Immigration cap may cut home supply gap by 45% if Ottawas math is right – National [Video]

The federal government’s efforts to aggressively curb immigration levels in the years ahead could cut Canada’s housing supply gap nearly in half, the parliamentary budget officer projects — assuming Ottawa is able to execute those plans as advertised.

Canada’s fiscal watchdog released a report Friday crunching the numbers on Ottawa’s plans to reduce immigration levels through to 2027, starting with a 21 per cent reduction in new permanent residents next year.

Those policies call for a “pause” on population growth in 2025 and 2026 — shifts that the PBO said would actually see the Canadian population contract somewhat for the first time in its history.

The PBO noted that “the Government projects that the Canadian population will decline by 0.2 per cent in both 2025 and 2026, before returning to population growth of 0.8 per cent in 2027.”

The PBO said in its Friday report that the new trajectory for Canada’s population growth would drastically impact the country’s housing supply gap.

If …