TORONTO -- Canada welcomed 341,000 new immigrants in 2019, and continued to accept high levels of new immigrants at the beginning of last year, but those efforts and the immigration system were completely derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Statistics Canada report said that Canada鈥檚 population 鈥渆ssentially stopped鈥 due to COVID-19, increasing by just 2,767 from July 1, 2020 to Oct. 1 2020 鈥 virtually zero per cent.
In October of 2020, Canada only welcomed approximately 15,000 new immigrants, less than half of the number of people welcomed in October 2019.
In response, (IRCC) announced a 2021-2023 鈥淚mmigration Levels Plan鈥 setting out hard targets for the next three years.
The aim is to welcome new immigrants at a rate of around 1 per cent of the population, which would mean 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022, and 421,000 in 2023 鈥 the first time Canada has set an annual immigration target above 400,000.
But setting targets is one thing 鈥 meeting them is another.
鈥淚 think the government is going to have a very difficult time meeting those targets this coming year,鈥 said Toronto immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges on CTV鈥檚 Your Morning Thursday. 鈥淟ast year the targets were not close to being met, and on the ground we鈥檙e not seeing anything speeding up in terms of application processing.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to set a target and say we鈥檙e welcoming a certain number of newcomers in a year, but officers still have to process those cases, and with a lot of embassies closed all over the world, its going to be really hard to meet that target,鈥 Desloges said.
New automation systems aim to make immigration easier
Desloges noted that the IRCC鈥檚 new automated portal for permanent residency application 鈥 built largely in response to a pandemic that took face-to-to-face interactions off the table 鈥 has sped up the application process, but still will not close the gap.
鈥淎 lot of the applications that you used to have to [physically] submit can now be done online, you can set up an account in this portal, link applications in this portal鈥 you also avoid the chance of missing a letter that is mailed or missing an email,鈥 Desloges said.
鈥淭hose things are all good but it鈥檚 important to understand that immigration is still really limited in its technology鈥 and I think that鈥檚 holding it back in terms of what they are able to do,鈥 she said.
For people sponsoring their parents or grandparents, Desloges said, technology can also be limiting for those who are not tech savvy or do not have continual access to computers.
Election derailment
After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet earlier this week, there were whispers of a potential snap election - and a government change could signal sweeping reform in immigration.
But Desloges said, while a new party in power could affect immigration targets, that it won鈥檛 be immediate.
鈥淵ou鈥檇 see differences in how the border was treated, you鈥檇 see a difference in refugee policy 鈥 but those things will not happen overnight,鈥 Desloges said. 鈥淓ven if a party came into power that favours economic immigration over compared to sponsoring your parents鈥 it鈥檚 important for people to not have a knee jerk reaction.鈥
