Executive Summary
Canada’s immigration system is in urgent need of structural reform. While immigration remains central to Canada’s identity and economy, recent years have seen an over-reliance on volume-driven strategies detached from national capacity, public consensus, and measurable success.
Express Entry plays the long game, assuming that high-scoring applicants will eventually integrate. Business immigration pathways like the Start-Up Visa lack transparency, oversight, and strategic purpose. The Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process is a bureaucratic barrier for employers. Temporary resident programs, with ~2.5 million students and workers, strain infrastructure without clear economic alignment. The result is growing public dissatisfaction, underemployment of newcomers, housing strain, and a system at risk of losing its legitimacy.
This article proposes a new path forward through honest public engagement, employer-driven policy design, accountable pilot projects, and measurable immigration outcomes aligned with national priorities.
Those who know the intricacies of immigration know something is very wrong. There is a lack of understanding on where to start rebuilding a proud heritage.
Introduction: A System at a Crossroads
Canada has long prided itself on being a nation built by immigrants. But the current system is under strain—and at risk of losing the trust of Canadians. Immigration levels have surged. Infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. And policymakers continue to rely on outdated models that simply aren’t working.
In my 30 years of practicing immigration law, I have never witnessed such a gradual deterioration in the effective delivery of key immigrants to the Canadian economy, nor such an inability to fully appreciate the root problems and implement viable, long-term solutions.
The signs of crisis are no longer subtle. They’re structural.
The Problem in a Nutshell
The immigration system’s core failures are twofold:
- A lack of a cohesive and effective selection system for economic immigration.
- A lack of transparency and fairness in the components of the immigration system that admit immigrants without regard to national needs.
Where We Are: Immigration Levels
Recent Permanent Resident (PR) admissions and targets illustrate the scale:
- 2022: 431,645 PR admissions (actual)
- 2023: 471,550 PR admissions (actual)
- 2024: 485,000 PR admissions (target; actual 2024 figures to be finalized by IRCC)
- 2025: 395,000 PR admissions (target), per the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan announced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on October 31, 2024.
These numbers reflect good intentions—but the supporting infrastructure hasn’t kept up. The 2025 target, reduced from the previous official target of 500,000 for 2025, acknowledges pressures on infrastructure and public sentiment. However, the result remains: public frustration, housing strain, and gaps between skills and jobs.
The Express Entry Illusion
Express Entry operates on a long-term assumption: if you admit high-scoring individuals, they’ll eventually succeed. But the real-world results don’t match the theory.
Immigration has become a numbers game built on the flawed belief that high-scoring applicants will eventually find their way. How wrong they are.
This “long game” view fails to account for credential mismatches, job market disconnects, and employer frustrations.
The Aimless Drift of Economic Immigrants
The truth of the matter is that economic immigrants often enter Canada and drift aimlessly in the economy. The fundamental flaw lies in the chronic mismatch between immigrant skills and the needs of the labor market.
This disconnect stems from a lack of employer involvement. The system does not effectively match people to jobs, sectors, or economic opportunities. Instead, newcomers are selected on theoretical points, not practical fit.
The LMIA Illusion
The Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process is intended to ensure that foreign workers only enter when no Canadians are available for the job. In practice, it has become a cumbersome bureaucratic process that discourages genuine participation from employers.
The LMIA process has become a bureaucratic cat-and-mouse game—costly, slow, and disconnected from employer realities. It serves neither the strategic interest of employers nor the needs of immigrants. It does not result in a sustainable or transparent system for economic contribution. Nor does it link meaningfully to permanent residency.
Employers must endure excessive paperwork, rigid advertising protocols, and lengthy wait times. The process prioritizes form over function and compliance over effectiveness. It is time to replace the LMIA process with employer-trusted pathways that are timely, reliable, and outcome-based.
The Business Immigration Failure
The Start-Up Visa (SUV) was designed to attract the best entrepreneurial minds—but it lacks oversight, defined success metrics, and post-landing support, often leaving even promising entrepreneurs struggling.
John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity has noted, “At the core of the wealth creation process are entrepreneurs.” Yet, as he has also pointed out regarding Canadian approaches, “Too often, we treat entrepreneurs as an afterthought, a problem to be managed rather than a resource to be cultivated.” This sentiment is particularly resonant when examining the SUV program. Ruffolo has directly criticized such systems, observing that the current approach can be “too slow, too bureaucratic, and too disconnected from the realities of what it takes to build a successful company.”
Canada must stop treating business immigration as an afterthought and start building it into national innovation strategy. The SUV program must be rebuilt with quotas, performance metrics, robust support structures, and a commitment to long-term value creation that genuinely fosters the entrepreneurial talent it seeks to attract.
Strategic Recommendations for a New Immigration Framework
To forge a new path, Canada must:
- Signal a National Reset: Acknowledge publicly that immigration selection and admissions will undergo a full and transparent review. Canadians need to hear that reform is underway.
- Establish Structured Stakeholder Working Groups: Consult employers, economists, unions, and sector leaders to design policy that reflects real labor market needs. This ensures reform is grounded in experience, not bureaucracy.
- End the Era of Volume-First Immigration: Immigration must be tied to clear national objectives and measured for outcomes—not simply scaled by target numbers. Canadians will not tolerate runaway immigration disconnected from results.
- Implement Accountable Pilot Projects: Test new models through small-scale programs with public metrics, sunset clauses, and renewal only upon success. Policy must prove itself before being scaled.
- Engage Canadians on the Nation They Want to Build: Immigration is about more than economics. It shapes culture, identity, and national cohesion. Public consultation on immigration’s social and cultural dimensions must guide its future.
Final Word
Immigration is not inherently good or bad. It is a tool. And like any tool, its value depends entirely on how thoughtfully and effectively it is used.
Now is the time to use it wisely.