The Government of Canada is increasing its immigration targets after a significant decline in new permanent residents in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Federal Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Ottawa will broaden and accelerate the pathway for immigrants already living in Canada to obtain permanent residency. He said the revised immigration targets are aimed at underpinning an economic recovery and filling job shortages, including in healthcare.
Specifically, the federal government will admit 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, a target that, if met, would be a historic number of newcomers to Canada. Between 2021 and 2023, Ottawa plans to admit upwards of 1.2 million new permanent residents.
The plan, tabled in Parliament, did not break out the targets for the various immigration categories, just a low and high range. Altogether, the target figures represent a marked increase in three-year plans unveiled last March when the government said it was aiming for just over one million people by 2022.
That plan was released just as the country – and much of the world – was closing borders to stop a resurgence of Covid-19. The global shutdowns are likely to result in the number of permanent residents settling in Canada this year to be cut by half.
While the government’s target is 401,000 people in 2021, the report says as few as 300,000 immigrants might actually be accepted into the country. That figure is below even the original lowest projected intake in the original plan, where the government had aimed for between 330,000 and 380,000 new permanent residents in 2021.