Federal Housing Minister Sean Fraser and his colleague, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller, said yesterday that the government is working to stabilize the number of people entering the country annually amid increasing housing pressures.

Earlier, the Canadian Press reported on Thursday about internal documents from 2022 showing that senior immigration ministry officials warned their deputy minister that a significant increase in newcomers could strain access to housing and services.

It is noted that Justin Trudeau's Liberal government decided in the latest immigration plan to increase the number of permanent residents welcomed by Canada each year to 500,000 by 2025, nearly double the number in 2015.

In a joint statement issued yesterday, the two Liberal ministers defended the decision to enhance immigration levels, arguing that immigration supported Canada's recovery during the economic rebound phase from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If we had not increased immigration after the pandemic, the economy would have contracted, businesses facing severe labor shortages would have closed their doors, and social services that Canadians rely on, including health care, would have experienced further delays or become harder to access," said Ministers Miller and Fraser in their joint statement yesterday.

However, the federal ministers of immigration and housing also said that housing pressures pushed the government to adjust its immigration targets as well as the number of temporary residents Canada receives.

In this regard, Minister Miller announced about two and a half months ago the stabilization of the number of permanent residents coming to Canada at 500,000 in 2026, the same number as for 2025.

Miller also made amendments to the international student program to address issues related to the fraud they fall victim to and the challenges of the cost of living.

The two Liberal ministers said the federal government is ready to take further measures if post-secondary educational institutions do not ensure that the housing needs of international students are met.

"We expect educational institutions to accept only the number of students they can accommodate or help find housing for off-campus," the ministers added in their statement.

"We are prepared to take necessary measures, including significantly reducing the number of visas, to ensure that the concerned educational institutions provide appropriate and adequate services to students as part of the academic experience," Ministers Miller and Fraser confirmed.