LANG – 2023-2025 Multi-Year Levels Plan – December 6, 2022

Key Messages

• The 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan, tabled on November 1, 2022, sets out a path for increases to immigration targets to support Canada’s economic growth and address labour market shortages.
• The 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan will help cement Canada’s place among the world’s top destinations for talent, while reuniting families and fulfilling Canada’s humanitarian commitments, including resettling vulnerable Afghans.
• The Levels Plan prioritizes economic immigration to help build a resilient economy, with a heightened focus on regional immigration to distribute the benefits of immigration across Canada. Over half of all planned admissions are dedicated to the Economic class.
• Despite the ongoing pandemic, in 2021, Canada welcomed a record number of permanent residents – over 405,000 – and the 2023-2025 Levels Plan builds on this momentum.
• Immigration is essential to Canada’s long-term economic growth as the population continues to rapidly age; however, we need to maintain Canada’s ability to welcome and integrate a growing number of immigrants.
• Growing Canada’s population will require a whole-of-society effort to maintain and improve the quality of life that Canadians enjoy, and set the conditions for successful integration in our communities.

Supplementary Messages

• The 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan (Levels Plan) was tabled in Parliament on November 1, 2022, with the following permanent resident admission targets:
  • 465,000 in 2023 (range: 410,000-505,000)
  • 485,000 in 2024 (range: 430,000-542,500)
  • 500,000 in 2025 (range: 442,500-550,000)
• The Levels Plan increased admissions to support a range of key priorities: economic growth and addressing labour market shortages; upholding humanitarian commitments in response to global crises (including Afghanistan); and family reunification. The Levels Plan features wide ranges in each year to provide flexibility in attaining overall levels targets.
• Recognizing the role that immigration plays in addressing labour market needs and economic growth, the 2023-2025 Levels Plan increases the economic proportion to 60.3% by 2025.
• The Multi-Year Levels Plan has three overarching objectives: 1) achieve long-term benefits to Canada; 2) contribute to short-term economic growth and addressing labour market needs; and 3) ensure a well-managed migration system that can maintain public confidence.

Achieving Targets

• With the lifting of pandemic restrictions and resumption of international travel, admission volumes have increased across all lines of business. IRCC is on track to meet the 2022 projected target of permanent residents of 431,645.
• This follows the historic admission levels achieved in 2021, with over 405,000 new permanent residents landing in Canada.

Supporting Facts And Figures

• The previous Immigration Levels Plan for 2022-2024 was tabled in Parliament on February 14, 2022, with permanent resident admission targets of:
  • 431,645 in 2022 (range: 360,000-445,000);
  • 447,055 in 2023 (range: 380,000-465,000); and
  • 451,000 in 2024 (range: 390,000-475,000).
• Immigration is essential to Canada’s long-term economic growth as the population continues to age rapidly. Immigration is a significant driver of population growth, accounting for close to 86% of overall growth in 2019 and by 2032, is projected to account for 100% of population growth. Further, the worker to retiree ratio is projected to shift from 4:1 to 2:1 by 2035.
• Economic immigration is a priority for Canada to help address acute labour shortages across the country. Job vacancies climbed to a record 997,000 in the second quarter of 2022, up 43% from the second quarter of 2021.
• Public support for immigration in Canada remains relatively strong. Many Canadians share the view that immigration positively impacts Canada and the economy. However, some stakeholders have expressed concerns about their jurisdictions’ ability to absorb high volumes of new immigrants.
• Generally, Canada’s integration outcomes are strong for first generation immigrants – particularly in the economic class – and get even stronger in second and further generations. However, in previous periods of economic downturn, immigrants have taken longer than usual to converge with average Canadian earnings.

Background

• Mandate commitments: Delivering the 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan will help progress a number of mandate commitments. Increases to economic immigration support the vitality of Francophone communities outside Quebec; IRCC is on track to reach the 4.4% proportional target of French-speaking immigrant admissions by the 2023 deadline.
• Levels planning: The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires that a projection of permanent resident admissions for the coming year be tabled in Parliament by November 1 of the preceding year. By setting targets and planning ranges for each of the immigration categories, the Government establishes priorities among economic, social, and humanitarian objectives. Levels planning then enables IRCC and its partners, including provinces and territories, to allocate processing, security, and settlement resources accordingly. The Department also has a statutory obligation to consult provinces and territories on its projections in the levels plan.
• Quebec: The Canada-Quebec Accord commits the federal government to take into consideration Quebec’s desired levels in all categories. Quebec’s immigration levels plan is established annually and incorporated in the federal levels plan; however, Quebec’s provincial election has delayed the tabling of the Plan d’immigration du Quebec 2023 until 15 days following the resumption of the Assemblée nationale du Quebec.
• Multi-year planning: In fall 2017, Canada introduced its first Multi-Year Immigration Levels Plan in over a decade, and has continued with multi-year planning since that time. The current plan adds an additional year (2025), maintaining the three-year planning horizon.
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