New Study Finds Immigrants Vital for Canada

Image via WikipediaTORONTO (IDN) - Immigration and innovation are closely linked, and because innovation is the sine qua non of competitiveness in the twenty-first century world, immigrants as innovators play a critical role in boosting Canada's global competitiveness.

This is the main thrust of a new research report by the Conference Board of Canada released in October 2010. The 60-page study by Michelle Downie is intended to help government and business recognize the potential value of immigration to innovation performance, which would make Canada a more innovative country. Underlying the report is a comprehensive approach to understanding and quantifying the relationship between immigration and innovation.

In an attempt to find a convincing reply to whether immigrants are making Canada more innovative, Downie argues, "immigrants are by definition seekers of a better way -- the very embodiment of innovation". The purpose of the research report, he adds, is to test this presumption.

Therefore,it examines different dimensions of innovation across areas such as research, the culture sector, business, and global commerce, as well as at the level of the individual immigrant, the firm, and the national and international economy. "At every level of analysis, immigrants are shown to have an impact on innovation performance that is benefiting Canada," concludes Downie.

The report titled 'Immigrants as Innovators: Boosting Canada’s Global Competitiveness' also highlights actions that Canada can take to develop the innovative capacities of immigrants and harness the benefits of immigrant-driven innovation.

The report comes at the right point in time. According to the latest Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, released by the World Economic Forum, Canada has slipped from ninth to tenth place. The United States is fourth behind Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore.

Until recently, Canada topped for having minimum procedures for starting a new business and held a respectable ninth position for the time required to start a business.

Canada has indeed the potential to be higher than its present position with the second largest territorial mass in the world, rich with natural resources, including the increasingly scarce resource of clean water and a low population density at 34 million people.

More immigrants per capita than any other country in the world move to Canada every year. In 2006, Canada welcomed 251,511 immigrants, most of them highly skilled, through its doors. Yet there is a pressing need for more immigration, the Conference Board estimates that 375,000 new immigrants are required every year in order to stabilize the workforce and ensure economic growth.

At present, however, Canada is a consistent below-average performer in its capacity to innovate: ranks 14th out of 17 industrialized countries in the Board's report card.

The Conference Board is an independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada, affiliated with, The Conference Board, Inc. of New York, which serves nearly 2,000 companies in 60 nations and has offices in Brussels and Hong Kong.

The conclusions of the Conference Board's report are indirectly backed by Steven Johnson's latest book 'Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation'. The renowned author takes a look at how some of the world's greatest thinkers came to the conclusions that changed our world. He argues that the lone genius is the exception rather than the rule, and that innovation is usually a far slower, more collaborative process.

'LIQUID NETWORK'

Johnson defines innovation as occurring when "we take ideas from other people -- from people we've learned from, from people we run into in the coffee shop, and we stitch them together into new forms, and we create something new. This means that we have to change some of our models of what innovation and deep thinking really looks like."

He calls this the "liquid network" -- an environment that enables the coming together of ideas, in sometimes unpredictable but satisfying combinations.

"Job creation, the success of our entrepreneurial class and our economic vitality here in Canada depends on the creation of these liquid networks," said Gordon Nixon, president of the Royal Bank of Canada at a conference on innovation.

"Earlier this month (October 4, 2010) the Globe and Mail announced the findings of a C-Suite survey, which puts the blame for this country's poor track record on innovation squarely on C-Suite executives. According to my peers who were polled for this study, the two top factors important in explaining weak Canadian productivity is business leaders' risk aversion and a culture of complacency... This is a country that to a large degree has been built by newcomers willing to take risks," he added.

He said those attitudes should now help Canada shift to a culture of innovation at a time when many established executives are complacent and risk-averse.

Immigrants face too many "onerous and unnecessary" obstacles which limit their potential to inject life into the country's flailing innovation performance and full participating in the economy.

"Innovation, R&D, Venture Capital -- that is the equation we must solve for and they are all interrelated.

"I say this because Canada's labour productivity level in the business sector has been lower than that of the US for almost 50 years. And a recent report by the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity shows that if the GDP per capita gap between the US and Canada were closed, Canadian families would have $12,200 more in annual personal disposable income," Nixon pointed out.

"Canada cannot continue to ask immigrants to sacrifice their short-term success in the interests of future generations. The impact of this lost productivity on our collective prosperity cannot be overstated. As the country begins to climb out of the recession, the government needs to engage Canadians, both new and old, and begin a discussion on our future and our immigration program," writes Ratna Omidvar, president of the Toronto-based Maytree Foundation, an agency promoting workplace diversity and author of Canada's Immigration Score: Recommendations for a Win-Win, published in the July-August issue of Policy Options.

There is a lack of recognition of international experience and qualifications which leads to discrimination or underutilization of their skills.

According to research by Naomi Alboim, Ross Finnie and Ronald Meng published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), Canada should provide more points for young people and fewer for work experience. As it is, international experience is discounted by a factor of almost 70 per cent by employers in labour market. To continue to allot points for international work experience is disingenuous at best. Younger people, even those with little work experience, have long careers ahead of them to contribute to the Canadian economy.

Business leaders must take a stronger lead in addressing these challenges. Employers can start by conveying a strong message to new Canadians that they value them as creators, innovators and highly skilled workers whose performance improves results. They should also take advantage of the fact that immigrants can open doors to investment opportunities overseas and help attract foreign investment in Canada.

According to an OECD study, diversity has also been associated with an increase in patents. More than a quarter of patents in Canada have foreign co-inventors.

Two prime examples of how integrating immigrant workers can bolster innovation are:

Xerox Canada, with half of its staff who are immigrants from 35 different countries, credits immigrants with boosting its innovation rate, which has reached about 130 patentable ideas a year. It says its staff are also helping the company better compete in a global market.

Toronto-based Steam Whistle Brewing, the beer maker with more than half of the management team as immigrants, says the composition means a stronger work ethic, while foreign-born workers bring new techniques and fresh perspectives to the job. It also helps them understand a diverse marketplace.

"I absolutely believe that ongoing immigration is going to turbo-charge this economy going forward," said Loudon Owen, managing partner of venture capital firm McLean Watson Capital.

Immigrants have a fresh view of Canada, and bring ideas from their country of origin that may be new to Canada, he said. "They are often driven to succeed in ways that Canadians aren't," he added.

Copyright © 2010 IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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Immigrants Made Canada

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By J.L. Granatstein

October 25, 2010
Source: my towncrier.ca

Let me begin with one simple fact: Toronto’s public schools declare themselves the most multicultural in the world. One school, Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto’s east end, has 1,913 students speaking 54 languages. What that means is obvious —  Canada today is a nation of immigrants.

But what we forget too easily is that Canada always was a country of immigrants. Everyone who ever lived here came from someplace else, including the First Nations whose ancestors crossed into North America over a land bridge from Siberia. Everyone. The original European immigrants of Canada were the French followed by the Loyalists, the losers in the American Revolution, who settled in the late 1780s in what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. Most were of British origin, devoted to King George III and Great Britain, but there were also others of German, Dutch and other origins, as well as blacks, most but not all slaves. Those “originals” largely shaped Canada’s population mix for almost two hundred years.
    
Let me demonstrate. The Canada into which I was born in 1939 had a population of some 11.5 million, according to the 1941 Census figures, which was made up of those of British and French origin (50 percent and 30 percent respectively) and the others (20 percent). The others were of German, Ukrainian, Scandinavian, and Dutch origin in the main, with a scattering of other ethnicities. There were few blacks, Chinese, Japanese, or South Asians, the Canadian population almost wholly white.
    
Overwhelmingly the population was Christian with a few hundred thousand Jews and a handful of other denominations. The corporate, cultural, and political leaders in Canada were overwhelmingly drawn from among those of British origin, and French-speaking Quebeckers did not have anything like their fair share of economic or political power.
 
It is certainly fair to say that nation-building, such as it was, aimed to establish a British type of society in Canada. Culturally, this was reflected in Canada’s political, economic and social institutions. In law, all Canadians were defined as British subjects until the passage of the Canadian Citizenship Act in 1947, and a variety of cultural symbols ranging from the monarchy to the flag and to the names of army regiments showed the British underpinnings of English-speaking Canada. By and large, the government either ignored racial and ethnic differences or worked to turn all into British Canadians in attitude if not in ethnic origin.      
    
Obviously, Canada is very different today. In the 2006 Census, the most recent, the “other” category, now with some 200 ethnicities, has reached 50 percent of the 31 million population. For example, there were reported to be 1.35 million Chinese, 962,000 East Indians, and 436,000 Filipinos, and one in six Canadian residents was a visible minority. Christians still predominate (some 70 percent), but as recently as 1951, 96 percent of the population was Christian. Today, there are far more Roman Catholics than Protestants (40 percent of the Canadian population is Catholic, only 30 percent Protestant), and Muslims are approaching one million, far more than those of Jewish belief. Those with no religion number one in six of the population.
   
In Greater Toronto, the nation’s largest city, very close to half of the 5.1 million population were immigrants, an increase of 27 percent in five years, and more than four in 10, or 43 percent of the population, were visible minorities, primarily Chinese, South Asian or black. India and China now provide most of the immigrants to Canada and Toronto, and in an ordinary year at least 250,000 immigrants come to the country, more than four in 10 of them heading to Toronto. At the time I was born and for my first 15 years, by contrast, the British Isles were the main source of immigrants to Canada.
   
So Canada has changed, and certainly much for the better. There are Members of Parliament in turbans, the Chief of Defence Staff is of Ukrainian ethnicity and the previous Governor-General Michaelle Jean is a Haitian woman immigrant who succeeded a Chinese female immigrant, Adrienne Clarkson. Jews hold three of the nine seats on the Supreme Court; a Jamaican-Chinese-Canadian multimillionaire made a huge donation to add a giant extension to the Royal Ontario Museum and a group of Italian-Canadian millionaires matched that with equally grand gifts to the redeveloped Art Gallery of Ontario; the public service is almost as mixed as the nation; and Toronto’s public schools, for example, declare themselves the most multicultural in the world. It may even be true. Mixed-race marriages are increasingly common in the larger cities, and adoptions abroad, especially in China and Africa, have created multiracial families all across the country.
   
There can be no doubt that this is a great success story. Immigration changed the old Canada, and immigration is continuing to do so. What the Canada of 2150 will look like, no one can say — except that it will not look at all like the Canada I grew up in.

Historian J.L. Granatstein is editor of The Canadian Experience. He writes on Canadian political and military and on foreign and defence policy.
 

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Canadian immigration visa processing times have been cut in half since 2005

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From 2005 and 2009, the average overall processing time for Canadian immigration applications decreased to 26 months from 50 months. A recent analysis has found this improvement is linked to legislation introduced in 2008 which fast-tracked applications by skilled-workers such as registered nurses, crane operators, financial auditors, construction managers and 34 other qualifying occupations for the Federal Skilled Worker Category. The approximate processing time now for a skilled worker application is seven months, which represents a drastic reduction since previously the overall processing time could take up to five years.
The Canadian immigration system has been streamlined and improved. According to this recent analysis by immigration consultant Richard Kurland, there is evidence that skilled workers are getting high-quality service from Immigration Canada. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said the findings in this analysis on wait times proves the Canadian government is heading in the right direction in implementing policies that make Canada more attractive to the world’s “best and brightest” people.
In 2009, Canada issued 14,917 visas to foreign workers who met the federal skilled worker criteria and their families. If an applicant does not meet the criteria for the Federal Skilled WorkerCategories, the application enters a different queue where processing times may be longer.

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Immigration policies must improve to meet economic needs: Report

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OTTAWA — Immigration policies need to be modernized to avoid a stifling of economic growth in the future caused by labour shortages, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.
The Ottawa-based think-tank suggests, among other things, placing more importance on the skills of prospective immigrants and whether they match the labour-force needs of Canada.
The report, written by the Conference Board's chief economist Glen Hodgson, said the recent recession provided some relief from tight labour markets.
However, he predicted the supply of workers will soon become an issue for the country's economic development with steady job growth once again the norm, and the large baby-boomer generation either at or approaching retirement age.
Hodgson wrote: "A country's long-term potential for economic growth, or at least sustainable economic growth, is essentially driven by three factors: growth in the labour force (and total hours worked), investment in physical capital and increased productivity."
He said that while Canada has generally outperformed other industrialized countries in labour-force growth in recent decades, it has lagged in capital investments and improving productivity.
Hodgson reasoned that, without improved immigration policies, Canada will hit a wall in terms of growing the workforce, given that the current birthrate of 1.66 children per woman is far from the level of 2.1 that's considered enough to sustain a population.
The Conference Board report recommends: more weight be given to immigration applicants' skills in relation to Canada's needs: that immigration processes and policies be streamlined between different levels of governments; an expansion in the use of temporary foreign workers to fill short-term needs; involving employers more in the immigration decision-making process; making it easier for temporary foreign workers and foreign students to become permanent residents; and improved recognition of foreign professional credentials.
While promoting more consideration of economic elements in immigration, Hodgson doesn't recommend doing away with other factors such as family unification, humanitarian reasons and protecting refugees.
"An easy way to achieve the economic objective would be to maintain the number of annual immigrants meeting social objectives or criteria and steadily increase the number selected by economic factors," he said.
The Conference Board's report assumes the rate of immigration will grow to about 350,000 per year by 2030 from the government's current target of as much as 265,000.
Despite urging more co-ordinated immigration programs between different levels of government, the Conference Board is not recommending the federal government have a monopoly on this area of public policy.
"Since provincial governments tend to be closer to the ground in terms of their interface with business, their engagement is essential," the report said.

© The Financial Post

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Canada legislates against rogue immigration consultants

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People seeking help to emigrate to Canada are set to be better protected after the Canadian government announced new legislation to deal with fraudulent immigration consultants. 

By Lucy Hyslop

Britons are among thousands exploited by the so-called crooked consultants, who are paid “extortionate amounts of money” by potential immigrants duped into believing they can guarantee them visas, for example, reduce the wait time for applications or claim to have connections in the Canadian immigration department who will expedite the process.

The national police force, the RCMP, and the Canada Border Services Agency are reportedly dealing with hundreds of current investigations into allegations against unscrupulous consultants across Canada. Around a quarter of a million people worldwide emigrate there yearly, while the number of immigrants settling from the UK has doubled in the past decade from approximately 4,500 in 1999 to 9,500 last year.

 

Samantha Skerrett, an immigration consultant/director at the London-based Migrate Nu-Life, said her firm often dealt with the problems left behind by what the industry calls “ghost” consultants. “I have spoken to people who have, sadly, lost a good part of their savings on companies who make promises of job offers to get them to Canada. They get nothing in return but false promises,” she said. “Brits need to be very careful who they pay money to.”

A member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC), Skerrett has heard from clients who have been given misleading or fraudulent advice from other companies, or told they are eligible for an immigration route when, in fact, they are not. “It leaves their dreams of moving abroad shattered,” she added. “Ghost agents give the industry a bad name and are a thorn in the side of bona-fide consultants trying to offer a quality service. It affects our professional image and the ability to do our work.”
The Canadian government’s Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants Act aims to close a loophole in the current legislation, which does not regulate any consultants’ involvement in the pre-application period. If passed, it would require all paid-for advice or representation be provided by an authorised immigration consultant, lawyer or notary only. It would also give the government power over the body governing immigration consultants “in order to ensure the integrity of the process”.
Jason Kenney, Canada’s minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, said at an earlier conference that, while most immigration consultants working in Canada were professional and ethical, “the unfortunate reality is that many consultants are acting dishonestly or even illegally to profit from people’s dream of coming here.” He cited one case of an exorbitant fee of $90,000 (around £60,000) paid to a crooked consultant by an immigrating family. “These prospective immigrants often find out too late that they’ve been deceived,” Kenney added
While the legislation of course covers Canada only, the minister will be also encouraging foreign governments to tackle the problem of crooked consultants dealing with immigrants to Canada. Jason Kenney is in London next week to talk about these and other immigration issues with Home Secretary Theresa May and Immigration Minister Damian Green as part of the Five Country Conference, comprising the UK, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
With the act increasing the risk of penalties, fines and possible imprisonment, Skerrett hoped that “the fear would be a major deterrent for these ghost agents”. She added, “Brits and immigrants will be better protected through proper representation, and provided with an assurance of quality and competence.”
If anyone is defrauded by an immigration consultant in the UK, they are advised to file a complaint with the local police and inform the Canadian Embassy, said Kelli Fraser, media relations adviser for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
She pointed out that immigration fraud happens, of course, around the world not just in Canada, but added that it threatens the integrity of Canada’s immigration system. “It also raises security concerns, wastes tax dollars, adds to the processing time for legitimate applications, and it is unfair to those who do follow the rules,” she said.

 

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Ottawa-Gatineau adds 2,300 jobs in May

By Robert Bostelaar , The Ottawa Citizen June 4, 2010

OTTAWA — Ottawa-Gatineau added another 2,300 jobs in May, extending a growth spurt that has boosted employment in the capital by 26,000 in the past 12 months.

Despite the increase, part of an unexpected jump of 24,700 new jobs across Canada, a rise in the number of people looking for work kept the region’s jobless rate at 6.0 per cent.

The national unemployment rate stayed at 8.1 per cent, again because more job-seekers entered the labour market, Statistics Canada reported.

May’s growth brought employment in Ottawa-Gatineau to 676,000, surpassing the previous high mark of 674,900 in November 2008, just before the economy was derailed by recession.

Proportionately, however, the region’s employment remains below record levels. Of residents aged 15 and over, 68.5 per cent held jobs last month, compared to 71.2 per cent in November and December 1988.

But Statistics Canada labour analyst Vince Ferrao says the jobs added since May 2009 signal a strengthening economy.

“Over a year it’s gone up by 26,000, and that’s a growth rate of four per cent over 12 months. That’s very healthy,” he said Friday.

Among sectors gaining jobs: retail and wholesale; finance, insurance, real estate and leasing; public administration, and health care and social assistance.

Manufacturing and high tech remain down from a year ago, but Statistics Canada said the tech sector gained an estimated 1,500 jobs in May, bringing it to 47,900.

OTTAWA— The Canadian economy added a greater-than-expected 24,700 jobs in May, the fifth consecutive monthly gain, Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The unemployment rate remain unchanged at 8.1 per cent, the federal agency said, as more people entered the labour market in search of jobs.

Across Canada, jobs were added for a fifth consecutive month.

Full-time employment rose by 67,300 in May, while part-time positions fell by 42,500. The private sector accounted for 43,400 new positions during the month, with the public sector added 9,400 jobs. However, there were 28,000 fewer self-employed workers in May, Statistics Canada said.

Economists had expected about 15,000 jobs to have been created in May, following a record-breaking 108,700 new positions the previous month. Still, most forecasters thought the unemployment rate would ease to eight per cent.

The strongest job gains were in transportation and warehousing, and health care and social assistance. Public administration and agriculture were also higher. The biggest declines were in the information, culture and recreation sectors, as well as in the accommodation and food services, and natural resources industries.

Ontario, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia all saw employment gains in May, while British Columbia and Prince Edward Island lost jobs.

Meanwhile, average hourly wages rose 2.4 per cent in May, in line with gains in the same month a year earlier.

“Over the next few months, we expect the pace of job creation to move back within the 20K to 40K range, as the Canadian economic recovery continues to gain self-sustaining momentum. The unemployment rate should continue its downward trajectory,”said Millan Mulraine, economics strategist at TD Economics.

On Tuesday, the Bank of Canada began cranking up its key lending rate for the first time in nearly three years. The central bank increased borrowing cost by 25 basis points to 0.5 per cent amid signs the domestic economy is rebounding strongly, even as the global recovery appears “uneven.”

Canada’s economy grew at a faster pace than expected in the first quarter of this year, led by consumer spending. Gross domestic product rose at an annualized pace of 6.1 per cent between January and March, the biggest jump since the last quarter of 1999, Statistics Canada reported Monday.

“The solid employment gain over the past few months highlights the positive momentum in the Canadian economy, and reinforces the Bank of Canada’s rationale to hike rates earlier this week despite the turmoil in Europe,”said Benjamin Reitzes, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Ottawa+Gatineau+adds+jobs/3112728/story.html#ixzz0pvnJnb3O

settlement and integration in Nova Scotia

by Ryan Lum →Halifax News, →Migration

HALIFAX - On May 28, nearly 100 people filled the St. Andrew’s Community Centre Gymnasium to take part in the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society’s (NSBS) annual public forum, called “Council in the Community,” on timely issues impacting Nova Scotians. This year’s meeting, jointly hosted with Halifax-based Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services (ISIS), was on the theme of access to the legal system in Nova Scotia for immigrants and refugees.

“It’s a two-way street,” when it comes to newcomer interactions with the law, says Sherry Jackson-Smith, who works with immigrants involved with the prison system. “Immigrants have to have a grasp of the Canadian legal system, but legal workers need to understand where they are coming from.”

About half the participants were newcomers to the province - some recently arrived, some more seasoned - who lent their experiences as immigrants or refugees trying to access the legal system or other forms of government service.

This meeting was the first of its kind for the province as far as the organizers are aware, and many were grateful for the conversations.

“Newcomers and legal workers rarely interact outside of a formal setting,” said Mirjana Musanovic, a crisis councilor with ISIS, “so this kind of a meeting stirs up thoughts and ideas that hardly get touched on elsewhere.”

Many newcomers cited difficulties with Canadian legal culture, whether it was through a court, or something like trying to find housing.

“Buying property in my country is easy,” says Linda, an immigrant from China. “Here, you need a lawyer, you need insurance.”

Another man, who preferred not to be named, arrived from Iran 10 months ago under the Nominee Program, and has been unable to get recertified in his profession. “I was a dentist for 16 years. Here, I cannot get my license unless I spend 5 years and pay $100,000”.

For newcomers, language can also be a significant barrier to accessing the proper legal outlets.

“When you don’t speak [one of the official] languages, getting proper legal representation becomes very difficult. Poor translation leads to misinformation, and there is huge waste of the system’s resources because of it,” says Claudine Bertin, who runs Access Language Services, a legal interpretation business. She says that while there is a huge demand for legal interpreters, Nova Scotia Legal Aid has no budget to meet the demand. Most of the newcomers participating in the conference were invited through English classes they are currently enrolled in.

Strategies for supporting newcomers are becoming increasingly important in Nova Scotia. During last summer’s election campaign, Premier Darrell Dexter said that he plans to double the number of immigrants to Nova Scotia in the next 10 years to make up for a widening demand gap in skilled workers.

“To double the number of immigrants, you need to double the capacity of programs that promote access,” said Jack Potter, Diversity and Leadership Outreach coordinator at ISIS, “Ultimately, access to the legal system enhances access to all the other elements of our social support network.”

Jane Kirby, a member of No One Is Illegal Halifax (NOII-Halifax) adds that current immigration policies that restrict immigration status to certain classes of skilled workers, including high application fees and bureaucratic restrictions, bar many people currently living in Canada from accessing legal immigration status. She also says that skilled workers are not the only newcomers filling economic needs.

“An estimated 200 000 to 500 000 people are living without status in Canada, often working in precarious, low-wage jobs,” says Kirby. “These people are filling labour market needs, but because of their economic status are barred from obtaining status in Canada via the immigration system.”

Potter thinks a shift in thinking about immigration is required. “Traditionally, bringing immigrants to Canada has been about fulfilling the needs of the country, which have been mostly economic. What we want to see is a system that considers the needs of immigrants as well.”

Kirby agrees that a shift in thinking is necessary.

“What is needed at the most basic level is an immigration system that looks at migrants as people, not as commodities to fill economic needs,” she says.

Kirby says Canada’s immigration system is currently moving in the opposite direction: late last year, Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney cut the number of refugees accepted in Canada from 29,000 to 12,000, according to NOII-Halifax. Earlier this month, members of NOII dropped a banner in Halifax to draw attention to reforms Minister Kenney is proposing that would make it more difficult for people to seek asylum in Canada

Canada on track to lead G7 economies this decade: CIBC

By STEFANIA MORETTI, QMI Agency

This may be Canada’s decade, according to a new report by CIBC that predicts the country is likely to lead growth in the G7 for the next 10 years if it plays its cards right.

Relatively lower government and corporate debt, immigration and trade balances mean it’s Canada’s “time to shine,” according to a report released Friday by CIBC World Markets.

Mounting debt troubles in Europe and geopolitical tensions in Asia have grabbed headlines in recent weeks.

It’s not that Canada will benefit from others’ malaise, Avery Shenfeld, CIBC's chief economist, told QMI Agency. A weakening in any part of the world is still bad for every other country in terms of exports.

“It’s more that when we look at who’s going to do better over the medium term, we have some advantages in terms of not having as many problems as they do.”

Problems in Europe have overshadowed Canadian fundamentals and even dampened expectations for growth.

But Canada's rich resources, resilient financial system and favourable demographics relative to other G7 nations make it an economic contender looking out over the next five to 10 years, Shenfeld said.

Another notable positive is in Canada's healthier state of public- and corporate-sector balance sheets.

But these factors aren’t “ironclad,” Shenfeld warned. They only mean Canada is better positioned than its debt-laden counterparts. “It’s not smooth sailing from here.”

Controlling ballooning debt and tightening fiscal policy appear to be the keys to success, Shenfeld said.

Canada’s central bank will be among the first to hike its interest rates this summer, so growth may not be something to boast about in 2011. But that will change, Shenfeld said.

“It’s as we look further on that we will have fewer years of cuts, that Canada may, in fact, shine through,” he said.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has put into motion a plan to rein in spending with the hope of all but reducing Canada’s budget deficit from $53.8 billion in 2010 to less than $2 billion by 2015.

Canada’s parliamentary budget officer has said the effort isn’t enough, and that five years down the line, federal balance sheets are projected to show a structural deficit of $12.3 billion.

Still, Canada’s current federal deficit of 3% of GDP (5% including provinces) pales in comparison to the U.S.'s and U.K.'s double-digit deficit-to-GDP rations, Shenfeld said.

Canada’s population and productivity demographics are also in better shape than more mature economies thanks to strong immigration and renewed business investment.

Resource-hungry emerging markets will also ensure strong demand for energy and metal products, which traditionally account for about a third of Canada's domestic income growth, the report said.

Canada will have more seniors than kids in the next decade: StatsCan

Canada’s population is expected to increase by as much as 14 million by 2036, according to Statistics Canada’s newest report on population growth.

The agency projects that between 2009 to 2036, Canada’s population could grow from its current 33.7 million to between 40.1 million and 47.7 million.

According to the report, immigration levels represent the greatest share of the projected population increase, with Canada receiving as many as 333,600 immigrants a year by 2036, compared with 252,500 in 2010.

But high immigration levels won’t put a dent in Canada’s rapidly aging population– seniors could account for nearly a quarter of Canada’s entire population by 2036, nearly double the 13.9% they accounted for in 2009.

Seniors are expected to surpass the number of children aged 14 or under for the first time ever between 2015 and 2021.

StatsCan’s provincial and territorial breakdowns have Ontario and B.C. leading the pack in population growth, with rates higher than the national average. Newfoundland and Labrador was the sole province projected to have a population decrease.

Ontario’s population is expected to increase from nearly 13.1 million in 2009 to between 16.1 million and 19.4 million in 2036; Quebec’s population would increase from 7.8 million in 2009 to between 8.6 million and 10 million in 2036. In the west, British Columbia’s population would increase from nearly 4.5 million in 2009 to between 5.8 million and 7.1 million in 2036.

Below, a complete breakdown of StatsCan’s projected population growth by province.

• Alberta’s population would increase from 3.7 million in 2009 to between 4.6 million to 5.4 million in 2036.
• Manitoba’s population would increase from 1.2 million in 2009 to between 1.4 million to 1.7 million in 2036.
• Saskatchewan’s population would increase from 1 million in 2009 to between 1.1 million to nearly 1.3 million 2036.
• Nova Scotia’s population would increase from 938,000 in 2009 to between 987,000 and 1.1 million in 2036.
• New Brunswick’s population would increase from 750,000 in 2009 to between 772,000 and 874,000 in 2036.
• Newfoundland and Labrador’s population could decrease from nearly 509,000 in 2009 to 483,000 in 2036. But medium to high growth projections could result in an increase of anywhere from 514,000 to 545,000 in 2036.
• Prince Edward Island’s population would increase from 141,000 in 2009 to between 161,000 and 188,000 in 2036.
• The population of the Northwest Territories would increase from 43,000 in 2009 to between
49,000 and 57,000 in 2036.
• Yukon’s population would increase from nearly 34,000 in 2009 to between 36,000 and 42,000 in 2036.
• Nunavut’s population would increase from 32,000 in 2009 to between 36,000 and 44,000 in 2036.

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/05/26/canadas-population-could-exceed-40-million-by-2036-statscan/#ixzz0pBYcSKNq

OECD lifts 2010 growth forecasts for rich economies but sees no end to era of instability

Economic recovery in the world’s richest countries is accelerating thanks to a “substantial” rebound in trade and growth in Asia, but austerity measures are needed to reduce government deficits, a leading agency said Wednesday.


The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a watchdog for 31 of the world’s most developed countries, said the current environment is “relatively auspicious” but faced with serious risks.

Those include Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and a possible boom-bust scenario in emerging markets such as Brazil, India and China – which have been growing much faster than the more developed OECD economies.

“The period of significant financial instability that began in August 2007 is not yet over,” the OECD warned in its latest biannual Economic Outlook.

The Paris-based group also raised its forecasts for economic growth in its member countries – which include Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom – to 2.7 per cent this year, up from its forecast of 1.9 per cent last November.

Canada’s growth this year is expected to be ahead of most other OECD countries, with real gross domestic product to be 3.6 per cent over the weak performance of 2009.

The OECD lifted its forecasts for Japan, the United States and the eurozone countries, but Japan and the U.S. are still expected to outpace Europe, the report said. Japan’s growth is estimated at three per cent in 2010 and the U.S. GDP is expected to rise by 3.2 per cent.

“The outlook has really improved in this short period” since the OECD’s last forecast, Secretary-General Angel Gurria said in a news conference at the organization’s headquarters.

But the OECD chief urged member countries to pursue “fiscal consolidation” – reducing their deficits through spending cuts and a clampdown on tax evasion – which he said was “imperative” to make the OECD’s positive growth outlook a reality.

The OECD publishes its economic outlook twice a year, although it updated some 2010 forecasts in an interim assessment published in April.

Europe’s response to its sovereign debt crisis – the latest chapter in the global financial and economic turmoil that began three years ago – has been “prompt and massive,” the OECD said, but has failed to settle the currency bloc’s “underlying weaknesses.”

The OECD called for “bolder measures” – up to and including an effective fiscal union – among eurozone countries in order to “dissipate doubts about the long-term viability of the monetary union.”

“Bolder measures need to be taken to ensure fiscal discipline, along a continuum that ranges from stronger surveillance and more effective sanctions for noncompliance, to external auditing of national budgets all the way to de facto fiscal union,” the OECD said.

Gurria stressed that the current turbulence in Europe is part of the same crisis that began in the U.S. in 2007. “This is the same crisis, it’s a continuum,” Gurria said, adding that the next challenge after slashing the massive debt loads countries took on save the banking industry and combat recession is unemployment.

Unemployment in the OECD area is forecast to peak at 8.5 per cent by the middle of this year, Gurria said. It will remain stuck at over 8 per cent next year however, as companies in Japan and Europe are expected to increase working hours of employees rather than hire new workers.

The U.S. economy has been boosted by stimulus measures, improving financial conditions, demand from the fast-growing non-OECD economies of Asia – especially China – and the stabilization of the housing market.

The employment outlook in the United States also looks better than in Europe and Japan. The OECD predicted that unemployment will come down to 8.9 per cent next year from a high of 9.7 per cent this year, as unlike their counterparts in Europe and Japan, U.S. businesses shed large numbers of employees in the downturn and should “rehire relatively strongly” in the upturn, the OECD said.

The OECD predicts the U.S. economy will expand at a rate of 3.2 per cent in 2010, up from a November forecast of 2.5 per cent.

In Europe, the economies of the 16 countries sharing the euro are now expected to grow by 1.2 per cent this year compared to a November forecast of 0.9 per cent.

Unemployment will peak at 10.1 per cent this year in the eurozone and stay stubbornly at that level in 2011, sapping the strength of the recovery, the OECD said.

The recent weakness in the euro versus the dollar will benefit European growth, OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan said. “I would not be concerned if we see a further decline in the euro,” Padoan said, “This would be a welcome addition to external demand for the euro area.”

Padoan added that “the global economy needs some rebalancing in exchange rates,” saying that the euro has been overvalued versus the dollar and China’s currency undervalued.

Japan’s economy will grow by three per cent this year compared with the November forecast of 1.8 per cent, the report said.

– By Greg Keller, The Associated Press, with a contribution from The Canadian Press in Toronto

'Ghost agents' slip through immigration loophole

By: Barry O'Regan

Ghost agents, providing pen to paper filling out immigration paperwork on behalf of Canadians seems to be a pretty lucrative business making some Ghost agents thousands and thousands of dollars in Vancouver and the lower mainland.

Whether by word of mouth, attending cultural community events and networking, Ghost agents promise Canadians a speedy process, sometimes promising an "in" with immigration authourities, to bring family members to Canada for a fee.

What is distressing is many Ghost agents are usually from the same culture or country, such as the Far East, thus giving the prey a false sense of security and comaraderie to those seeking immigration advice to those in the community.

Currently Ghost agents, long a thorn in the side of legitimate and registered Immigration Consultants need not be registered in Canada. It is akin to having a friend of a friend do your income taxes, because they are cheap or promise a big tax refund, only to have the Canadian Revenue Agency audit or find glaring errors in your return.

The federal government if they have their way will soon put a stop to unscrupulous Ghost agents who promise the moon and the stars for cash, yet deliver very little. Those who use the services of Ghost agents seem to have little recourse in recouping the thousands of dollars paid by those seeking a solution in bringing over family members.

The CIC website has implicit instructions on how everyone can fill out all the paperwork themselves.

The two mottos to abide by it seems are, "if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is", and "if you want something done right, either do it yourself or hire a legitimate agency."

Wealthy Iranian family cruises Tofino looking for investments

By Stefania Seccia, Canwest News ServiceMarch 22, 2010 1:02 PM

TOFINO — Wealthy investors from Iran toured Tofino Sunday looking for potential financial prospects that may help them immigrate to Canada, according to Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce president Ram Tumuluri.

B.C. has the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) that opens the doors for both business investors and skilled workers to immigrate to Canada. "If a foreigner invests a minimum of $200,000 in B.C. they are considered for permanent residency," Tumuluri said. "It could be more, but it's a minimum of $200,000 to qualify."

There were about 15 members of an Iranian family touring and each had a net worth of approximately three million CAD, Tumuluri added. The family wants to escape its country's current struggle and move to a more peaceful nation, he explained.

"It helps the Canadian economy," he said. "It's the right approach and the right program." Larger cities tend to get a lot more attention from foreign investors and Tumuluri said he knew the Iranian family was traveling to Nanaimo for a tour.

"So we organized a day trip and a program including going out on a boat and eating lunch," he said. "So they could get a feel of the natural beauty here." However, the incumbent immigrants must invest in a related field of their occupations.

"For instance if one of them is a restaurateur in his own country he has to invest in a restaurant," Tumuluri said. The members in the group have backgrounds in the media, medical and real estate development professions, according to Tumuluri.

B.C.'s PNP is a collaboration between the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development and the federal Citizenship and Immigration Canada, according to its website www.welcomebc.ca.

There are two components to the program: strategic occupations and business immigrations. A successful applicant to the PNP program accelerates the permanent resident application process. "Tofino can use the exposure," Tumuluri said

Canada in Top Five countries of the world by Employed Foreign Workers

A recent study shows that Canada among most attractive countries for international skilled workers to seek their employment, it hold 4th position after USA, Britain and Spain. In polls respondents indicated that would try to come to Canada to work, half of those also indicated that will seek for the opportunity to make immigration to Canada through their employment engagements. It is also noted that mobility of work force come with attributes of age and education, it is associated with young professionals with university education in their earlier 30-s. Canadian Immigration requirement for skilled worker immigration program set this criteria as preferred for Canada.

The reasons behind selecting Canada as top choice for immigration are obvious, high level of wages, lower cost of living in comparison to US, greater opportunities for employment within professional experience and educational background, career growth potential, welcoming social environment. Most foreigners working engineers, production operators, technicians and specialists in the field of information technology.

To work temporarily in Canada it is required to obtain Canadian Temporary Work Permit prior or/and related work visa documents prior to be allowed to work in Canada and choose different jobs. Those individuals who choose to apply for permanent residence in Canada upon completion of their initial working contract, having a job a demonstrating ability of finding job will in most cases qualify them for landed immigrant status without living Canada or going the standard immigration to Canada process.