The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that a series of rapid policy changes aimed at reducing the temporary resident population in Canada could lead to an overall shrinking of the labour force and a potential economic slowdown, economists predict. The Globe's Vanmala Subramaniam writes that a new report from Bank of Nova Scotia says that Ottawa could be "over-correcting" in its attempt to rein in the number of temporary residents in the country, which topped three million people for the first time this July, or 7.3 per cent of the total population. The bank's economists predict that the cumulative effect of Ottawa's shift in immigration policy could lead to a 1-per-cent contraction in Canada's labour force over the next two years and weakening economic growth if businesses do not boost productivity accordingly. Ottawa announced new restrictions to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program on Monday, raising the minimum wage requirements for the high-wage stream of the program -- a move that Ottawa says is designed to incentivize the hiring of domestic workers. Scotiabank suggests that if Canada were to meet its temporary resident target by 2027, the size of the labour force could decrease by 200,000 people.