Canada’s federal government has pursued sustained reductions in both permanent resident targets and non-permanent resident inflows through the 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan, lowering permanent admissions to 380,000 for 2026 while tightening study permits, work authorizations, and post-graduation pathways. These measures, continued under the Carney administration, have already produced consecutive quarterly population contractions in late 2025 and early 2026—the largest since comparable records began—driven primarily by net outflows of temporary residents. Official projections anticipate a further 0.2 percent decline for the full year 2026, exceeding prior benchmarks tied to pandemic restrictions or smaller policy adjustments. Trader consensus at 84 percent for the largest annual drop reflects the scale and persistence of these verifiable policy-driven outflows through the remainder of the year.