The  Canada Immigration minister, John McCallum, has confirmed his goal of increasing immigration to Canada significantly beyond its current record levels in order to fill the Canada’s labour workforce needs and meet the challenges posed by an aging canadian population.

His comments were made in Manila, Philippines during a speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. This trip to Manila forms part of his asian tour which included visiting Beijing, China and for which he stated that the Canadian government also intended to increase the number of visa offices in China  to facilitate the numbers of Chinese visitors, workers, students and prospective immigrants expected to come to Canada in the future.

In Manila, he stated; “why not substantially increase the number of immigrants… to Canada? And that is, I think, I hope, what we are […] to do . . . the direction in which I would like to go is to increase substantially the number of immigrants,”.

The Canadian government unveiled earlier this year its immigration plan for 2016, which forecasts that Canada will welcome around 300,000 new permanent residents this year. And is seen as the highest projected immigration level in decades.

Following his comments in Manila, the Government’s plan, for Canada immigration to be unveiled this Autumn, is to promote innovation and economic growth within 3 years. This is likely to include a plan to significantly increase overall immigration numbers.

Unfortunately, the minister stated that no final decision had yet been reached on Canada immigration. The next steps for him will be to convince his cabinet colleagues and the population of Canada about the benefits of his plan.

The Canadian immigration department is expected to make a number of other changes before the end of 2016, including changes to the Canadian Citizenship Act and changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

To find out more about your Canada immigration options, please fill out our free Canadian Visa online assessment today. Our qualified advisors will take you through the process of navigating Canada Immigration Visas, Permanent Residency and Nationality.