Friday to hash out how to shrink the number of temporary residents in Canada.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller is expected to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts in person for the first time since he announced an unprecedented plan to set limits on the number of new temporary residents.

The aim is to rein in Canada's runaway growth by decreasing the number of temporary residents, from 6.2 per cent of the country's population in 2023 to five per cent over 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, but labour economist Mikal Skuterud said they shouldn't be considered in isolation.

«You can't do that, it's part of the whole system,» said Skuterud, an economist with the University of Waterloo.

He was among the first to warn the government to temper the massive rise in people who migrate to Canada on a temporary basis to work or study.

Miller announced plans to scale back the number of international students by putting a two-year cap on new admissions in January.

The government is also attempting to speed up the time it takes to process asylum claims and included legislative measures in the recent federal budget designed to make the deportation process faster when those claims are denied.

The final and largest category that has yet to be addressed is temporary work permit holders. Miller has said it's a workforce the labour market has become addicted to in recent years.

In 2018, there were 337,460 temporary work visa holders. By 2022, that number had swelled to 605,851.