5 Canada’s not-so-secret growth weapon: immigration hen it comes to population growth, Canada leads the G7. Indeed, no other country in the group Wcomes close. In 2018, Canada’s population was 350,000 on track to increase 1.4%, the strongest pace in 18 years Canada’s target and double the 0.7% rate for the U.S., the G7 country with number for the next-highest population growth rate. Strong (net) immigration accounted for almost half (45%) of Canada’s pop- immigrants ulation increase last year. That contribution will only grow, since Ottawa has by 2021 committed to boost its annual immigration target from 310,000 new perma- nent residents in 2018 to 350,000 by 2021, with a big jump of 6.7% to 331,000 scheduled for 2019. About two-thirds of 2019’s increase will come from the economic programs that target highly skilled workers and are aimed at ad- dressing labour shortage issues across Canada. RBC Economics Research | Navigating 2019 - 9 big insights for the year ahead | January 2019 14