Canada to boost immigration processes to fill labour shortages
by CM Staff
Citizenship and Immigration Canada expects their plan will help increase the attraction and retention of newcomers in regions with acute economic, labour and demographic challenges.
OTTAWA — Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada has put forth a plan to fill labour shortages by processing immigration applications at a faster rate.
The statement from Immigration Canada applauded immigrants for continuing to work on the front lines throughout the pandemic in key sectors like health care, transportation and manufacturing.
“Without them, Canada would not have been able to overcome challenges in critical industries and sectors of the economy over the past 2 years. Now, more than ever, immigrants are a key part of our country’s continued success,” the statement read.
Immigration and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser tabled the 2022 to 2024 Immigration Levels Plan which charts a path to boost immigration to help Canada’s economy recover from the pandemic as well as help communities that rely on immigration.
Last year, 405,000 persons obtained permanent resident status from the government of Canada—the most immigrants in a single year in the country’s history according to a statement from the Canadian government.
Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of vacant positions in various sectors across the country, Citizenship and Immigration Canada also stated.
Immigration accounts for almost 100 per cent of labour force growth. With 5 million Canadians set to retire by the end of this decade, the worker to retiree ratio will drop down 3 to 1.
The 2022–2024 Immigration Levels Plan process new persons to Canada at a rate of 1 per cent of Canada’s population, including 431,645 permanent residents in 2022, 447,055 in 2023, and 451,000 in 2024.
To support these increased levels, the Government of Canada recently announced a plan to modernize Canada’s immigration system to aid economic recovery, which should also help address key challenges faced by the government’s clients, such as reducing inventories and creating the predictable processing times that corporations in need of labour expect.
As part of the Canadian government’s Francophone Immigration Strategy, they are also working to reach a target of 4.4 per cent of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec by 2023.
