Trudeau’s immigration minister said that Ottawa was planning to welcome 431,645 new immigrants, a goal that has been reached, surpassing the previous year’s record of more than 401,000.
Canada set a new immigration record for 2022, welcoming more than 430,000 newcomers into the country, Trudeau's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, said on Tuesday.
Ottawa intended to welcome 431,645, a goal that has been reached, surpassing the previous year's record of more than 401,000 immigrants.
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View on Rumble"Today marks an important milestone for Canada, setting a new record for newcomers welcomed in a single year," Fraser said. "It is a testament to the strength and resilience of our country and its people."
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) processed approximately 5.2 million permanent residency applications in 2022, more than double the number from 2021.
Canada's goal for 2023 is 465,000 immigrants, increasing to 485,000 in 2024, then 500,000 in 2025, with an emphasis to be placed on skilled workers.
To help facilitate this steady increase, the Trudeau government's fall budget committed an additional $50 million to the IRCC for the 2022-23 fiscal year in order to "address ongoing application backlogs, speed up processing, and allow skilled newcomers to fill critical labour gaps faster."
"Newcomers play an essential role in filling labour shortages, bringing new perspectives and talents to our communities, and enriching our society as a whole," Fraser said. "I am excited to see what the future holds and look forward to another historic year in 2023 as we continue to welcome newcomers."
The Liberals cited immigration as the reason for Canada having "experienced one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic," adding that the acute labour shortages the country is facing will be helped by immigration.
"We know there is over a million jobs in Canada that remain unfilled, so we need immigrants, skilled immigrants, to come in and help us fill those unfilled jobs and help us grow our economy," Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen told Global News. "In addition to that, the irony is we actually need more people, skilled immigrants, to also help us in the building trades and the construction sector of our economy."
"We need those workers to actually come in and help us build the housing that Canadians need," he added.
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