Immigration Canada

English: Alberta Province within Canada. Español: Provincia de Alberta en Canadá. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) has created a short-term initiative geared towards supporting businesses in the hotel and lodging industry throughout the province.

The ‘2013 Hotel and Lodging Additional Allocation Initiative’ is effective immediately. It will allow Alberta employers to nominate as many eligible clerks/agents, food and beverage servers, and room attendants for Permanent Residency as they need. Workers in these positions are considered semi-skilled.

The AINP program is a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) that allows the province to nominate workers in key fields to the Federal Government for Permanent Residency processing. PNPs have been a great help to provinces, which are able to tailor programs to reflect the economic needs of their region.

Normally, employers in the hotel and lodging industry are restricted to nominating a certain number of workers each year. For instance, a hotel with 1-50 rooms may nominate up to 2 individuals a year, while a hotel with 451 or more may nominate up to 18.

Other recent changes to the AINP include permanently closing the Family and US Visa Holder streams, as well as the temporary expansion of the Long-Haul Truck Driver stream.

EDIT: On Thursday, June 7th, the AINP announced changes to the Manufacturing Industry category. The following work experience criteria must be fulfilled in order for a worker to be eligible for nomination:

1. Possess a minimum of two years work experience in a job similar to the employer's field of business
2. At least one of the two years must be completed in Canada.

The Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) has reduced work experience requirements in its Semi-Skilled Worker stream.

Effective immediately, applicants to the Manufacturing Industry sub-division of the Semi-Skilled Worker stream are eligible to apply if they have two years of work experience in a job similar to the job they will be working in Alberta. At least one year of work must be completed in Canada.

The AINP is one of many Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) in Canada. Most Canadian provinces run their own PNP, which allows the province to nominate foreign nationals for Canadian Permanent Residency. Provinces are able to tailor their PNPs to target individuals with skills and experience that are in high demand in the region.

The AINP has streams for the following individuals:

Engineers
Tradespeople
Skilled Workers
International Graduates
Semi-Skilled Workers
Self-Employed Farmers

Source: http://www.canadavisa.com/news

English: Scotia Plaza (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Canada’s economy shocked even the most optimistic observers, as the month of May saw 95,000 new jobs created across the country. This is the largest gain since 2002, over a decade ago.

Most Canadian economists had expected a jobs gain of about 15,000 for the past month. The actual number, which was reported by Statistics Canada, is more than six times this amount. The added jobs helped to lower the unemployment rate a tenth of a percentage point, to 7.1 per cent.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was cautiously optimistic about the new statistics, stating that “May jobs numbers are a good sign that our economic policies are helping steer the economy in the right direction. Even better, the jobs created in May were mainly full time and in the private sector – the types of jobs that will help support a sustained recovery (from the 2009 economic recession).”

According to economists with Scotiabank, one of Canada’s largest banks, if the US had experienced a similar growth rate it would amount to the equivalent of 1 million new jobs in a single month.

Many of the new jobs were filled by young people, an important step in creating job security for the country’s next generation of earners. In May, people between the ages of 15 and 24 took 54,000 of the jobs.

The construction industry also saw massive gains, creating 42,700 jobs, almost half of the total new positions. Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta saw the largest increase in this field.

Source: http://www.canadavisa.com/news/entry/canada-sees-largest-job-gains-since-2002-10062013.html