April 1, 2025 — In response to rising negative public opinion on immigration, the Canadian federal government last year announced cuts to its immigration targets.
In a news release on October 24, 2024, the government stated that this measure “alleviates pressures on housing, infrastructure and social services”.
The move came as more and more Canadians felt that there are too many immigrants being let into the country, leading to higher housing prices and the deterioration of services for the citizenry.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants to cap immigration at 200,000 to 250,000 per year. Photo from Pierre Poilievre’s Facebook.However, the cuts seem to have not much effect on public sentiment regarding immigration.
A new poll shows that more than a majority or 58 percent of Canadians still feel that there are too many immigrants in the country.
The survey was conducted by Leger research company for the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) with 1,548 respondents in Canada on March 1 and 2, 2025.
“Most Canadians agree that Canada is a nation of immigrants yet even amongst those affirming this observation there remains a feeling that there are too many (in other words it’s a nation of immigrants with too many immigrants),” ACS president and CEO Jack Jedwab wrote in a report dated March 13, 2025.
The ACS has been tracking public opinion about immigration.
Based on previous Leger surveys undertaken for the Quebec-based think-tank, the proportion of Canadians who feel that there are too many immigrants rose from 35 percent in March 2019 to 49 percent in September 2023.
The share increased to 50 percent in February 2024, then to 60 percent in March 2024, and 65 percent in September 2024.
To recall, the federal government announced cuts to immigration targets in October 2024.
“With this year’s levels plan, we have listened to Canadians,” the government stated in its news release at the time.
Moving forward, the government is reducing permanent resident targets from its previous 2025 target of 500,000 to 395,000.
Moreover, it is slashing its 2026 target of 500,000 permanent residents to 380,000.
For 2027, the target is 365,000 permanent residents.
Pierre Poilievre is the Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is gunning for the post of prime minister in the April 28, 2025 federal election.
In a previous exclusive interview with the online Juno News, Poilievre indicated that he is capping immigration at levels similar to the time of Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.
This means around 200,000 to 250,000 per year, which will align population growth with the number of new homes being built, the publication reported on February 13, 2025.
“We were building about the same number of homes as we were adding people, so we had a housing surplus,” Poilievre said in the report, in reference to the Harper years from 2006 to 2015.
“I would bring in a simple mathematical formula: we cannot bring in people faster than we add houses,” Poilievre continued.
“I would actually make sure that we’re building housing surpluses over the next four years because that’s how we close the gap that has built up,” Poilievre also said.
Going back to the Leger survey for ACS, the March 2025 poll shows a “modest reduction in the
extent to which Canadians feel that there are too many immigrants (65% to 58%)”.
ACS president and CEO Jedwab wrote that it “remains fair to say that there are still too many Canadians that feel that there are too many immigrants”.
Jedwab also wrote, “The survey further reveals some growing uncertainty about the contribution of immigrants whether as it pertains to population increase, economic contribution or other areas. Yet even those Canadians who feel there are too many immigrants continue to value skilled workers, though they assign less value to refugees.”
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