Canada’s economic recovery solution: Immigration?: What you need to know

Picture Courtesy: Huffingtonpost, Wikipedia and National Observer

The Covid-19 had a deep impact on the Canadian economy leading it into a recession.

- Companies started mass lay off of workers and the unemployment rate was 13.5% in May 2020 the highest it has been since 1796.

- Many large-scale events like sporting and artistic events were canceled or delayed.

- Some farmers feared a labor shortfall due to the closure of external borders.

- Canada’s tourism and air travel sectors were badly hit due to restrictions.

- Covid -19 affected consumer behavior, panic buying forced more stores to close.

Canada's economy will expand by 5.8% this year and 4% in 2022 as the vaccination drive has led to a gradual reopening of the economy. It has posted a surprisingly strong January after clocking its worst year on record in 2020. The economy shrank 5.1% in 2020 which is somewhat worse than that the US has seen.

According to Immigration Minister Mr. Marco Mendicino, whenever “we grow our immigration levels, we grow our economy”.

- So Canadian government plans to significantly increase the number of new PR recipients over the next three years to boost the economy.

Canada's economy will need access to the world market to thrive. To stop doing counterproductive things:-

- Abolish import tariffs on clean technology manufacturing inputs

- Identify internal trade barriers that impair the cleantech sector.

- Make Canada the most attractive place to start and grow cleantech businesses.

Covid-19 leading experts are recommending that the Government should continue to support small businesses to adopt new technologies, help upskill the workforce and promote a green recovery by enabling clean-tech companies to scale up.