IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2019: Immigration Levels Planning

The levels plan

What is it?

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (the Act) requires that the Government’s planned number of permanent resident admissions for the next calendar year be published via tabling in Parliament.

In the levels plan, the Government sets the targets for admission of permanent residents. This allows us to communicate on key immigration priorities related to:

• Economic immigration
• Family reunification
• Refugee resettlement and protected persons

It also determines funding for IRCC and its partners – for application processing and security screening, while supplementing funding for settlement programming – and allows IRCC’s partners to plan for demand from newcomers.

The levels plan is a cornerstone of Canada’s managed migration system

Why is it important?

The levels plan is a statement of public policy. It is the Government of Canada’s way of communicating what it believes is the “right” level of immigration in which categories.

The Act sets out 18 objectives for immigration, which can be summarized by the following core priorities:

• Support development of strong Canadian economy, benefits shared across the country
• Support global humanitarian efforts – refugee resettlement and providing asylum
• Reunite families
• Contribute to building strong communities and uphold bilingual nature of Canada
• All while protecting the health, safety and security of Canadians

How is it developed?

Levels planning begins with the Government’s objectives and priorities for permanent immigration, and is informed by:

• Significant engagement with provinces and territories:
  • The Act requires that the Minister of IRCC consult with provinces and territories.
  • Quebec sets its own levels within the provisions of the Canada-Quebec Accord, and a separate consultation process exists between IRCC and Quebec.
• Consultation with stakeholders such as settlement service providers, employers and employer associations
• Partnership and consultation with other government departments and agencies who help deliver our programs:
  • Canada Border Services Agency
  • Public Safety Canada
  • Global Affairs Canada
  • Royal Canadian Mounted Police
  • Canadian Security Intelligence Service

Levels planning is also informed by operational realities

• Processing applications: meeting processing time standards
• Inventory management: building application inventory to ensure availability for different permanent residence classes/programs
• Volumes of applications: monitor pressures from increasing volumes of applications from temporary residents (visitors, international students, migrant workers)
• Financial costs: increase depending on immigration levels and mix
• Availability of staff and office space: across the worldwide network
• Landing lag: depending on whether an applicant is located in Canada or overseas, once a permanent resident visa is issued it can take months to make preparations before landing.

Did you know?

• Each class and program has unique criteria and requires different expertise to assess applications and make decisions.

Levels planning is also informed by: System capacity, downstream costs and research and evidence

System capacity and downstream costs

• Settlement and integration needs of newcomers
• Impacts on regions, cities and communities
• Demand on programming (settlement, permanent resident cards, passports, citizenship)
• Litigation, access to information requests, corporate resources

Research and evidence

• Immigrant outcomes data
• Macro-economic, labour market and demographic information
• Expert/academic research on economic and social issues relating to immigration

Permanent resident lines of business

The levels plan is organized to reflect four main classes of immigration, with distinct programs and categories in each.

Economic immigration (2019 target of 191,600)

• Consists of permanent resident pathways by which newcomers are selected for their ability to contribute to Canada’s economy, and to ensure the benefits of immigration are shared across all regions of the country.
• When spouses and dependants apply and enter Canada at the same time as the main applicant, they are included as economic immigrants.
• Applicants apply to specific programs such as the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Provincial Nominee Program or the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Project.
• High level of support for economic immigration among provinces/territories, and stakeholders.

Family class (2019 target of 88,500)

• Programs allow eligible sponsors to bring their family members to Canada as permanent residents. Two core programs include: spouses and children; and parents and grandparents.
• Sponsorship of spouses and children are demand driven, while parents and grandparents are subject to intake controls.

Protected persons and refugees (2019 target of 46,450)

• Canada exercises its longstanding humanitarian tradition by offering refugee protection based on international laws and norms.
• Resettled refugees to Canada are identified via the United Nations Refugee Agencywho select and refer vulnerable refugees for resettlement to Canada.
• Protected persons have applied for and received asylum in Canada because they can’t return to their home country safely for fear of torture, a risk to their life or cruel or unusual punishment.

Humanitarian and compassionate, and other (2019 target of 4,250)

• Discretionary pathways to address deserving and exceptional cases not anticipated by the legislation.

2019-2021 Multi-Year Levels Plan

In 2018, the Government approved the current three-year “rolling” plan (2019-2021), adding a new third year as the most recent one ended, and making adjustments to the 2019 targets.

The 2019-2021 plan builds on the policy objectives of the 2018-2020 plan by:

1. Delivering long-term benefits to Canada
   • Levels are planned to reach 350,000 by 2021 - almost 1% of the population - contributing to population and economic growth
2. Contributing to economic growth and labour market needs
   • Majority of increases have been allocated to economic class programs, in particular to high-skilled immigration, while seeking to distribute the benefits of immigration across the country
3. Demonstrating a balanced and carefully managed approach
   • Recognize the social and economic benefits that all immigrants bring to Canada
   • Manage application volumes and wait times in family and refugee class, and improve client service for all newcomers

Key Takeaways

While the current levels plan was approved as a three-year plan, the annual presentation to Cabinet is an opportunity for the Government to review and make adjustments.

Due to a requirement in the Act to table the levels plan within 30 sitting days of Parliament resuming, this will be an early decision point for the Government.

At an in-person briefing, we will seek your direction on key priorities, and present options and considerations for the next levels plan.

The Department will also complete consultations with provinces and territories on levels projections.

• Preliminary consultations with provinces and territories on the 2020 levels plan were held in June 2019, with a commitment to resume consultations after the federal election (i.e., in November 2019).
• Quebec’s government reduced immigration to the province from 51,000 in 2018 to 40,000 in 2019. Quebec’s draft immigration plan for 2020-2022 signals a gradual increase towards 2018 levels by the end of the plan, with a focus on growing economic immigration.

An early ministerial decision will also be required on funding allocations for the Settlement Program for investment across the country (excluding Quebec). Allocations, required to implement settlement programming, are supplemented by funding from the Multi-Year Levels Plan.

Annex A : 2019-2021 Levels Plan

Annex B: A Short History of Levels Planning: Key Milestones

• 1910: Act Respecting Immigration – control of levels and mix delegated to Cabinet
• 1976: Immigration Act commits the Government for the first time to set (and announce) a levels target, and to consult
• 1981: Levels expressed as a range for the first time
• 2002: Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires tabling of levels in Parliament
• 2007-2014: Stability in levels planning – planning range maintained at 240,000 to 265,000 (though targets increased toward the higher end by 2014); focus on increasing economic admissions closer to 70% of target
• 2016: Highest level of admissions in more than 100 years – admissions of resettled refugees were almost quadrupled to respond to the Syrian crisis.
• 2017: New baseline of 300,000 – economic admissions increased (though proportionally lower than before 2015); remaining admissions space balanced between family and refugees
• 2018-2020: Multi-Year Levels Plan, featuring growth up to 340,000 admissions in 2020, with majority of admissions in economic programs
• 2019-2021: Builds on the 2018-2020 plan and increases immigration to 350,000 in 2021

Annex C: Historical and Projected Annual Admissions

Permanent Resident Landing 1865 to 2021