A record-breaking year for Canada for the number of immigrants welcomed into the country.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced on Tuesday that Canada hit their target of 431,645 new permanent residents, exceeding 2021 numbers.
Due to these exceptional numbers in immigration, Canada has experienced one of the fastest recoveries from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A record was broken in 2021 when the government reached their target of 401,000 new permanent residents.
Canada is also looking to increase the amount of permanent residents welcome in the country to 447,055 in 2023 and 451,000 in 2024.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Fred Francis, the Executive Director of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County, says Canada needs immigration to keep the country running.
He says 60 per cent of immigrants coming into Canada are referred to as "economic class citizens".
"These are the best and the brightest from around the world. These people are educated, they can speak English or French, or both, they can be professionals, they can be trades people, and they're bringing capital into the country with them. They're really coming here and hitting the ground running. That's 60 per cent of that 430,000 number."
He says having such a high number of immigrants welcomed into the country has put Canada in ninth on the list of 'Top Economies in the World'.
"When you look at the countries behind us at that list of the 'Top Economies in the World', all these countries have 150, upwards to 250, 300-million people living there," Francis says. "And here we here at 40-million people with the ninth largest economy. The only way to grow that economy is to have people work and contributing through taxes."
He says many of those who come to Canada have never experienced first-world amenities.
"I'm talking about running water and electricity that is reliable. When you talk to them, they'll say that they've won the lottery. They're coming to a country that's safe, that has political stability, they don't have to show their papers to any police officers on the street, there's no men with guns asking them where they're going," he adds. "When you really take it down to the bare bones of it, we're very fortunate to live in a great country like Canada."
Francis says the work that is done through the Multicultural Council is very gratifying and rewarding.
"You don't know what's going to happen in the years to come, but when you do see clients and they come back to you 10, 20, 30 years later and now they're a lawyer, they're a doctor, engineer, teacher, or they opened up their own business, or they come back to you and they show you their children that are now Canadian citizens that are in school, and they all have smiling faces, it's pretty remarkable."
In 2022, IRCC processed approximately 5.2-million applications for permanent residence, temporary residence and citizenship, which was double the number of applications processed the year prior.
Roughly 75 per cent of Canada’s population growth comes from immigration, mostly in the economic category.