News Release

Immigration Minister tables the 2005 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration

OTTAWA, October 31, 2005 — The Honourable Joe Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, today announced that Canada reached its targeted annual immigration levels for the fifth consecutive year, attracting 235,824 new permanent residents in 2004. The details on the immigration levels reached, as well as the Department’s activities in 2004 to attract and welcome newcomers, are outlined in the Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration tabled today.

The report presents the overall immigration ranges for 2006, including the commitment to admit from 225,000 to 255,000 newcomers to Canada as permanent residents. It also provides the target ranges for permanent residents to be admitted in each immigration class for 2006.

The report speaks to the need for a new long-term approach to immigration planning. Strengthened partnerships to improve the current immigration system so that applicants can be processed more quickly, and ensure a modern service delivery system that is efficient and responds to the needs of all Canadians, are a priority.

“Canada needs the drive, ambition and skills many newcomers bring to our country every year and we need to make sure they succeed once they arrive,” said Minister Volpe. I am fully committed to delivering the results Canadians need and want to secure the economic and social prosperity of our country for this and future generations.”

The department’s annual report, and its performance report for 2004-05, is available at www.cic.gc.ca.

For more information (media only):

Stephen Heckbert
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister
(613) 954-1064

Greg Scott
Media Relations
Communications Branch
(613) 941-7028

Backgrounder:

• 2005 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration

Reports:

• Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration — 2005
  HTML | Acrobat PDF (236 K)
• Departmental Performance Report for the period ending March 31, 2005
  HTML | Acrobat PDF (791 K)