Revealed by the Canada’s new immigration plan release last week, combined admissions targets for Canada’s Provincial Nominee Program and the high-skilled economic immigration programs through the Canada’s Express Entry system are slated to reach 160,100 new permanent residents in 2021, 23% increase over the 2018 target of 129,900.
The three Federal High Skilled programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class — and Canada’s Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) will account for 44 per cent of the 1.3 million new permanent residents that Canada is planning to welcome between 2018 and 2021.
Canada’s PNP and the three Federal High Skilled categories in taking targets for 2018 to 2021 are as follows:
| Year | Federal skilled | PNP | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 74,900 | 55,800 | 129,900 |
| 2019 | 81,400 | 61,000 | 142,400 |
| 2020 | 85,800 | 67,800 | 153,600 |
| 2021 | 88,800 | 71,300 | 160,100 |
IRCC’s annual report showed Canada’s PNPs have helped shift immigration landing patterns beyond Canada’s large cities such as Toronto, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec, and Vancouver, British Columbia. 34 per cent of economic immigrants in 2017 had destinations outside Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, compared to just 10 per cent in 1997, as indicated by IRCC’s stats.
IRCC attributed this trend to the strength of Canada’s PNP programs, which it says have grown “exponentially” since the PNP’s implementation in 1996.
According to IRCC data, 45,595 new admissions through PNPs in the first eight month of 2018, leaving it less than 10,000 away from its annual target of 55,000 with four months still to go in the year.