Question Period Note: HOUSING AND IMMIGRATION

Canada is experiencing unprecedented housing pressures, which requires collaboration between all levels of government, including provinces, territories and municipalities and the private sector to address the underlying issues and ensure that Canadians and newcomers have access to housing.

• Housing is a complex issue and the solution to Canada’s housing pressures will require all governments and the private sector working together.

• While population growth through immigration increases demand for housing, it also contributes to addressing labour market needs. Through measures like category-based selection, IRCC is helping bring in construction workers to put shovels in the ground and build new homes when qualified Canadians are not available.

• Temporary residents enrich Canada’s economic, social and cultural fabric. However, we need to ensure that the number of temporary residents entering the country is at a sustainable level so that services and support, including affordable housing, are available.

• Let me be clear- international students and temporary foreign workers are not to blame for the housing crisis. Introducing a cap on international students aims to improve system integrity while alleviating pressures on housing, health care and other services, particularly in communities with a high concentration of students.

If pressed:
• On March 21, 2024, I announced that IRCC will be incorporating temporary residents into the Levels Plan for the first time, starting this year, and targeting a decrease in our temporary resident population to 5% over the next three years, to continue stabilizing our immigration system.
• This includes the previously announced intake cap on study permit applications to manage international student volumes.
• IRCC is also working with federal partners to develop a whole-of-government approach to immigration levels planning, with a particular focus on Canada’s infrastructure capacity.

BACKGROUND:

• On April 16, 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance tabled Budget 2024, titled Fairness for every generation. The 2024 federal budget is the government’s plan to build more homes, faster, help make life cost less, and grow the economy in a way that helps every generation get ahead.

• Budget 2024 included a number of housing investments that aim to stimulate innovative construction, protect renters, and train and recruit the next generation of skilled trades workers. Highlights include:

o Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund
• $6 billion over 10 years to launch the fund, to accelerate the construction and upgrading of housing infrastructure, and to improve densification.

o Housing Accelerator Fund
• $400 million over four years, in additional investments to top up the Housing Accelerator Fund to help fast track 12,000 new homes in the next 3 years.

o Apartment Construction Loan Program
• $15 billion in new loan funding for the Apartment Construction Loan Program to build more rental apartments.

o Foreign Credential Recognition Program
• $50 million over 2 years to streamline foreign credential recognition within the construction and health care sectors.

o Extending GST relief to student residences
• $19 million over five years, and $5 million per year ongoing, for the removal of GST on new student residences for not-for-profit universities, public colleges, and school authorities to alleviate pressures to student housing projects.

o New Rapid Housing Stream
• $976 million over 5 years and $24 million ongoing to launch the new stream under the Affordable Housing Fund, to build deeply affordable housing, supportive housing and shelters for the most vulnerable.

o Federal Homelessness Strategy
• $1.3 billion over four years in additional investments for Canada’s Homelessness Strategy to support emergency funding over the winter for those experiencing or at risk of unsheltered homelessness, including those living in encampments.

• The Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities released Canada’s Housing 2030 Plan to the public on April 12, 2024 to help respond to the housing crisis. The plan contains three themes: (1) Building more homes; (2) Making it easier to own or rent a home; and (3): Helping Canadians who can’t afford a home.

• According to Statistics Canada, in 2023, Canada experienced its highest annual population growth rate since 1957, at 3.2%. Most of Canada's population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without temporary immigration, Canada's population growth would have been almost three times less (+1.2%).

• Visitors, international students and temporary workers are a critical part of Canada’s social, cultural and economic fabric. However, it is essential to balance this with our welcoming capacity. IRCC is taking action to manage volumes and to ensure that temporary residents have a positive experience in Canada.Thoughtful immigration policies, like the recently announced caps on international students and temporary foreign workers are important to ensure sustainable growth and the well-being of both newcomers and Canadians.

Housing, Immigration Planning

• The Strategic Immigration Review report announced a commitment to a broader approach to immigration levels planning to better align with investment in housing, among other areas. The report also committed the Department to explore options leveraging the investment of those coming to Canada in order to support more affordable housing; the Department is advancing its work on potential options.

In late 2023, the Government of Canada announced important reforms to the International Student Program. This includes making changes to ensure the number of international students who come to Canada to study are aligned with the capacity to welcome and integrate them, while incentivizing educational institutions to provide better supports to international students, including access to safe and affordable housing.

• In January 2024, a cap on most study permit application was established through Ministerial Instructions. Given that education is the responsibility of the provinces and territories, IRCC allocated spaces under the cap to each province and territories. Applicants subject to the cap are required to submit a provincial attestation letter with their study permit application. Provinces and territories are responsible for distributing provincial attestation letters in their jurisdiction in order to meet their allocation spaces.
• In efforts to manage temporary migration, ESDC Minister announced in March 2024 measures adjusting the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) to ensure the program continues to only be used in cases where there are no workers here in Canada that can fill the necessary role.

Facilitative pathways for construction workers
• Category based selection was launched in Express Entry in June 2023; to date, two trades rounds have invited 2,500 candidates with work experience in in-demand trade occupations to apply for permanent residence. These category-specific rounds of invitations have significantly increased the total number of invitations to candidates with experience in trade occupations expected to be in long-term shortage, from 807 invitations in 2022 to 4,091 in 2023.

• Temporary Foreign Workers: Between 2023 and the end of February 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued over 42,000 work permits to temporary foreign workers in construction sector occupations, with the majority coming under the TFWP.

• Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP): IRCC supports PTs in developing targeted initiatives to fill critical labour market needs in the construction sector to support housing development. For instance, last summer, IRCC officials worked closely with Nova Scotia in designing the Critical Construction Worker Pilot under their PNP, which was launched in October 2023.

• The Atlantic Immigration Program and the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot are also regional economic immigration programs designed with the needs of key sectors in mind and has flexibilities to respond to critical labour market needs, such as the construction sector.

• Global Skills Missions: IRCC will organize global skills missions in collaboration with government representatives, employers and stakeholders, to recruit the talent Canada needs.

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