Canada’s 2017 immigration plan has the same 300,000 target but the high of the target range was increased to 320,000

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The government of Canada has released immigration plan for 2017, and the news looks good for individuals looking to immigrate to Canada through one of the economic or family sponsorship programs.

Canada’s population in 2017 is projected to be 36.6 million. The population in 2016 was 36.3 million. The population growth is mainly from the immigrants. Births, deaths and people leaving Canada ends up being about even.

If Canada maintained immigration levels at about 0.9% of total population, then by 2025, the immigration quote would be about 360,000 and population would be about 40 million.

Key highlights:

  • Target number of newcomers through Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class, and Canadian Experience Class increases by 23 percent.
  • Government aims for 51,000 new immigrants to come through the Provincial Nominee Programs.
  • Quebec aims to welcome more than 29,000 through economic programs, including the Quebec Skilled Worker Program.
  • Economic immigration to make up a larger share of overall immigration than in 2016.
  • More spouses, partners, children, parents and grandparents to arrive through Family Class sponsorship programs.

Although the plan targets an increase in economic immigrants and sponsored persons, the target figures for the Refugees and Protected Persons immigration categories are down compared to the 2016 plan. However, the overall target for these programs, set at 40,000, remains far higher than at any time during the previous Conservative government’s tenure.

Overall, Canada may welcome as many as 320,000 new immigrants over the calendar year of 2017. The increased scope presented by the government — the plan for 2016 allowed for up to 305,000 newcomers — is likely reflective of a desire to increase immigration over the coming years in order to respond to labour shortages and demographic challenges. Earlier this year, Immigration Minister John McCallum said that “there’s a significant feeling that Canada does need more immigrants, partly because we have an aging population, and so we need more young blood to keep our economies going.”

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