Question Period Note: Immigration Levels Plan 2020 – 2022

Immigration Levels Plan 2020 – 2022

• Immigration will continue to be critical to Canada’s success as we work to recover from the economic headwinds we are facing due to COVID-19.

• The Department continues to accept and process applications despite the current travel restrictions.

• It is too early to speculate about the effect of the COVID-19 response to the levels plan for 2020.

• The Government of Canada will remain focused on welcoming highly skilled people who can help build a stronger country and ensuring Canada lives up to its international and humanitarian obligations.

• We continue to assess the impacts of the current situation on the people who use IRCC’s services and our operations and to make adjustments as needed.

Mandate Commitment: Delivering the 2020-2022 immigration levels plan is a part of Minister Mendicino’s mandate commitment to “Ensure the effective implementation of Canada’s increased annual Immigration Levels Plan for 2020-2022, attracting more than a million new permanent residents to Canada over that time. This continues our modest and responsible increases to immigration, with a focus on welcoming highly skilled people who can help build a stronger Canada.”
Levels planning: The immigration levels plan is a statutory requirement. 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, or if the House is not in session, within 30 sitting days once the House resumes. [REDACTED]By setting targets and planning ranges for each of the immigration categories, the Government of Canada establishes priorities among economic, social, and refugee objectives. Levels planning then enables the Department and its partners to allocate processing, security, and settlement resources accordingly.

Multi-year planning: In fall 2017, Canada introduced its first multi-year immigration levels plan in over a decade. The current plan adds an additional year (2022), maintaining the three-year planning horizon set out in last year’s plan. Prior to the 2018-2020 Immigration Levels Plan, the most recent multi-year plan was in 2001-2002. Three- and five-year plans were introduced in the 1980s and 1990s.

A multi-year approach provides the means to set out a longer-term vision and make the decisions and investments needed to achieve it. It supports better planning by securing approvals and investments earlier, providing time for the Department and partners to increase capacity and to prepare to manage higher volumes of applications.

The levels plan is a statement of public policy and is a key tool to communicate the Government’s immigration priorities to partners (including provinces and territories), stakeholders, and the public.

Canada is recognized internationally (e.g., Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) for its approach to managed migration, including specifically its use of immigration levels plans for setting transparent priorities and targets. Canada is among very few countries, like Australia and New Zealand, which have also adopted this approach.

None