The latest report published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says Ontario accepted 154,005 new permanent residents from January to October 2021. It was 49.% of the total 313,880 new permanent residents to Canada in 2021.
This shows that Ontario welcomed more newcomers during the first 10 months of 2021 than Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia combined. Canada also hit its ambitious immigration target of 401,000 new permanent residents for 2021.
As Ottawa plans to welcome 411,000 more immigrants in 2022, the country is now preparing to welcome more immigrants. In Ontario, the provincial government appears committed to using those newcomers to help rebuild its economy in a post-COVID-19 world.
Despite a record-breaking COVID-19 case count due to the arrival of the Omicron variant in December, Ontario announced it would be looking to draw more entrepreneurs to the province. Through the Entrepreneur Stream of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), the province hopes to recruit 100 international entrepreneurs over the next two years to start or expand businesses outside of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that has been hit by pandemic job losses.
90,000 temporary residents gained their permanent residency in Canada through a special pathway in 2021 where as Ontario allowed its province to welcome an additional 5,990 new permanent residents in the first 10 months of 2021.