The Liberal government aims to bring in more than 1.3 million new immigrants to Canada over the next three years despite having a backlog of 1.8 million applications waiting to be processed due to pandemic-induced delays. On Feb. 14, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser tabled his three-year immigration levels plan in Parliament, calling for a yearly intake that will reach 431,645 permanent residents in 2022, 447,055 in 2023, and 451,000 in 2024. Fraser said it is to fill critical labour market gaps the country is experiencing and to support a post-pandemic economic recovery. “We are focused on economic recovery, and immigration is the key to getting there,” he said in a statement released on Feb. 14. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said immigration accounts for almost 100 percent of labour force growth in Canada, with 5 million Canadians set to retire by the end of this decade. “The worker to …