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Why Canada is prioritizing immigration during the pandemic
Why Canada is prioritizing immigration during the pandemic
Population and labor force growth are important to keeping the Canadian economy strong.
Throughout its history, Canada has relied on newcomers to help stimulate economic growth.
“Immigration is becoming even more important to Canada’s economic success,” says Marc Desormeaux, senior Scotiabank economist. “Canada’s population is aging and its birth rate was among the lowest in the G7 before the pandemic. Over time, those factors are expected to limit the pool of workers available to contribute to the economy. Welcoming newcomers helps to offset the economic challenges caused by an aging population and a low birth rate.”
Canada’s commitment to immigration
Despite its population challenges, Canada was the only G7 country that saw an increase in population before the pandemic thanks to its openness to global talent.
In response to the pandemic, the government released a new plan in October 2020 to support economic recovery through immigration. To ensure that Canada has enough workers to fill gaps in the labor market and remain competitive on the world stage, the new plan increased the number of immigrants the country hopes to welcome. The new target for 2021 is 401,000; 411,000 in 2022, and 421,000 in 2023.

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When will Canada lift its travel ban on India?
Last week, Canada extended the travel ban for all direct passenger and business flights from India until July 21, 2021.
Canada first introduced the travel ban on both India and Pakistan on April 22 amid concerns about rising cases of COVID-19 variants.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer had said that the variant in India shows increased transmissibility.
The initial travel ban was due to end on May 22, but was extended another 30 days until June 21. The travel ban was not extended for Pakistan.
“Given the number of COVID-19 cases continue to be very high in India, we have extended our flight restrictions for this country,” Omar Alghabra, Canada’s transport minister said, “We will continue to assess the evolving situation and determine appropriate action going forward.

Express Entry: 1,002 PNP candidates invited in new draw
Express Entry: 1,002 PNP candidates invited in new draw
Canada invited 1,002 immigration candidates to apply for permanent residence in the latest Express Entry draw.
All invited candidates had previously received a nomination from a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). This is why the score cut-off was relatively high at 742, because all PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool automatically get 600 points added to their score.
As per administrative requirements, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published a cut off time for the tie-break rule, whether or not there was any actual tie. In the new draw, candidates who had the minimum score were only invited if they submitted their Express Entry profile before February 18, 2021 at 04:04:56 UTC.
In the previous PNP-only draw, Canada invited 940 PNP candidates to apply for permanent residence, and the score requirement was 711 points. It was the biggest draw of its kind, ever.

Why Canada made the surprise decision to extend its travel restrictions again
Why Canada made the surprise decision to extend its travel restrictions again
The Canadian government provided another coronavirus pandemic surprise.
It announced it will keep its international and United States travel restrictions in place for at least one more month, until July 21. On the bright side, approved immigrants are now able to enter Canada. In addition, Canada will be lifting its quarantine requirements on fully vaccinated travelers. Canada’s travel restrictions have been in place since March 2020 and have long worn out their welcome among foreign nationals looking to enter the country. For the most part, the Canadian public has been generally supportive of keeping the borders closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
In recent weeks, however, the Canadian business community and Canadian and U.S. politicians have been placing greater pressure on the Canadian government to lift some of the restrictions by July.
Canada’s business community has a prominent voice that is taken seriously by the three levels of government. Just days before the Canadian government announced the extension of the restrictions, some of Canada’s top business groups held a press conference calling on the federal government to create a reopening plan. Among the arguments they made were that extending the restrictions would further hurt Canada’s economy and given Canada’s COVID-19 situation is significantly better, it is now possible for Canada to safely welcome more foreign travellers. Politicians in the U.S. and Canada are making similar arguments. They are namely those in U.S. states that depend on Canadian tourists, as well as the mayors of Canadian border cities and towns that depend on U.S. tourists.
The second reason the announcement is a surprise is due Canada’s ongoing success with COVID-19. Case levels have decreased significantly across the country. Canada now leads the world in percentage of its population that has received at least one vaccine dose. COVID-19 vaccines are readily available to much of the Canadian population and more people are now also receiving their second shots. New cases are some ten times lower than what they were during the worst days of the crisis in Canada.
Hence, there was some belief that the science backed up a reopening of the border. Given the two positive indicators of fewer people getting COVID and more people getting COVID vaccines, perhaps a reduction in border restrictions is justified. The decision to extend the restrictions likely comes down to two factors: policy and politics.
First, the Canadian government has made the policy decision to be extra cautious in its efforts to defeat COVID. It does not want to take additional risks given how close Canada is to ending the pandemic at home. Based on current trends, it appears realistic that Canada could be back to “normal” by the end of the summer. This means very few new COVID cases and the vast majority of its eligible population fully vaccinated. Thus, the government does not want any setbacks by opening the border two soon.

Trudeau: Canada to lift more travel restrictions in coming weeks
Trudeau: Canada to lift more travel restrictions in coming weeks
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Canada will likely further ease travel restrictions this summer.
In a press conference on June 22, Trudeau said Canada is prepared to lift travel restrictions once more people become fully vaccinated.
“We’re talking about weeks and not months anymore,” Trudeau said in French. “We certainly hope… that we will have more good news about re-openings in the coming weeks but, of course, it depends on the vaccination rate, the COVID situation in general, the variants of concern and what’s happening elsewhere.”
As per the announcement on June 21, fully vaccinated exempt travellers may come to Canada without needing to go into quarantine for 14 days. While people who have recovered from COVID and received one dose of the vaccine are considered fully vaccinated in some jurisdictions, such as Quebec, they are not covered under the new measure.
Trudeau said the government was not ready to make that call on Monday, but added that experts are looking into it and he hopes to have more answers in the coming weeks.
So far, the federal government has not said what metrics Canada must hit before the border will be opened for tourism. Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told that the federal government wants to see 75 per cent of Canadians fully vaccinated before fully reopening the border. In a previous meeting with Ontario border-town mayors, Blair suggested that could happen by July 21, the date when the current border restrictions expire.
Trudeau did not provide any exact date of when border restrictions would be further scaled back. Rather, he expressed concern about reopening the border too quickly. Cautioning that being fully vaccinated may prevent illness but does not necessarily prevent transmission.
Trudeau said, “Nobody wants to see new restrictions brought in the summer because the volumes were too high because we were a little too rushed,”