PIVOT SPURS RISE IN PERMANENT RESIDENTS

A new Trudeau government strategy to attract more permanent residents appears to be working, putting the country on pace to exceed its goal of 401,000 new residents this year. In January, Canada added 26,600 permanent residents, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told Bloomberg News. Factoring in additional admissions through mid-february, the government is almost 40-per-cent ahead of the pace needed to meet its 2021 goal, Mendicino said. Canada still restricts international travel, and there’s no timeline for resuming it. The new strategy is an attempt to compensate by providing a path to citizenship for more people already in the country, such as temporary foreign workers and international students.