Canada’s immigration department does not collect information on how many migrants are in the country illegally, Deputy Immigration Minister Harpreet Kochhar says.
“We do count through Stats Canada, the census, but we would not have any estimation of those who do not have a particular status in Canada,” Kochhar testified at the House of Commons Immigration Committee on Oct. 21, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Kochhar was responding to questioning from Conservative MP Costas Menegakis, who had asked about the “most recent internal estimate that the government has on the total number of individuals living in Canada without legal status.”
Menegakis next inquired whether the immigration department has a “handle on how many people are estimated to be in Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program” but are not working. Kochhar said it has information on how many people have been given such permits, but added that the agency does not track “whether they are actually into particular jobs.”
The immigration department wrote in an April 24 briefing note that there were “no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented immigrants residing in Canada” but that estimates suggest the population “could be as high as 500,000.”
Aaron McCrorie, the Canada Border Services Agency’s vice-president of intelligence and enforcement, told the committee there are roughly 30,000 people awaiting deportation from Canada, but there are also more being added.
“The sad analogy I use is, as we remove people, new people are added to our inventory … Right now, for example, our ‘removal in progress’ inventory is sitting at 30,000 people,” he said.
Menegakis asked how many removal orders the CBSA has, and where the people are located, but McCrorie said the agency does not track the “location of each and every individual.”
McCrorie also said he did not have information on how many people with removal orders have been convicted of a crime.
Surging immigration numbers led to Canada’s population increasing from 38 million in July 2020, to approximately 41.7 million currently. The number of permanent residents, non-permanent residents, and international students rose during that time period.
Ottawa began lowering its target immigration levels in 2024. It put a two-year intake cap on the number of international student permit applications, and reduced the target number of new study permits issued from 485,000 to 437,000.
The federal government also announced plans to reduce the number of temporary residents, which includes international students and temporary foreign workers, from 6.5 percent of Canada’s population to 5 percent over the next three years.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab said on Sept. 22 in the House of Commons that the Liberal government is intent on “ensuring that our immigration system becomes sustainable, as well as intent on protecting our borders.” She also said 100,000 fewer international students arrived in 2025 because the government put a two-year cap on permits at the start of the year.
