Every year the federal government surveys several stakeholders to ask about ideal immigration levels. This exercise is about putting a thumb on the pulse of acceptability of things such as our humanitarian efforts. The general response is one of valuing immigration, having concern for people needing protection, and balancing resources to ensure sustainability of infrastructure and services, as well as that of the labour market.

One thing that many people do not know is that when the government talks about permanent resident numbers, they are talking about only one aspect of immigration. It does NOT state how many people will be allowed to come to Canada. It states how many people will be granted this precious status.

The recent announcement to cut permanent resident numbers will negatively affect:

• People who are already here on a pathway to permanent residency, such as students, temporary foreign workers, and people from Ukraine and other places Canada committed to helping. They will now have to wait years longer.
• People who are already here seeking Canada’s protection as refugees. If granted protection, they, too, will have to wait longer to be granted permanent resident status and then to be reunited with any immediate family they had to leave behind.
• Privately sponsored and government-assisted refugees who are already here and are waiting to be able to bring their families. They will have to wait so long for their loved ones to be granted permanent resident status and thus allowed to come, they risk never seeing them again.

In short, this decision is NOT about labour markets, or housing, as it is being presented. Many people are already here!! What it means is they will be denied access to the benefits and security that come with being permanent residents that much longer. They will be denied being reunited with their family members that much longer.

The Canadian Council for Refugees released a statement publicly denouncing the federal government’s change: “In a shameful abdication of responsibility, the Canadian government has massively reduced its commitment to offer protection to those fleeing persecution and danger in the world, and all but ensured that refugees in Canada will remain separated from their spouses and children for years to come.”

With a reduction from 29,000 to 20,000, the cuts to Protected Persons and their Dependents abroad is much deeper than the rest of the levels. While the overall reduction in the immigration levels is 21%, this category (refugees in Canada and their families overseas), which already gets too small a share, is slashed by 31%. With a backlog in this category of over 100,000 active applications, the 2025 numbers are signaling that only 1 out of every 5 refugees and family members (some of whom have already been waiting for over 4 years!) will get permanent status and be able move on with their lives.

You can read their full statement here.

A lack of cohesive strategy for immigration, and constant reactive pivots in the face of the challenges such lack of strategy brings, is now going to ruin thousands upon thousands of families and lives as the answer. This, rather than pour resources into helping communities who have demonstrated they are happy to do their part to make the world a better place by welcoming people who need Canada’s protection. When protected people are granted permanent residency they go from being refugees to community members with secure status, giving them confidence to be “all in”. Their contributions are strengthened when their families can be with them. They make our communities even stronger and more able to meet the needs of everyone in the community.

Instead, when politics and bad policy leaves people insecure and inhumanely treated, we are all made weaker and a little less human.