Aftermath of immigration reduction measures affecting Canada’s population growth as it hits two-year low

Canada’s population grew by 0.4 per cent from July, marking the slowest quarterly growth since the first quarter of 2022 — a sign that Ottawa’s recent immigration reduction policies are yielding results.

 

The country added 176,699 people in the third quarter and reached a population of 41,465,298 on Oct. 1, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday.

 

Permanent and temporary immigration continued to be the driving force of Canada’s population growth, accounting for 92 per cent of all growth, or 162,566 people, with the remaining eight per cent or 14,133 people coming from natural increase (births minus deaths).

 

The exponential surge of temporary residents post-pandemic has been blamed for contributing the country’s housing and affordability crisis, forcing the federal government to implement a series of measures to rein in the number of international students and temporary foreign workers since the beginning of the year.

The third quarter of 2024 saw the lowest net increase in the number of non-permanent residents (47,187) in a third quarter since 2015 (19,982), down from a record net gain of 318,433 non-permanent residents over the same three months last year.

 

On Oct. 1, there were 3,049,277 temporary residents in Canada, who accounted for 7.4 per cent of the overall population, up from 3,002,090 three months ago; the number of study permit holders declined by 4.3 per cent, from 1,055,725 to 1,010,404.

 

The total number of temporary residents continued to grow, though at a slower pace, as a result of increases among work permit holders and among asylum seekers and protected persons.

 

While other provinces and territories saw net gains in temporary residents, Ontario and Manitoba experienced a slight decline between July and October.

 

In October, the federal government also adjusted its annual intake of permanent residents, reducing it by 21 per cent to 395,000 next year, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.

 

The statistics agency’s latest data showed Canada welcomed 124,239 permanent residents in the third quarter, similar to the quarterly increases since the third quarter of 2021. During the three-month period, every province welcomed fewer immigrants than the previous quarter.

The third quarter also saw a slowdown of interprovincial migration across Canada, seeing the number of people moving from one province to another down by 10.1 per cent to 80,538 from 89,559 during the same period in 2023.

 

“This is closer to the third-quarter levels seen from 2009 to 2019 (which ranged from 71,976 to 89,862 migrants) and could mark a return to pre-pandemic levels of interprovincial migration,” said Statistics Canada.

 

Most provinces and territories experienced net losses in their exchanges with other provinces or territories over this period, except for Alberta, which saw a net gain of 10,810 residents; Nova Scotia (+359); the Northwest Territories (+63); and Quebec (+18).

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star