Have work permits under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program surpassed targets, as Poilievre claims?

Pierre Poilievre has claimed that the federal government has issued work permits in excess the planned “cap” for 2025.

But the figures presented to support this claim are misleading.

In a statement published on the Conservative Party website, the party writes that “Carney’s government has issued 105,000 new Temporary Foreign Worker permits in the first six months of 2025 alone. Despite a promised cap of 82,000, the Liberals are on track to issue the most TFW permits ever.”

The figure of 82,000 comes from the federal government’s annual Immigration Levels Plan , and represents not a cap, but rather an intended target for net new arrivals under the TFWP throughout 2025 — that is, new foreign nationals entering Canada on work permits. The purpose of the 82,000 target is to limit the gr