Carney reinforces immigration priorities in new mandate letter to ministers

In a recent mandate letter to his cabinet, Prime Minister Mark Carney reiterated his broad goals for Canada’s immigration system.

Carney’s mandate letter outlined two main immigration goals:

• Returning overall immigration to sustainable levels; and
• Attracting the best talent from around the world to help build Canada’s economy.

These two goals were presented as a single directive and were one of the top seven priorities for Canada’s cabinet moving forward.

Mandate letters are special directives given to members of the cabinet from the prime minister, which typically outline major goals, milestones, and sometimes even methods that the prime minister would like his cabinet to conform to, in keeping and achieving their governmental mandate.

In the past, Canadian prime ministers have often delivered individual mandate letters to each minister. It is unclear at this time whether Carney will follow this pattern.

Returning overall immigration rates to sustainable levels

In his mandate letter, Carney reiterated the need to bring overall immigration levels down to “sustainable levels”.

Previously on the campaign trail, the Liberals under Carney ran on a platform of stabilizing permanent resident immigration levels, acknowledging that the previous Liberal administration had allowed immigration levels to rise at an “unsustainable” rate—a change which in turn had placed strain on Canada’s housing and public services.

To address this, the Liberals previously proposed to “stabilize permanent admissions at less than 1% of Canada’s population annually beyond 2027.”

With Canada’s population projected to be 41.5 million in 2025, the previously planned targets (as outlined in Canada’s 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, published in October of 2024) already fall below the 1% threshold.

According to the Plan for 2025–2027, the government aims to admit 395,000 permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026, and 365,000 in 2027.

Attracting the best talent from around the world

In addition to the above, Carney’s mandate letter also mentioned another theme that was previously touched on during the federal election: gearing the immigration system to “attract top global talent.”

The Liberal Party’s election platform included plans to update the Global Skills Strategy (GSS) to bring key professional talent to help build and support critical sectors of Canada's economy.

The GSS is a federal work permit program that supports eligible Canadian companies by facilitating the hiring of skilled foreign workers. Under this program, foreign nationals can get expedited work permit processing, typically within two weeks.

The proposed changes included in the Liberal election platform contained new initiatives aimed at helping high-growth Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs bring in talent. The platform also highlights a focus on attracting highly skilled professionals from the United States.

Additionally, the party committed to working with provinces and territories to improve and accelerate the recognition of foreign credentials and international work experience—allowing foreign skilled workers to more quickly and effectively integrate into the Canadian labour market.

Context for these changes

The changes advocated by Mark Carney in his mandate letter have their roots in the immigration policy instituted by previous Immigration Minister Marc Miller, at the tail-end of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s tenure.

Under Marc Miller, and in response to growing concerns around affordability and housing, Canada’s Liberal government adjusted their immigration policy to scale back on both temporary resident and permanent resident admissions.

This included measures such as

• Setting targets to reduce the number of new study and work permit holders entering Canada each year;
• Reducing permanent resident immigration levels to approximately what they were before the pandemic;
• Temporarily halting new low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications in metro areas with unemployment rates of 6% or higher;
• Shifting the focus of federal economic immigration programs to prioritize candidates already in Canada;
• Imposing a cap on new study permit applications;
• Making major changes to the occupational categories used in Express Entry;
• Adding language and program-of-study criteria for eligibility to receive a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP);
• Creating new permanent residence streams and study permit exemptions for skilled workers in trades and construction occupations;
• Restricting eligibility for Open Work Permits (OWP) for family members; and
• Eliminating arranged employment points in the Comprehensive Ranking System for Express Entry candidates.