BNN: 'Canada’s population grew by nearly half a million people last year, sharply higher than depressed 2020 levels as international migration returned to historically elevated pre-pandemic numbers. The number of people living in Canada rose by 1.2 per cent, or 457,888, to 38.5 million in 2021, according to Statistics Canada estimates released Thursday in Ottawa. That’s up from 160,273 the previous year, and closer to the record population-growth levels in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.'