Canada to Admit 980,000 New Permanent Residents Over Three Years

(Bloomberg) -- Canada will admit almost 1 million new immigrants over the next three years in a bid to spur economic growth and innovation, and bolster the country’s aging population.

The country will gradually increase immigration levels beginning next year, aiming to admit 310,000 new permanent residents in 2018, 330,000 in 2019 and 340,000 in 2020, according to a government press release.

“Immigrants will contribute their talents to support economic growth and innovation, helping to keep our country at the forefront of the global economy,” Canadian Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said in the release.

The ministry is aiming for permanent residents to trend towards 1 percent of the population by 2020, with about 60 percent of the increase over that three-year period coming from the “economic” category, the release said.

Asia, including the Middle East, is the main continent from which Canadian immigrants hail, according to 2011 data from Statistics Canada.

Canada’s economy is forecast to grow 3 percent in 2017 to double last year’s results, but will slow to 1.8 percent by 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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