Canada has unveiled plans to significantly increase its intake of immigrants, with the goal of having 500,000 people coming into the country each year by 2025, as the country seeks to address a severe labor shortage, the AP reported.

Immigration Secretary Sean Fraser revealed the new plan. The emphasis is on welcoming more permanent residents with the necessary job skills and experience, along with more modest targets for family members and refugees. The opposition conservative party welcomed the plan.

The new plan calls for a flood of newcomers - 465,000 will arrive in 2023, rising to 500,000 in 2025. By comparison, the immigration department reports that 405,000 migrants were admitted last year.

Most of these new arrivals will be so-called economic immigrants, who are expected to fill about 1 million jobs that are currently empty in various sectors of the economy.

While most of the planned immigration growth over the next three years will be in support of the economy, the new plan also foresees a small increase in the number of family members who will be allowed into Canada. It also projects an overall reduction in the number of refugees from 76,000 in 2023 to less than 73,000 in 2025, which Fraser attributed to the government's plan to complete the resettlement of 40,000 Afghan refugees next year.

Reaction from Canadian industry has been more mixed, with the Business Council of Canada arguing that the government's plan does not go far enough in addressing the country's unprecedented labor shortage.