By National Post
Sean Fraser said the government was still targeting to accept more economic immigrants than ever before, it was just adopting a different strategy due to the pandemic
Despite a reduced number of high-skilled immigrants being accepted into Canada over the next two years, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser insists Canada will have the people it needs to fill the jobs it has.
Last month, Fraser introduced in Parliament his first levels plan as immigration minister. It proposes having 431,000 people become permanent residents next year, rising to 451,000 by 2024.
But in the next two years, the number of immigrants in the federal high-skilled category will be almost half of what the government had previously planned. The government is targeting to bring in 55,900 people in that class, while in October 2020 it forecast it would be bringing in 110,500 people.
Fraser said the government was still targeting to accept more economic immigrants than ever before, it was just adopting a different strategy due to the pandemic.
The reduction in skilled workers comes at the expense of a new program developed during the pandemic called the temporary resident to permanent resident pathway, which took people already in Canada — on work or student visas — and gave them permanent residency.