Uncertainty continues to swirl around Prime Minister Mark Carney’s upcoming immigration plan, with federal officials unable to confirm whether the full framework of Canada’s new immigration levels will be released alongside next week’s federal budget.
Carney has repeatedly promised to “get immigration under control,” vowing to reduce the proportion of temporary residents in Canada from about seven per cent of the population to five per cent by the end of 2026. In a pre-budget address on October 22, he pledged that the forthcoming budget would include a new plan — but it remains unclear whether that plan will contain the complete details of annual targets.
Officials at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told The Canadian Press that the immigration levels plan — a legally required document that must be tabled in Parliament by November 1 — will appear in the budget. The plan typically sets Canada’s intake goals for the next three years across major streams including economic immigration, family reunification, refugee resettlement, and temporary visas.
However, a senior Liberal insider familiar with the matter said it’s still uncertain whether the version included in the budget will be complete or only a partial outline. That ambiguity has fueled speculation about internal divisions within government ranks and growing political sensitivity as public sentiment toward high immigration levels cools.
Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, said there is widespread uncertainty across the immigration sector. “There seems to be a lot of confusion around funding for settlement services, and around the number of immigrants, both permanent and temporary, that Canada will accept next year,” he said.
Opposition parties were quick to criticize the government for the lack of clarity. Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said that when she questioned the deputy minister during an October 21 committee meeting, she received no timeline. “The fact that they won’t even provide parliamentarians with that information days before it’s due raises serious concerns,” she said. “We need data on how many people the Liberals plan to let in to assess whether Canada has the infrastructure to properly integrate newcomers.”
Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe suggested the delay may be politically motivated. “A majority of Canadians and Quebecers think the levels are too high,” he said. “It’s hard to have an honest conversation about immigration when the government won’t show its plan.”
New Democrat immigration critic Jenny Kwan called the delay “unacceptable,” warning that communities and settlement agencies are being left in limbo. “This government claims to value immigration but can’t even meet its own legal deadline. It’s a failure of transparency and accountability,” she said in a statement.
Bernhard noted that the majority of people who become permanent residents are already in Canada on work or study permits. “If we want to attract the world’s top talent and convince them to bet their futures on Canada,” he said, “we need to show that our immigration policy is stable, strategic, and not reactive to political winds.”
With the federal budget just days away, uncertainty over one of the government’s most politically charged portfolios continues to grow — and Canadians will soon see whether Carney delivers the clarity he has promised.