Ensuring Long-Term Prosperity and Economic Growth: The 2015 Annual Immigration Plan

01/12/2015

This fall, Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander released the Government of Canada’s annual immigration plan. It commits that in 2015, Canada will welcome between 260,000 and 285,000 new permanent residents. The plan features the highest planned level of admissions in recent history.

This immigration plan supports the government’s economic growth strategy by addressing labour and skills shortages, as well as helping to ensure labour force growth. The economic immigration category accounts for the largest segment of the plan, at almost 65 percent of overall admissions. The remaining 35 percent consists of family class immigrants, refugees and others admitted under humanitarian programs.

The increase in admission levels in 2015 assists with the implementation of the new application management system, Express Entry, coming soon in January 2015. Increased levels in the economic immigration category create the conditions for the success of the new system by providing enough space to accommodate pre-Express Entry cases while providing flexibility to admit higher volumes under Express Entry as soon as possible.

The 2015 levels plan also builds on the success of the actions taken by the government in an effort to reduce backlogs, reunite families sooner and improve client service.  Since 2009, the backlog of permanent resident applications has been reduced by nearly 45 percent, paving the way for a faster and more flexible immigration system. Continued focus on reducing the application backlog will help to better manage the intake of applications to support a smooth transition to Express Entry.

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