Increase PR admissions to 415,000
Petitioners ask the Minister to raise Canada’s annual permanent resident admissions target to about 415,000 from 2027 and allocate quota to clear the 62,000 Hong Kong, Ukrainian and Sudanese backlog within three years.
Why we would sign this petition
- It would grant PR to 62,000 applicants already in Canada, reducing temporary-resident numbers and, petitioners say, avoiding significant new demand for services.
- Petitioners argue raising admissions to ~415,000 would help reverse recent population decline and support economic growth by boosting labour supply.
- Petitioners note clearing the backlog would reduce IRCC’s administrative burden by removing about 186,000 anticipated work and study permit renewals.
Why we wouldn’t sign this petition
- Increased admissions could strain housing, healthcare, education and infrastructure if capacity is insufficient; petitioners’ claim of minimal added demand may be disputed.
- Redirecting quota to clear this backlog would require reallocating slots from other immigration streams or raising overall admissions, raising fairness and priority concerns.
- The proposed jump to 415,000 and three-year clearance may be difficult to implement administratively and financially within existing planning cycles.
The summary and both sets of reasons are AI-generated from the petition and given equal weight. Claims are the petitioners’ own; consult the official record for the full text.
Official petition
Petition to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has a longstanding humanitarian tradition of assisting people affected by crises through special immigration pathways. PR pathways were established for Hongkongers, Sudanese and Ukrainians; Applicants of the pathways face a 62,000-application backlog (35,000 Hong Kong, 20,000 Ukraine, 7,000 Sudan), resulting in projected wait times exceeding ten years, among the longest processing times across Canada’s PR programs; The 2026 Immigration Levels Plan allocates only 5,800 admissions to the three pathways, and falling further to just 4,000 annually in both 2027 and 2028; These applicants are already living, working or studying in Canada, and granting them PR would reduce the temporary resident population without creating significant new demand for housing, education, healthcare or public infrastructure; Canada’s population recently shrank by over 234,000 over three consecutive quarters starting in mid-2025; Canada is experiencing an economic slowdown and PM Carney has attributed this partly to lower immigration. Studies have shown that sustainable immigration plays an important role in long-term economic performance; and Clearing the backlog would eliminate IRCC’s administrative burden of processing approximately 186,000 work and study permit renewals. We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to take the following actions: 1. Increase the annual PR admissions target for 2027 onwards from the current 380,000 to approximately 415,000, representing 1% of Canada’s population. 2. With the increased annual PR admissions target, allocate sufficient annual quota to the humanitarian pathways for Hongkongers, Sudanese, Ukrainians to clear the backlog of the 62,000 pending applications within three years.
Government response
No government response is available yet.