In a March 2015 survey commissioned by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (now Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada), 52 per cent of Canadians agreed that the annual number of immigrant coming to the country is just about right. Just over one in 10 Canadians believes the country is receiving too few immigrants. About one in four Canadians feels that there are too many immigrants coming to the country.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jack-jedwab/immigration-numbers-canada_b_8907854.html

At Jennifer Roggemann Law we have concerns with how the IRCC (Immigration, Refugee, Citizenship of Canada) monitors the annual number of immigrants – if we recall correctly, the annual immigration number is based on how many permanent resident visas were issued in a fiscal year.  However, that does not mean that all permanent resident visas are “activated” by coming into Canada.  So we “presume” that everyone who got a permanent resident visa came to Canada as an immigrant.

Then, here is the second presumption.  After becoming a permanent resident, one does not necessarily stay in Canada as a permanent resident; hence, one may lose permanent resident status after 5 years or longer.  Thus, there is no certainty that all permanent resident visa receivers become permanent residents in Canada and would stay/reside in Canada to work/live in Canada after all.

Having addressed all the technical issues above, assuming both presumptions are true, then the question is whether our annual immigration number actually covers the gap between birth rate and death rate in Canada, i.e. to maintain our population as it is.  Then, this is another conversation.

What do you think?