By Canadian Press

Canada sets ambitious immigration targets for post-pandemic recovery

Feb 14, 2022 | 2:22 PM

OTTAWA — The federal government plans to keep ramping up the record number of new permanent residents in Canada over the next three years as it works through a massive backlog of applications that have piled up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says in his newly released plan that Canada will admit 431,645 permanent residents in 2022, 447,055 next year and 451,000 in 2024.

The federal government says it wants to boost its newcomer admissions rate to just over one per cent of Canada’s population by 2024.

The government approved 405,0000 new permanent resident applications in 2021, which is the most for a single year in Canada’s history.

But there is a backlog of more than 1.3 million permanent and temporary residence applications as of Feb. 1, which the government says is mainly due to slowdowns during the pandemic.

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Fraser says increased immigration will be key to Canada’s pandemic recovery.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2021.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press