Conservatives want to end birthright citizenship for children of temporary residents

OTTAWA — The Conservatives are calling for a new limit on birthright citizenship, a measure they say would mirror the rules in peer countries and curb the risk of abuse of the immigration system.

Under Canadian law, a child born in this country is automatically a Canadian citizen, with very limited exceptions.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said such automatic citizenship should be limited to those who have at least one parent who’s either a citizen or a permanent resident.

“What the government has been failing to do successfully is remove incentives to abuse the immigration system,” she said in an interview.

“And automatic conferral of citizenship, even to non-residents, has always had the potential for abuse.”

Rempel Garner said there are two distinct issues to tackle: that of birth tourism — where someone comes to Canada for the purpose of giving birth so that their child is Canadian — and the growing number of temporary residents in the country.

The number of non-permanent residents was down this year after the government enacted changes to restrict the number of permit holders last fall. More than 3 million people now fall into that category, around seven per cent of the population.

In a social media post, Rempel Garner cited anecdotal evidence such as social media videos encouraging temporary residents to have children in Canada as a path to permanent residence.

She tried to amend a government bill on Tuesday to enact the change, but her motion was voted down by the Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs on the immigration committee.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he doesn’t agree that the law on birthright citizenship needs to change.

“I think when you start to pick and choose who amongst Canadians gets the full benefits of citizenship, you obviously enter into a very troublesome conversation,” Fraser said before a Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday.

Jean-François Harvey, a managing partner at Harvey Law Group, said his firm receives calls from people openly asking whether they can have a baby in Canada in order to speed up the immigration process. He said the firm dissuades them.

Harvey wrote an article in 2024 stating that birth tourism was on the rise and noting that some immigration consultants were offering specialized packages to prospective parents to help them navigate the system.

But he said a very small number of people engage in birth tourism and he doesn’t “see the point” of changing the law.

“I’ve rarely seen such negativity about immigration in Canada,” he said.

The CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship said the proposed change would scapegoat newcomers and would not tackle the bigger issues with the immigration system, such as low retention rates for highly skilled immigrants.

“Canada is now stepping in to the shoes of other Western countries that have decided to prioritize immigration over most other issues and to treat most other issues as though they are solely problems of immigration,” Daniel Bernhard said.

U.S. President Donald Trump is engaged in a legal battle as he tries to end birthright citizenship through an executive order. The order would deny citizenship to children born to people who are temporarily or illegally in the U.S., reversing a policy that dates back to the end of the Civil War.

Rempel Garner dismissed any comparison to the Republican policy as “Liberal spin.” She said she agrees anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise and “we have to have a conversation about this” to restore the consensus that immigration is a net positive.

“The blame is not on people who want to come to Canada and build a better life here. The blame is squarely on the Liberals for breaking the immigration system,” she said.

Former immigration minister Marc Miller said there is a debate to be had but he argued the courts and the Constitution would disagree with the Conservatives’ proposed changes.

“I think the general principle is that if you’re born here, you have a connection here and you have the right to be here. I think that’s a pretty fundamental principle,” he said.

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab didn’t respond to reporters’ questions about birthright citizenship on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2025.

— With files from The Associated Press

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press