**THE CANADIAN PRESS**
**Immigration Minister Marc Miller unveiled the government’s plan to reduce immigration over the next two years.**

The Canadian government, grappling with low public approval ratings and a housing affordability crisis, unveiled plans to cut the number of immigrants it allows into the country over the next two years.

The target for permanent residents is reduced to 395,000 in 2025 and 380,000 in 2026, from 500,000 currently, according to a statement Thursday on the government’s website. This is expected to result in a “marginal” decline in the population of 0.2 per cent next year and the year after, the statement said.

The lower targets “will have and are expected to impact the housing supply gap by about 670,000 units by the end of 2027,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in during a press conference. “That means that we will not have to build an additional 670,000 housing units by that time. This is significant."

The decrease in the 2025 and 2026 targets are intended to “stabilize the numbers” at 365,000 permanent residents in 2027, Miller said.

Canada’s population has been expanding at an unprecedented pace, and stood at an estimated 41.3 million people as of July 1, an increase of 3 per cent from the previous year. Officials earlier this year pledged to reduce the proportion of temporary residents in the country to 5 per cent of the total population by 2026, down from 6.2 per cent in 2023. However, non-permanent residents currently total 3 million, or 7.3 per cent of the population — a share that’s been rising, not falling.