Institute for Canadian Citizenship
2025 – 2026 Annual Report
Message from the Chair
Canada’s openness isn’t just a policy. It’s our superpower.
Ours is a country built by each arriving generation welcoming the next, not because they had to, but because they loved Canada and knew our country would be stronger once energized newcomers learned to love it too.
The Institute for Canadian Citizenship exists to keep Canada’s welcome advantage alive: helping newcomers become devoted Canadian citizens and fostering a society that welcomes them and their contributions.
This past year showed what that work can do. Our original research and advocacy work earned more than 1.5 billion media impressions, a fivefold increase over the year before. Our Canoo app is approaching one million members, opening the doors of Canadian culture and nature to newcomers and their families right across the country. It’s easy to tell someone they’re welcome here. With Canoo, they feel it.
To our donors and partners: thank you. Our small team accomplishes a great deal thanks to your trust and generosity.
The power of welcome has carried Canada forward for centuries. The ICC will work to ensure it carries us forward still.
Join us.
Irfhan Rawji
Chair, Institute for Canadian Citizenship
Year in Review 2025–2026
Message
from the
CEO
You know an organization is essential when it thrives despite great adversity.
That’s what the ICC proved in 2025-26.
Despite a 55% reduction in our core federal government funding, we continued to lead and grow our impact for Canada. Canoo now provides transformative integration experiences to nearly 1,000,000 immigrants. You read it right: A million people use our service.
Our annual study on Canada’s immigrant retention performance has become a national landmark, earning 1.5 billion earned media impressions: 5x more than the year before.
All this, with a small team operating on a super lean budget.
Canada needs us to succeed. We are.
Whether it’s helping immigrants fall in love with Canada at scale or helping Canada reform and improve its immigration and citizenship performance, the ICC’s contribution is unique, efficient, scalable, constructive, sensible, and necessary.
This is a big moment for our country. Thanks to you, our generous donors, committed partners, and devoted board, we’re rising to meet it.
Come what may, we’ll keep leading. It’s how we grow our service to Canada, and how we show our thanks to you.
Ever yours,
Daniel Bernhard
CEO, Institute for Canadian Citizenship
Our Work
How We Do It
1. Canoo Access Pass
Through free and discounted access to Canada’s best cultural, recreational and educational experiences, Canoo helps newcomers fall in love with Canada, discover their communities, build a sense of belonging, and participate more fully in Canadian life. It also shows longer-tenured Canadians how eager immigrants are to learn, integrate and contribute.
By the end of the fiscal year, Canoo was approaching its one millionth member, a milestone it reached just a few months later. More importantly, nearly one million newcomers had chosen to experience Canada through Canoo, creating lifelong family memories, easing the challenges of the early years of settlement and building connections that help them feel at home and contribute faster.
In 2025–26, Canoo members and their families enjoyed more than 280,000 admissions to cultural, recreational and educational experiences across Canada, saving more than $4.2 million in admission costs. These numbers represent far more than visits and savings. They represent opportunities to explore new communities, share experiences as families, and build the sense of belonging that encourages newcomers to stay and thrive in Canada.
Canoo also continued to create opportunities for newcomers to connect beyond the app. One of the year’s highlights was ICC’s first Canoo FIFA World Cup watch party, where Canoo members representing more than twenty countries came together to cheer for Team Canada and celebrate the country they now call home. Alongside exclusive Welcome Evenings with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Ballet of Canada, these shared experiences helped newcomers build friendships, celebrate together and strengthen their sense of belonging in Canada. Partnerships with TELUS and CIBC also generated more than 140,000 member engagements, extending Canoo’s impact beyond cultural experiences and into everyday life.
Behind the scenes, ICC invested in the technology and infrastructure needed to better serve Canoo members. A redesigned website launched in March 2026, more than tripling the rate at which website visitors downloaded the app. New communications and measurement tools are helping Canoo deliver a more personalized and responsive member experience as it continues to grow.
Today, Canoo is Canada’s largest welcome and integration service for newcomers. More than a membership program, it is helping newcomers build lasting connections to Canada and to one another, strengthening the sense of belonging that helps them choose to stay, succeed and contribute to a stronger country.
– Nnadozie, Canoo Member
– Nadja, Canoo Member
– Arnold, Canoo Member
Impact
964,990 Canoo members
521,240 adult members
443,750 child members
Access to over 2,000 experiences
280,704 admissions to cultural, recreational and educational experiences
More than$4.2 million in admission savings
More than 140,000 TELUS and CIBC member engagements
Canoo Member Growth
Future of Canoo
Canoo’s next chapter is about deepening its impact. It is about ensuring that every newcomer has meaningful opportunities to participate fully in Canadian life from the moment they arrive.
In 2026–27, Canoo plans to welcome more than 75,000 new adult members while creating more opportunities for newcomers to discover their communities, access cultural and recreational experiences, and build a deeper sense of belonging in Canada.
As Canoo continues to grow, ICC is investing in the partnerships, technology and insights needed to create a more personalized and responsive member experience. By better understanding how members engage with Canoo, ICC can connect newcomers with the experiences and opportunities that matter most to them.
Our long-term vision is simple: a Canada where every newcomer feels welcomed, connected and empowered to contribute. Canoo is helping make that vision possible by unlocking opportunities that help newcomers feel at home faster, choose to stay and build their futures here.
2. Ideas and Insights
Canada’s future depends not only on attracting talented newcomers, but also on creating the conditions that encourage them to stay and contribute to Canada’s success.
This year, ICC’s Ideas and Insights work brought new evidence to one of Canada’s most urgent challenges: the growing loss of immigrant talent. Through The Leaky Bucket, ICC found that highly educated and highly skilled immigrants, the very people Canada is relying on to strengthen health care, build infrastructure, grow businesses and support the future economy, are leaving at elevated rates.
The research did more than identify the problem. It helped explain why some newcomers choose to stay while others leave.
Building on the findings of The Leaky Bucket, Here to Stay found that newcomers remain not only because of economic opportunity, but because they feel optimistic about their futures, connected to their communities and that they belong here. These findings reinforce the importance of helping newcomers participate fully in Canadian life from the moment they arrive, an approach that is at the heart of Canoo.
Together, these reports generated more than 1.5 billion media and social impressions and brought national attention to immigrant retention. Through a policy event on Parliament Hill and extensive media coverage across the country, ICC helped shift the conversation from how many people Canada welcomes to what will make them choose to build their futures here.
Developed in partnership with Bridging Divides at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto, Here to Stay reflects ICC’s commitment to independent, evidence-based research. By connecting research, policy and practice, Ideas and Insights helps shape conversations about how Canada can better retain the talented newcomers it works hard to attract.
ICC also strengthened its ability to turn research into action by launching Program Health Metrics for Canoo. These tools provide better insight into how members use Canoo, helping ICC improve the member experience and better understand the program’s impact over time.
The Leaky Bucket 2025
Retention Trends in Highly Skilled Immigrants and In-Demand Occupations
Impact
2 major national research reports
1.5 billion+ media and social impressions
1 national policy event on Parliament Hill
Future of Research
One of the most persistent barriers facing newcomers in Canada is the recognition of international credentials. Too many talented people arrive ready to contribute but are unable to work in the professions for which they were trained. The result is a loss for newcomers and for Canada, particularly in sectors facing ongoing labour shortages.
In the coming year, ICC will release new research exploring federal legislative solutions to foreign credential recognition. With support from the Metcalf Foundation, ICC will also examine the experiences, perspectives and retention patterns of immigrant care workers, whose contributions will become increasingly important as Canada’s population ages.
Through practical, evidence-based research, ICC will continue to identify barriers to newcomer success and advance solutions that help Canada attract, retain and benefit from immigrant talent.
Financials 2025–2026
Total Revenue
$4,843,193
$3,480,899
(71.87%)$1,300,000
(26.84%)$36,276
(0.75%)$24,207
(0.5%)$1,811
(0.04%)Total Expenses
$5,197,900
$3,928,320
(75.58%)$552,401
(10.63%)$717,179
(13.80%)All figures above have been independently reviewed and approved by ICC’s 2025–2026 auditors, Doane Grant Thornton LLP.
Additional financial information relating to the ICC can be found on our website https://www.forcitizenship.ca/ or on the CRA website https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency.html. To view ICC Charity Return History on the CRA website, click here.
Our Team
– Kathryn Paige Hawco, Manager, Western Canada
How You Can Help
We’re working to unlock Canada for newcomers. Want to help us make it happen?
Like you, we believe immigration isn’t the cause of Canada’s ills but, in many cases, the solution. This is what our Canada’s Difference Makers campaign is all about and that’s the idea we broadcast: that immigrants make a vital difference for Canada every day and make the difference between a Canada that stagnates and withers and a Canada that renews its prosperity for the next generation.
See https://thedifferencemakers.ca for more information on the campaign.
With your financial support, together we’ll help immigrants fall in love with Canada, stay, and build their futures here – making Canada the most welcoming place on Earth.
Here are some ways you can make a difference:
Give
Participate
SHARE
Amplify newcomer voices and opportunities by sharing the ICC’s work with your community.