After two months of immigration growth in Canada, the number of new permanent residents to Canada softened by 4.9 per cent in June, the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals.
In March, the country welcomed only 34,870 new permanent residents.
That performance improved in April as 42,595 foreign nationals gained their permanent residency in Canada through the country’s immigration programs – and again in May when that number rose to 46,835.
June, though, saw monthly immigration to Canada soften with the number of new permanent residents falling to 44,540.
Based on that volume of arrivals, the total number of new permanent residents to Canada this year could hit 511,410 if that trend were to continue for the rest of 2024.
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That would be 8.4 per cent more new permanent residents to Canada this year than the 471,815 in 2023 which was a record-breaking year for immigration.
That projected level of immigration would also be 5.4 per cent more than the 485,000 new permanent residents Canada has indicated it will welcome into the country under its 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan.
It would even be higher than the immigration target of 500,000 new permanent residents for each of next year and 2026.
There is, however, a great deal of normal variance in monthly immigration levels.
Due to a slow start earlier this year, the number of new permanent residents to Canada in the first half of this year, at 255,700, remains 2.9 per cent lower than the 263,420 for the same period last year.
Canada’s biggest province by population, Ontario, was the most popular destination for newcomers in the first half of this year with 106,500 new permanent residents choosing to settle there.
That means the central Canadian province was the destination of choice of more than 41.6 per cent of all immigrants to Canada during the first six months of this year.
Economic programs, including the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), Agri-Food Immigration Pilot (AFIP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Caregiver programs, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), Federal Skilled Trades (FST) and Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) programs, the Start-Up Visa (SUV) and Self-Employed Persons (SEP) programs, and the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway accounted for about 52.7 per cent of all new permanent residents coming to Ontario during the first six months of this year.
Those programs helped 56,155 new permanent residents arrive in Ontario during that period.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec and Ontario Saw Monthly Immigration Gains
Another 25,610 new permanent residents arrived in Ontario through family sponsorships and 19,755 came to that province through Canada’s refugee and protected persons programs from January through to the end of June.
The other provinces and territories attracted the following number of new permanent residents during those six months.
- Newfoundland and Labrador – 3,015
- Prince Edward Island – 2,495
- Nova Scotia – 8,330
- New Brunswick – 8,890
- Quebec – 30,315
- Manitoba – 13,425
- Saskatchewan – 13,015
- Alberta – 34,375
- British Columbia – 34,535
- Yukon – 530
- Northwest Territories – 230
- Nunavut – 20
Across the country, only Newfoundland and Labrador, the francophone province of Quebec, and Ontario saw upticks in monthly immigration in June. In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador saw monthly immigration nudge up 3.7 per cent that month and Quebec saw an increase of 2.4 per cent. Ontario’s immigration was essentially flat but did see a bump up of 0.1 per cent.
Canada operates a two-tier immigration system which allows foreign nationals to gain their permanent residency through the federal Express Entry system’s FSW, FST, and CEC programs and as well as the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) of the 10 Canadian provinces.
Temporary immigration to Canada, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, is expected to come under an immigration levels plan in September, Immigration Minister Marc Miller has announced.
