Canada admitted more newcomers in the first four months of 2025 than Prime Minister Mark Carney’s quota was meant to allow, newly released figures show.Data from the Department of Immigration covering January 1 to April 30 counted 132,160 landed immigrants, a rate that would see 396,480 admitted by year’s end — above Carney’s 395,000 cap set last fall.“The system isn’t working,” Carney said during an April 16 televised leaders’ debate. He pledged to keep the cap “for certainly a couple of years” to give the country time to expand its capacity to welcome newcomers. Canada’s population has been rising about 3% annually due to immigration, he added.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the numbers were disclosed to the Senate national finance committee after repeated requests for details. Senator Claude Carignan, committee chair, pressed immigration officials for “the actual figures” after testimony from Nathalie Manseau, the department’s chief financial officer, who initially did not have the data at hand.The department has budgeted $5.17 billion for 2025, down from $6.4 billion in 2024, and has scaled back several programs, including lowering immigration thresholds. The 2025 Levels Plan reduced quotas by 16% from last year, but the current pace suggests they will still be exceeded.The figures did not account for temporary residents such as foreign students, visitors or migrant workers, who totaled 3,049,277 as of May 1 — equal to 18.5% of the private-sector workforce, according to a departmental briefing note to Immigration Minister Lena Diab.
