Federal budget leaves immigrant levels untouched

Thursday’s federal budget included a section on immigration levels for the second time in a row, generally maintaining target numbers while highlighting the dramatic fall in arrivals since 2023-24 when the government dramatically reversed course. 

The immigration levels announced Nov. 5 are largely unchanged from last year's plan. Ottawa has maintained its annual target of 380,000 permanent resident admissions and 370,000 new temporary resident arrivals for 2027 and 2028, and extended them through 2029. 

[caption id="attachment_43457" align="alignleft" width="474"] Source: Canada budget 2026[/caption]

The previous plan set a slightly higher temporary resident target of 385,000 for 2026.

The budget announcement comes as population growth slows and the arrival of newcomers has dropped dramatically. The latest figures indicate that 58 per cent of those who gained permanent residency between January and August 2026 were already in the country, mainly on student or work permits.

Settlement services

The budget makes no specific mention of funding for newcomer settlement. Previously announced funding reductions remain in place, including the projected decline from $935.7 million in 2026-2027, to $895 million in 2027-28, and $783.7 million in 2028-29, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) announcements earlier this year. 

No additional cuts were announced in Budget 2026. 

Earlier this year, IRCC announced that as of April 1, economic-class permanent residents can access federally funded settlement services for up to six years after obtaining permanent residence. Starting April 1, 2027, the services will only be funded for  five years. 

Leslie Seidle is a former bureaucrat at the Privy Council Office in Ottawa and a fellow at the Institute for Research in Public Policy who specializes in immigration. Seidle told New Canadian Media he expects economic migrants who have been working or studying in Canada will have less need for settlement services, particularly language training, than those who arrive from abroad. 

“Many refugees and protected persons, and their families, have particular needs…We can expect the overall demand for settlement services to remain stable,” he said. 

Seidle has studied Canada’s changing immigration landscape and sees a number of trends:

• Federal spending on settlement services has been falling from a high of $1.2 billion in 2024-25 in line with wide-ranging budgetary restraints. At the same time, the government has cut back on both permanent and temporary migration; 
• As part of settlement funding cuts, the federal government stopped supporting higher-level language training programs. Seidle said that language training accounts for 40 per cent of settlement funding;
• A majority (69 per cent) of 48 settlement service-provider organizations surveyed in the Toronto region, conducted before further cuts from the expenditure review were announced, anticipated laying off staff due to reduced federal funding;
• Refugee claimants are left out of settlement funding. The federal Immigration and Refugee Board reports 252,387 pending refugee claims as of September 2026, compared with roughly 296,000 a year earlier.

Independent research by Luke Rawling, a PhD candidate at Queen’s University, shows that Canada has spent about $1 billion a year for settlement services for the past few years. 

IRCC has conducted recent evaluations of its settlement program, specifically the language component. About 40 per cent of permanent residents have historically accessed at least one settlement service within the first two years of arriving, and about 16 per cent took advantage of formal language training services. 

“While clients report these services being subjectively useful, the causal impact of this large-scale program on immigrant labour market outcomes, such as employment and earnings, is not known,” Rawling found.  

The rest of Thursday’s federal budget, titled “Masters of our Destiny," focused on reducing the tax rate on new business investments; increasing the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit by 50 per cent next year; funding to retrofit one million homes; and measures to open up the telecom and banking sectors to more competition, plus enabling consumers to switch providers. 

[caption id="attachment_43458" align="alignleft" width="1145"] Source: Understanding student and temporary worker numbers in Canada (updated Oct. 10, 2026)[/caption]

Migrant groups and businesses react

The budget mentions creating 200,000 spaces for temporary residents to gain permanent residency status.

“These additional spaces recognize the injustice facing migrants who already live and work here, but what about the millions of migrants shut out of existing programs, who are also building and sustaining the economy?” said Syed Hussan, spokesman for the Migrant Rights Network.

“They deserve the same stability, security and equal rights that permanent residence provides. Migrants deserve an end to scapegoating and exploitation, and clear answers about their future in Canada.” 

He said: “For scale, 200,000 additional permanent residents is equivalent to less than one in 10 of the 2.15 million people who held work or study permits in Canada at the end of August 2026. Separately, there are as many as 500,000 undocumented people living in Canada. This announcement offers nothing to any of them.” 

Corinne Pohlmann, executive vice-president of advocacy for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the government should remain focused on economic immigration.

“Creating a path to permanency for temporary foreign workers in Canada has the potential to be a positive step, and we await more details about the rollout of that program," she said.

The new immigration levels plan comes when a majority of Canadians are calling on the country to accept fewer immigrants and temporary residents in 2027, according to a Nanos Research survey released just before the budget.

The survey found that 52.3 per cent of respondents believe Canada should accept fewer immigrants and temporary residents next year, while 33.5 per cent want the numbers to remain about the same. Just 8.4 per cent said Canada should accept more, while 5.9 per cent were unsure.

Copyright 2026, New Canadian Media. All rights reserved.

George Abraham and Mubin S. Khan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media.