Immigration to Canada has reached the highest level in nearly a decade, with 250,386 newcomers arriving last year.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Denis Coderre released the figures yesterday, marking the first time since the Liberals came to power in 1993 that immigration has exceeded 250,000 a year, despite repeated promises by the government to boost annual immigration to 300,000.

Ontario was overwhelmingly the destination of choice, welcoming more than 148,000. British Columbia was second with about 38,000; Quebec had about 37,000 and Alberta about 16,000. No other province attracted more than 5,000.