Population growth slows for first time since start of pandemic as Canadian government clamps down

Statistics Canada says the population of the country reached an estimated 41,288,599 on July 1. People walk in an overhead pedestrian crossing in Toronto on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

Population growth in Canada slowed slightly in the last quarter of the year as the government made efforts to reduce temporary migration into the country, Statistics Canada revealed Wednesday.

It's the first time quarterly growth has slowed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the number of people coming into the country ground almost to a halt as the government closed Canada's borders.

International migration almost entirely accounts for the increase to Canada's population.

In January, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced plans to impose a soft cap on the number of temporary residents in Canada, which has rapidly increased since the pandemic and has put pressure on the country's housing stock.

The specific limits will be announced this fall, but in the meantime the government has taken several steps to scale back the number of temporary workers and international students in Canada.

Statistics Canada said the number of non-permanent residents continues to grow, but the rate of that growth has been slowing since October 2023.

"In the second quarter, there was a net increase of 117,836 non-permanent residents," the statistics agency said in its release Wednesday.

"This was the smallest net increase since the first quarter of 2023 and marks the third quarter in a row of smaller net increases in the number of non-permanent residents."

The slower growth in temporary migrants was mainly due to changes to student visas, Statistics Canada said.

"What we're seeing is there is a slowing. I think that's positive. It's proof that a number of the measures are working," Miller said Wednesday.

Though the rate of population growth is slowing, it remained higher than in any other second quarter before 2022.

Statistics Canada says the country's population reached an estimated 41,288,599 on July 1.

Alberta posted the fastest growth rate among the provinces and territories with an increase of 1.0 per cent in the quarter, while the Northwest Territories was the slowest with an increase of 0.1 per cent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.