“Although the country now welcomes more than 400,000 newcomers each year, seven in 10 Canadians express support for current levels of immigration, the largest majority recorded in Environics surveys in 45 years,” notes Environics. The survey results come as Canada is poised to welcome 463,860 new permanent residents by the end of this year based on the trend in the first eight months. read more Manitoba cancels CBSA contract and will no longer hold immigration detainees in provincial jails Canada Job vacancies remain high in August, but economy slows Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe asks for help from business community to boost immigration By the end of August, Canada had already welcomed 309,240 new permanent residents – an average of 38,655 per month. The Ottawa Current Immigration Levels Plan for 2022-2024 sets immigration goals of 431,645 new permanent residents for this year, 447,055 next year and 451,000 in 2024. That means Canada is likely to exceed its immigration target for this year by 32,215 new permanent residents, or nearly 7.5%, if the current trend continues for the rest of the year. With 463,860 new permanent residents, Canada’s immigration rate will be even higher than the ambitious target set for next year and even into 2024, surpassing the target set two years from now by more than 2.8 per cent one hundred. Last month, two figures from Canada’s ruling Liberal Party called for much more immigration to the country in an open letter published on The Financial Post. Former Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains and his former chief of staff in 2016 and 2017, Elder C. Marques, recommended in that letter that Canada become even more ambitious with its immigration goals. “Canada deserves praise for our approach to immigration levels,” the two wrote in their letterThe Financial Post. “But while the absolute numbers may seem high, they actually need to be higher in light of Canada’s population and demographic challenges.
Country still needs more immigration, former Liberal Cabinet minister says
“In the early 1910s, a much smaller Canada welcomed similar annual absolute numbers as today. Increasing immigration targets responsibly and effectively will require more investment in infrastructure, housing, transit and resettlement services across the country, and that means better federal-province cooperation.” Now retired from politics since last year, Bains is currently vice president of global investment banking for CIBC. During his tenure as a federal cabinet member, Bains worked closely with the Advisory Council on Economic Development, a group that advocated for increasing Canada’s annual immigration goal to 450,000 people per year. Watch the Canadian immigration video Elders, now a partner in the legal practice of Blake, Cassels & Graydon, was also a senior adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for just over two years from 2017 to 2019 and later the finance minister’s chief of staff in the Liberal government before returning in private practice. Their view of immigration is one shared by most Canadians, Environics research reveals. “Public support for immigration is based in part on the belief that it supports the nation’s economy, and consensus around this view has strengthened over the past year,” Environics research reveals. “More than eight in 10 now, at 50 per cent, or somewhat at 35 per cent, agree that immigration has a positive impact on the Canadian economy, up five percentage points from 2021 and now at its highest level since the question. ask first.”
Albertans are more likely to question the legality of refugees in Canada
Only about one in 10 Canadians believe that immigration provides no economic benefit to the country. “For much of the past 35 years, Canadians have tended to believe that many who claim to be refugees are not actually legal, and while that view has diminished over time, the public is still somewhat divided on this issue,” reports Environics. “Just over one in three now, at 15 percent, or a little over at 21 percent, agree … that ‘many people who claim to be refugees are not real refugees],’” notes Environics. The biggest gripe Canadians have with immigration is not the level of immigration, but the ability of those immigrants to integrate into Canadian society and culture – and the legitimacy of those claiming refugee status. “Across the country, concerns about the legality of refugees have risen markedly in Atlantic Canada … eight points from 2021 and to a lesser extent in Quebec … four percentage points and Ontario … increased percentage points, while decreased in BC, six percentage points.’ Albertans are the most likely to believe that many refugees are not “real refugees,” the survey finds.
