Toronto, Oct. 1 -- While the Canadian government will present its new immigration levels plan in the weeks ahead, growing sentiment against increasing intake of newcomers will weigh on its decision.

The plan for the three years ahead is expected to be tabled in Parliament during the ongoing fall session. While numbers in both permanent and temporary categories have been tempered over the last two years, the explosive increase in newcomers under the government of then prime minister Justin Trudeau has led to escalating anti-immigrant feeling in Canada, sometimes bordering on xenophobia.

A recent survey conducted by the polling firm Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies found that 60% of respondents felt the country did not need ...