There could be 500,000 undocumented foreigners in the country, according to estimates from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The estimation does not include legal immigrants or those in the country on student visas or as migrant labourers.

While the Immigration Department admitted there were no firm estimates on the number or composition of the undocumented immigrants, “Estimates suggest the population could be as high as 500,000,” said a briefing note on the issue, as reported by Blacklock's Reporter. 

Citing a pair of programs deployed regionally during the pandemic, the briefing note suggested the Immigration Department may look to “regularize those without immigration status.”

Everyone questioned as part of Privy Council focus group research says the federal cabinet is “headed in the wrong direction” on immigration. Researchers found opposition to record-breaking immigration targets was universal.

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Immigration Minister Marc Miller previously said Canada had “no choice” but to be an “open country” to foreigners. 

“There is no doubt that we have made a conscious decision to be an open country and a country that needs to grow,” stated Miller during an interview with National Public Radio in March. “The reality is we don’t have much of a choice.”

Speaking to the Toronto Star on July 24, the Liberal immigration minister said Canadians weren't “immune” to “what people have seen in Europe, with [a] large flow of irregular migration and the political systems that have leveraged that or weaponized that, and swept in typically right-wing governments.”

A study conducted by the Department of Immigration found that 46 percent of Canadians believe that helping unemployed Canadians should take precedence over recruiting skilled immigrants to fill labour shortages.

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“The system itself is undermined when we see flows that are coming in and not for the reasons that they were supposed to in the first place,” Miller told the Star.

The briefing note defined an undocumented migrant as “an individual who has no authorization to reside or work in Canada,” adding that “a small portion of undocumented migrants are thought to have unlawfully entered or were trafficked or smuggled into Canada.”