October 31, 2014 — Ottawa — Canada's Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander announced that the Government of Canada's annual immigration plan tabled today features this year the highest planned level of admissions in recent history. The Government of Canada is planning to welcome between 260,000 and 285,000 new permanent residents in 2015, an increase of approximately 19,000 planned admissions over last year.
These higher levels respond to the government's strategy of supporting economic growth by addressing labour and skills shortages, as well as helping to ensure labour force growth. The economic category will account for the largest segment of the 2015 levels plan, at almost 65 percent of overall admissions. The remaining 35 percent will consist of family class immigrants, refugees and others admitted under humanitarian programs.
Text version: Government tables annual immigration plan
Estimated immigration increases for 2015: 64.9 per cent for economic immigrants (181,300), 24.4 per cent for family class (68,000), and 10.7 per cent for humanitarian and compassionate cases (29,800).
The increase of admissions for 2015 also demonstrates the government's commitment to reducing wait times and continuing to make progress on the last of the large economic immigration program backlogs.
Increasing admission levels will also help with the launch of Canada's new application management system, Express Entry, on January 1, 2015. The 2015 levels plan allows admissions space to process existing applications as well as new applications that will be received for key economic programs under Express Entry. The new system will enable Canada's immigration system to be more flexible and responsive to the needs of employers, as well as to changing economic conditions and priorities.
Kevin Menard
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-954-1064
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.
