Canada Offers Permanent Citizenship To 500,000 Immigrants Amid Labour Shortage

The Canadian government has revealed plans to welcome half a million immigrants each year by 2025 to tackle the problem of labour shortage in the country.

Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, released Canada’s 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan which embraces immigration as a strategy to help businesses find workers and to attract the skills required in key sectors.

“The Canadian economy is now facing critical labour market shortages causing uncertainty for Canadian businesses and workers,” Fraser stated.

According to the plan, the government is setting targets in the new levels plan for 465,000 permanent residents in 2023; 485,000 in 2024; and 500,000 in 2025. In 2021, Canada welcomed over 405,000 new immigrants, the most in a single year.

The ambitious immigration plan is geared towards managing the social and economic challenges Canada will face in the decades ahead.

“Our plan has a focus on economic growth, by the third year of this plan, 60 percent of new immigrants will be admitted under economic immigration categories,” Fraser said.

The plan also brought an increased focus on attracting newcomers to different regions of the country, including small towns and rural communities.

Immigrants accounted for almost 100 per cent of Canada’s labour force growth and by 2032 it’s projected to account for 100 per cent of Canada’s population growth, the release said.

According to the statement, Canada’s worker-to-retiree ratio is expected to shift from seven to one 50 years ago, to two to one by 2035.