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OTTAWA — B.C. will receive between 39,000 and 42,000 immigrants and refugees annually under the Trudeau government’s ambitious plan unveiled Monday to bring in a minimum 300,000 newcomers to Canada annually.

The federal Liberal government had already declared its intention to reach the 300,000 threshold this year, which if achieved would mark the first time since just before the First World War that the total number of immigrants and refugees hit that mark.

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Immigration Minister John McCallum said Monday it will be the target again for 2017 — and become a “baseline” for subsequent years.

That terminology suggested to Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, an expert on federal policy, that the federal Liberals are setting the stage for even bigger increases in coming years — to at least 360,000 (one per cent of Canada’s population, which was a little over 36 million in 2016).

McCallum touted the benefits of his plan to Canada’s economy, and the response from some B.C. groups was positive, though one policy critic said the Liberal plan is more about winning votes in immigrant communities.