IRCC Opens Public Consultation on Canada’s Next Immigration Levels Plan

Every year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) runs a public consultation for the next Immigration Levels Plan, which sets targets for how many permanent residents and temporary residents Canada will admit over a three-year period. This year’s consultation will (theoretically) shape the 2027–2029 Immigration Levels Plan, which will be released this fall. 

If you are planning to move to Canada, already here as a temporary resident, or interested in the future of Canada’s immigration system, you should participate in the consultation. Completing the survey will only take a few minutes, and anyone, including organizations, community groups, immigration professionals, and prospective PR applicants can participate. 

The 2027-2029 Levels Plan Consultation Questionnaire 

IRCC’s survey this year focuses on open-ended questions, allowing respondents to give detailed responses. This is different from previous years, where the survey leaned heavily on multiple-choice questions. 

The survey includes five substantive questions: 

• How recent reductions to temporary and permanent resident targets have affected your community or sector 

• Changes you would recommend to future temporary and permanent resident levels (and why?) 

• Any regional or demographic trends IRCC should consider while finalizing immigration level targets 

• Long-term priorities that should guide Canada’s immigration system 

• Challenges or barriers that affect people’s ability to immigrate to and settle in Canada  

According to IRCC, the survey will help them understand what matters most when planning immigration levels. However, unlike previous consultations, this year’s questionnaire does not seek inputs on the planned immigration targets for 2027 (and beyond) at all. 

The survey also includes demographic questions so IRCC can understand who is responding, including questions about whether you live inside or outside Canada, your immigration status, the province you’rein, your industry, and whether you’re responding on behalf of an organization or other group. 

The survey is open from May 12 to June 14, 2026. 

The Context Behind the Questions 

In November 2025, the government tabled the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan with two key targets:  

• Reducing the temporary resident population to less than 5 percent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, and  

• Keeping permanent resident admissions at less than 1 percent of the population after 2027. 

The government also plans to increase Francophone PR admissions outside Quebec to 12 percent by 2029. 

The 2027–2029 plan will build on those commitments, or potentially adjust them based on the evidence gathered in this process. 

In terms of numerical targets, the 2026–2028 plan proposed the following for 2027: 

• Worker arrivals: 220,000 

• International student arrivals: 150,000 

• Permanent resident admissions: 380,000 (including 9.5 percent French-speaking PR admissions outside Quebec) 

Although the current consultation doesn’t specifically seek input on these numbers, these are the targets that could be revised based on stakeholder responses. 

The Results from Last Year’s Consultation 

IRCC publishes a final report after each consultation round, summarizing the responses. (It remains to be seen how IRCC will do this with an open-ended questionnaire.) 

Last year’s report, which informed the current 2026–2028 plan, revealed a significant difference between responses collected from organizations and individuals. 

Organizations, including businesses, post-secondary institutions, and settlement agencies, largely felt that permanent resident targets were “about right” or “too low.” More than half of organizational respondents said the 2026 permanent resident target represented “too few” admissions, and 60 percent wanted the target to increase beyond 2027. 

On the other hand, over 75 percent of individual respondents said both the 2026 and 2027 permanent resident targets were “too high,” and 75 percent preferred a decrease beyond 2027. 

The gap was equally sharp on temporary residents. More than 80 percent of individual respondents said the 2026 targets for temporary workers and international students represented “too many,” while about half of organizational respondents felt those same targets were “too few.” 

Both groups agreed that language training, employment support, and foreign credential recognition mattered most for newcomer integration. 

However, the consultation report did not provide aggregate responses. For instance, the 2025–2027 plan set the target for student arrivals at 305,900. A majority of organizations stated this was “too low” while most individuals said this was “too high.” The 2026–2028 levels plan revised this target down to 155,000. So, it is hard to assess which findings had an impact on the 2026–2028 plan. 

The Consultation Results Inform, But Don’t Determine, the Plan 

According to IRCC, these consultations provide meaningful inputs for the Levels Plan. And in some ways, they do. The consultations gather a breadth of voices, from rural municipalities to major employers to individual newcomers. This gives the department a better picture of the public and stakeholder opinion, as well as what’s working. 

But the consultation is one input among many. IRCC also draws on public opinion research, economic data, discussions with provinces and territories and broader government priorities when setting levels. 

How many responses IRCC gets through the consultation could potentially determine the weight the consultation gets in the overall decision-making process. In 2025, IRCC received 18,135 responses from individuals, a 400 percent increase from the 3,626 received the year before. It also received 840 responses from partner organizations and other stakeholders. 

What Should You Do Next? 

If you want to participate (and we highly recommend you do), you can complete the survey on IRCC’s website. You can review the questions in advance and prepare your answers before completing the online form. The questions are open-ended and should take about 10 to 15 minutes to answer. 

You don’t need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to participate. Temporary residents and people outside Canada are included in the survey’s intended audience. 

The deadline is June 14, 2026. IRCC will publish a consultation report summarizing the findings later this year, before the 2027–2029 Immigration Levels Plan is tabled.