The Conversion Canada Already Paid For

Canada is preparing to tighten immigration. Targets are down. The political narrative has shifted. And somewhere in that shift, 298,128 Ukrainians who came here under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) — and tens of thousands of others on special temporary measures — are watching their status clocks run out.

Let me make a simple argument: for the people already here, Canada has already made the investment. The question is whether we're willing to collect on it.

What the Numbers Show

Since 2022, Canada welcomed 298,128 Ukrainians under CUAET — a remarkable humanitarian response to Russia's full-scale invasion. Many arrived, enrolled their kids in school, found jobs, signed leases, opened bank accounts. They became, in every practical sense, members of Canadian communities.

The same pattern holds for others. Following October 7, 2023, Canada opened fee-exempt work permits for Israeli nationals already here on temporary status — valid for up to three years. IRCC's own open data shows the scale: 4,725 new work permits issued to Israeli nationals in 2024 under the International Mobility Program — nearly four times the pre-war baseline of 1,200 in 2022. From January 2024 through July 2025, the total reaches approximately 7,120. The IMP category is precisely where Canada's open work permit stream for Israelis sits. These are people who chose Canada in a moment of crisis, found employment, and built roots. Their status clocks are ticking too.

CUAET permits began expiring in 2025. Canada did create one TR-to-PR pathway for Ukrainians — a family reunification stream, open from October 2023 to October 2024, for those with a Canadian citizen or permanent resident as an anchor. Meaningful, but narrow: it was unavailable to the majority of CUAET arrivals who came without family already established in Canada. For them, there is still no bridge from temporary to permanent.

The Sunk Cost That Isn't Sunk

Here is what Canada has already spent on each of these individuals: a federal processing system, provincial settlement services, school enrollment, healthcare access, language programs, community integration support. The per-person investment in newcomer settlement is substantial — measured in thousands of dollars of public and civil-sector resources.

When someone who has been here three years, built community ties, held employment, and raised children in Canadian schools is forced to leave — or is left in limbo — that investment evaporates. The family relocates. The tax contributions stop. The integration work has to begin again somewhere else, or not at all.

This is not a compassion argument, though compassion is warranted. It is an efficiency argument. A return-on-investment argument. One that should appeal across the political spectrum.

What a TR-to-PR Pathway Would Look Like

A meaningful pathway doesn't have to be unlimited or unconditional. It should be targeted: available to those who arrived under designated humanitarian measures, have maintained legal status, demonstrate settlement integration (employment, language, community ties), and have no serious criminality on record.

This isn't novel. Canada has done versions of this before — post-Vietnam, post-Bosnia, in the Syrian refugee program. The machinery exists. The question is political will.

The alternative — mass expiry of temporary permits with no pathway — creates a humanitarian crisis that Canada will spend years managing reactively. Irregular border crossings, status limbo, enforcement pressure, community fracture. All of which costs more, in every dimension, than a structured pathway would.

The Political Moment

Yes, immigration is politically difficult right now. Numbers are down. The government is under pressure to be seen as controlling intake. I understand the optics.

But there is a meaningful difference between reducing new admissions and abandoning people already here. The public, I think, understands this distinction — even if the political conversation hasn't made it clearly enough.

Offering a TR-to-PR pathway to people who arrived under humanitarian measures and have integrated into Canada is not a concession to open-borders advocates. It is a recognition that Canada made a commitment, these people honoured their end of it, and we should honour ours.

What I'm Watching

IRCC's own data tells a story worth examining closely. Processing times, approval rates, and the composition of the temporary resident population are all shifting. In future posts in this series, I'll be drawing on the open IRCC statistics and live data dashboards to ground these policy arguments in what's actually happening — not just what's being said.

For now, the core argument stands on its own: Canada has already paid the conversion cost. It would be a strange kind of fiscal conservatism to throw that investment away.

Oded Oron, PhD, is a Toronto-based immigration policy analyst, Assistant Professor (Teaching) at the University of Toronto, and Manager at JIAS Toronto. He writes on Canadian immigration policy, Israeli affairs, and the intersection of academia and public life.