Canada to welcome 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025 as minister moves to hand-pick more newcomers
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Loading... - Aria Anderson
- 02 Nov 2022
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The federal government will use new power to hand-pick immigrants to address Canada’s skill shortages, increase the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, and begin issuing temporary visas for spouses while their permanent-residence applications are being processed.
Those are some of the highlights of Canada’s latest immigration plan — announced Tuesday — which will see this country look to bring in 465,000 new permanent residents next year, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025.
“Canada has experienced one of the strongest economic recoveries from the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve recovered significantly more jobs than were lost during the pandemic. Our GDP levels are well in excess of pre-pandemic levels. A couple of months ago, we hit the lowest rate of unemployment in the history of Canada,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told a news conference in Toronto.
“You don’t need to dig into the stats to understand that there was a million jobs available in the Canadian economy. You need to walk down Main Street of any community in Canada. You’re going to see ‘help wanted’ signs in the window. This is the economic context that we’re living through right now.”
Canada welcomed more than 405,000 newcomers in 2021, despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic, and is on track to receive 431,000 permanent residents this year.
According to the new multi-year plan, a revamped skilled-immigration system will help target candidates with the required skills and qualifications in sectors facing acute labour shortages — such as health care, manufacturing, building trades and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Read More...
