New Budget Proposes Fast-Tracking Permanent Residency for 200,000 Temporary Immigrants by End of 2027

The newly released federal budget proposes fast-tracking permanent residency for 200,000 temporary residents already living in Canada by the end of 2027, while keeping annual immigration targets unchanged through 2029.

The target marks an increase from last year’s budget, which included separate measures to fast-track permanent residency for approximately 115,000 protected persons and up to 33,000 temporary foreign workers by the same deadline, for a total of up to 148,000.

Unlike temporary foreign workers, protected persons are those recognized as needing protection in Canada, including asylum seekers. The 2025 budget measures were described as one-time initiatives, with the protected persons admissions occurring in addition to regular permanent resident targets.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is already carrying out the measures announced in Budget 2025.

Budget 2026 also maintains Budget 2025’s targets of accepting 380,000 new permanent immigrants and 370,000 temporary immigrants into Canada per year for 2027, 2028 and 2029.

Between regular permanent resident admissions and the two special initiatives, Canada could grant permanent residency to more than 600,000 people in 2027, although the budget does not clarify how the programs overlap or whether all their admissions would be counted separately.

In total, with the new program to grant permanent status to 200,000 temporary residents and the final year of a two-year program to give permanent residency to about 148,000 temporary residents, Canada could admit upwards of 2.2 million more permanent and temporary residents between 2027 and the end of 2029.

Of the proposed 200,000 fast-tracked permanent residency approvals, Ottawa says 100,000 would come from workers who are eligible under the federal government’s Express Entry System or via provincial nominee programs, which let provinces choose immigrants according to their economic needs.

Ottawa says it will spend $302.3 million on the initiative over four years starting in 2027-2028, followed by an additional $90.6 million in subsequent years.

The budget also proposes spending $151.5 million over five years to amend the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and speed up processing, ensure employer compliance, and better match recruitment with regional labour market needs.

The planned TFWP reforms haven’t yet been announced, but Ottawa says it will consult with provinces and territories on the changes.

The Conservatives issued a statement criticizing the immigration targets in the newly released budget, with Michelle Rempel Garner, the Conservative shadow minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, accusing the Liberal government of “cooking the books” by using “side programs” to obscure the number of people receiving permanent residency.

She said the plan for immigration levels in the budget doesn’t help Canadians or immigrant workers.

“Today, Mark Carney had a chance to change course. Instead, he tabled immigration intake numbers that continue to benefit wealthy corporate interests, at the expense of Canadian and newcomer workers alike,” Rempel Garner said in a Nov. 5 news release.

Rempel Garner also criticized the unchanged permanent and temporary resident admissions targets as “still among the highest levels in Canadian history.”

The government says it’s maintaining immigration at “sustainable levels to allow housing supply gradually to catch up with demand.”

“Since assuming office 20 months ago, we have taken back control of immigration. The 2027-2029 Immigration Levels Plan focuses on stabilising immigration rates at sustainable levels,” the government says.

A Nanos Research survey carried out Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 and published Nov. 5 found that 52 percent of Canadians polled believed Canada should take in fewer permanent and temporary residents in 2027 than were admitted in 2026. Another 34 percent favour keeping roughly the same levels, while 8 percent back an increase in immigration and 6 percent are unsure.

A previous survey carried out by Nanos in March also found 52 percent of Canadians polled wanted immigration reductions.

Budget 2026 maintains Ottawa’s commitment to cut the proportion of temporary residents in Canada to below 5 percent of the population by the end of 2027.

The Trudeau government set the target in March 2024 with a deadline of the end of 2026. The deadline was pushed back by one year until the end of 2027 by the Carney government in November 2025.

The proportion reached 7.2 percent in October 2024, before falling to 6.7 percent in July 2026, according to Statistics Canada.

The decision to maintain existing permanent and temporary immigration targets comes after Carney said in September that Canada might eventually return to increasing the population through immigration.

“Now the question starts to become: When do we resume some controlled increase in the population, which is the nature of Canada. So that will happen, and we just want to make sure that we’ve got it under control,” the prime minister said at the time in an interview with The New York Times.