Canada to increase immigration over coming three years
Xinhua
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Canada will admit 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, a historic number of newcomers, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marco Mendicino on Friday.

A car stops at a Canadian Customs booth in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on March 18, 2020. (File photo: AFP)

In the 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan tabled to the Canadian parliament, Mendicino unveiled the government's latest immigration targets of accepting upwards of 1.2 million new permanent residents.

The plan is meant to set out a path for responsible increases to immigration targets to help the Canadian economy recover from COVID-19, drive future growth and create jobs.

"Immigration is essential to getting us through the pandemic, but also to our short-term economic recovery and our long-term economic growth," Mendicino said in a statement.

Under the plan, Canada is to admit immigrants at a rate of about 1 percent of the population of Canada, including 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023.

The previous plan set targets of 351,000 in 2021 and 361,000 in 2022.

The global travel restrictions and capacity constraints led to a shortfall in admissions over the last several months.

Mendicino said the three-year plan was built to compensate for this year's shortfall and ensure Canada has the workers it needs to fill crucial labor market gaps and remain competitive on the world stage.

Immigrants account for 33 percent of all business owners with paid staff in Canada, and 25 percent of workers in the health sector are immigrants, according to the ministry.