Overview

• Addressing Liberal caucus on Sept. 10, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the Temporary Foreign Worker Program will be refocused on defined sectors and specific regions, with details still to come.
• Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called to abolish the program and cited 105,000 permits in the first half of 2025 as evidence the government exceeded an 82,000 figure.
• IRCC clarifies the 82,000 number is an annual target for net new arrivals rather than a cap, and only 33,722 permits from January to June were for first‑time entrants.
• Government data show overall work‑permit issuances fell by about 50% in the first half of 2025, even as roughly 105,195 TFW permits were renewed or newly issued.
• Earlier rule changes lowered employer caps, raised wage thresholds, paused low‑wage LMIA processing in high‑unemployment regions, and tightened spousal and student‑to‑work pathways, with broader temporary streams like the IMP and study permits dwarfing the TFWP in volume.