WHILE CONTROLLING IMMIGRATION has been one of the key debating points in the US presidential election race Canada  has launched a plan to increase the inward flow.

Starting in January 2017, the country will start receiving a minimum of 300,000 immigrants annually to reduce the economic pressure linked to the aging population, says immigration minister, John McCallum.

The figure, in line with the unusually high number of received this year, is however well below expectations after a report last week suggested an increase of 50%, ie, up to about 450,000 immigrants annually.

If the plan  is implemented , Canada is on track to triple its population by the end of this century.

"In 2016, mmigration  jumped to 300,000 largely as a result of our special actions regarding Syrian refugees," McCallum said on Monday October 31.

"What I am announcing today is that by 2017 we will set the figure of 300,000 as permanent, and  it will become the basis for future growth of immigration," he said, adding that the rate is "40,000 above the historical norm ".

More than half of the newcomers are job seekers and investors.

The other newcomers include spouses, children or parents of naturalized citizens, refugees and other accepted on humanitarian grounds.

The large influx of immigrants this year was particularly driven by the urgent resettlement of some 30,000 Syrian refugees in dire straits.