Federal Budget 2024: Key Changes for Newcomers in Housing and Credential Recognition

The federal government released this week its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, with a big emphasis on housing construction and affordability, the economy and improving the country’s labour force productivity.

While immigration was not one of the key topics of the upcoming fiscal plan, the new budget will still have an impact on the immigration system and newcomers. Here are two key areas to keep an eye on:

Housing and total migration

The federal government has already taken steps to reduce the number of temporary immigrants, capping study permits while also keeping immigration targets for permanent residents unchanged for the next couple of years at 500,000 for 2025 and 2026.

The government’s plan to reduce temporary migration by five per cent will result in an overall decrease in immigration of about 600,000 people compared to current levels.

“Under the 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan, the government has carefully moderated the intake of new permanent residents, moving towards a long-term approach that seeks to strike a balance between meeting the economic imperatives and enhancing the ability of communities to effectively welcome and integrate immigrants,” the document reads.

Though the move to set these immigration targets was announced in November 2023, the budget linked these changes to housing as part of the new budget.

Though the government reaffirms its commitment to immigration and highlights its benefits for the county, it also said it will be “aligning migration to with housing capacity,” which in turn will potentially lead to more affordable homes and better capacity to serve newcomers.

“Immigration enriches Canada's society, our culture, and our economy, but the combination of temporary and permanent immigration experienced last year put strains on Canada's ability to properly welcome and integrate newcomers into Canadian society,” the budget reads.

“Normalizing permanent and temporary immigration levels is critical to ensuring that newcomers have the opportunities and social supports they need to succeed when coming to Canada. Further, these changes will ensure that newcomers, and all Canadians, have an affordable place to call home.”

Improving foreign credential recognitions

In a move that recognizes the economic importance of immigrants and the depth of talent newcomers bring, the federal government is pledging to spend an additional $50 million on the Foreign Credential Recognition Program on top of the $115 already announced in the 2022 budget.

Professionals in two main sectors stand to benefit from the additional investment: health care and the skilled trades, with the new money being evenly divided. The additional investment aims to reduce barriers for immigrants to contribute to the country’s economy and align their skills with in-demand jobs.

“Similar to a recent agreement between federal, provincial and territorial health ministers to recognize foreign credentials for health care professionals, the federal government is calling on provinces and territories to expedite the removal of their barriers to foreign credential recognition,” the budget document states.