• Posted 21-Jan-2022

Canada to announce Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 by February

This will be the first Immigration Levels Plan announcement since October 2020. It will be announced by February 11, 2022. The Canadian government will provide a major update by February when it announces its Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024.

The announcement will contain Canada’s immigration targets for this year, and the next two years, as well as the number of new immigrants Canada will seek to welcome under its various economic, family, and humanitarian class programs. It will be the first such announcement since Canada made the surprise announcement in October 2020 it would seek to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants per year moving forward, or about 40,000 more per year than its previous targets.

Under the current Immigration Levels Plan 2021-2023, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is looking to welcome 411,000 new permanent residents to Canada this year. In 2021, IRCC achieved its goal of landing 401,000 immigrants which is the highest level in Canadian history. IRCC made the target last year amid the challenging pandemic environment by focusing on transitioning temporary residents currently living in Canada to permanent residence.The current plan aims to welcome 241,500 economic class immigrants to Canada this year through the likes of Express Entry, the Provincial Nominee Program, Quebec’s programs, among other pathways. This accounts for 59 per cent of Canada’s immigration target.IRCC is looking to welcome 103,500 family class immigrants through the Spouses, Partners, and Children Program and the Parents and Grandparents Program. This is 26 per cent of IRCC’s immigration target.The remaining 66,000, or 15 per cent of the newcomer target, will be welcomed to Canada on refugee and humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

What may change, however, is the total number of immigrants Canada chooses to target in the coming years. On the one hand, the Canadian government may be satisfied with their already ambitious targets and decide to keep them as is. This would mean simply continuing to slowly increase annual admissions now that the baseline is over 400,000 immigrants. By way of comparison, the baseline was about 250,000 immigrants annually up until 2016. Another consideration is the Canadian government may want to refrain from significant increases so it can work towards tackling its backlogs which currently stand at 1.8 million permanent and temporary resident applicants waiting in the queue.

On the other hand, Fraser has indicated an openness to increasing the targets even further depending on stakeholder feedback. The minister noted he would listen to the likes of community groups and employers to see whether they have a desire to welcome more immigrants.One may argue that Canada’s immigration targets are already high, and the government should put the brakes on higher levels for a few reasons. Backlogs need to be contained, communities across the country have housing affordability issues, and historically speaking, welcoming immigrants amid periods of economic downturn has hurt the labor force outcomes of newcomers. What is certain is we will not be guessing for long as the February 11 deadline is just around the corner.