What does it cost to live in Canada?

Apartment buildings in the English Bay area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The vast size, varied climate and population distribution of Canada mean that costs of living can vary from one area to another. There may also be some expenses that you weren’t expecting before you arrived.

Here are some typical costs for items and services in Canada. Please note all figures are in Canadian funds.

Rent—Bachelor Apartment (1 room apartment, 1 month, large city)	$700–$1,100
Rent—Bachelor Apartment (1 room apartment, 1 month, small city/town)	$500–$700
Water, Gas and Electricity (1 month) - Apartment	$150
Water, Gas and Electricity (1 month) and Sewage – Single Family house	$400
Car Insurance for a mini Van of $35,000, 250 deductible and 2 drivers with very good history	$1350
VOIP Phone (1 month, including long distance)	$30–$40
Cheapest Cell Phone Package (1 month) with Unlimited Data	$40
Cable Television (1 month)	$25–$50
Internet Connection (high speed, 1 month)	$50
Groceries for One Person (1 month)	$200–$300
1 Dozen Eggs	$2–$3
Bag of Rice (20 pounds) – High Quality	$20
Bus Fare 1-Way (local)	$2.25
Fast Food Meal (hamburger, soft drink, french fries)	$4–$6 per person
Average Restaurant Meal	$10–$25 per person
Coffee from Specialty Coffee Shop	$1.70
Admission to Nightclub	$0–$15
Gas/Petrol	$1.15–$1.50 per litre
Movie	$11.50–$13
Pair of Jeans	$40–$80
Pair of Running Shoes	$60–$200
Return Flight from Vancouver to Toronto	$300–$1,200
Letter within Canada	$0.57
International Postage (letter)	$1.70
Interest Rate on Savings	.5%

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New Start-Up Visa opens for applications on April 1

English: Diagram of venture capital fund structure for Venture capital (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ottawa, March 28, 2013 — The world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs from around the world, with ideas for new business ventures and financial backing from Canadian investors, can apply to the brand-new Start-Up Visa Program as of April 1, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced today.

“Canada is open for business to the world’s start-up entrepreneurs,” said Minister Kenney. “Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential drivers of the Canadian economy. That is why we are actively recruiting foreign entrepreneurs - those who can build companies here in Canada that will create new jobs, spur economic growth and compete on a global scale - with our new start-up visa.”

Canada’s Start-Up Visa Program is the first of its kind in the world. By providing sought-after entrepreneurs with permanent residency and access to a wide range of business partners, Canada hopes to become a destination of choice for start-up innovators which will help Canada remain competitive in the global economy.

CIC has worked with two umbrella organizations, Canada’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO), to identify and designate the venture capital funds and angel investor groups that are keen to participate in the program. Immigrant entrepreneurs hoping to launch cutting-edge businesses in Canada and attain permanent resident status need the support of participating Canadian investors. A full list of designated venture capital funds and angel investor groups is now available on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website.

"The CVCA and our individual members look forward to the launch of the Start-Up Visa Program,” said Peter van der Velden, President of the CVCA. “Our participating funds welcome the opportunity to take part in this first-of-its-kind program, which has the potential to help them attract best-in-class entrepreneurial talent to their Canadian-based investee companies.”

"There has been significant interest from both angels and entrepreneurs since the announcement of this program," said Michelle Scarborough, Chair of NACO. "Our angel group members across Canada are eager to participate, and we look forward to supporting the growth of new businesses and helping them to make their mark in Canada, further expanding our economy."

To apply for permanent resident status in Canada, the foreign entrepreneur must first secure a significant investment commitment from a designated Canadian angel investor group or venture capital fund. Applicants must also demonstrate language proficiency skills at a Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and have at least one year of education at a post-secondary institution.

“With our new start-up visa, we are opening the door to new and exciting opportunities for Canada’s economy to grow and prosper,” added Minister Kenney. “This is part of our government’s transformational changes to Canada’s immigration system that will make it fast, flexible, and focused on Canada’s economic needs.”

The Start-Up Visa Program is a pilot program that will run for five years. It is expected that due to the narrow focus of the program, initially, the number of applications will be limited. However, the focus of the program will be on the quality of the applicants and on establishing a track record of success.

Immigrating: The Trade-Off

Highway 401 west of the Don Valley Parkway/Highway 404 junction. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Dale Sproule

Moving to a new country is scary. You’re leaving behind your family, your friends and whatever business network you established in your homeland. It also means that you are leaving behind other familiar things, like the ability to go to a sporting event and cheer on your favourite cricket or soccer team. It is surprising how important it can be to your mental well-being simply to go to a movie in your first language, or go out for dinner in comfortable surroundings where you can enjoy familiar foods and to talk to other people who share your culture and knowledge of your homeland – from homegrown musicians to politics.

So, it only makes sense to settle in a place where there is something familiar – like a fragment of your network, in the form of family or friends you can talk to, get advice from and fall back on. Your confidence can grow within a community of people who speak your first language and share your enthusiasm for your favourite sports teams or television shows. At the very least, you want to shop for the foods you grew up with, find an appropriate place of worship where you can practice your faith, find new cds by your favourite musicians, and shop for the clothing or other products you feel comfortable with.

Everybody Does It

The formation of ethnic communities is a well documented trend. These communities act as magnets for newcomers settling in Canada. It is human nature to settle in areas that offer the strongest support networks.

As ethnic populations in large cities grow, the larger cultural communities build their own infrastructures. Stores, supermarkets, shopping centers, and places of worship spring up to serve the growing population; and in turn, more people of the same ethnicity decide to settle within those communities because of the access to services available in their first language, and because of the presence of family and friends who have already settled and established roots within the community. The presence of the familiar makes the difficult process of immigration much easier.

Largely for this reason, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) becomes home to nearly half of the immigrants coming to Canada. A Statistics Canada study released in January 2008 (“Immigrants in the Hinterlands”, you can read the full article here) shows that 75 percent of newcomers settle in either Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal.

Since Canada’s population is spread across such a vast region, most Canadian cities are very small by international standards. The size of the ethnic communities are not just smaller in proportion to the size of the cities, they are also smaller because most immigrants give in to the attraction to the bigger cities. The study showed that only 3 percent of immigrants settle in small towns or rural areas.

The Downside of City Living

The larger the population, the greater the competition. The following statistics are not accurate. They were invented simply to illustrate the point we are making.

Imagine that in 2011, Canada determines that there are 15,000 vacancies in the engineering field in the country and actively seek out immigrants with the appropriate background. Let’s say that the recruitment effort actually results in 15,000 engineers immigrating to Canada.

But employment statistics are national in scope. Many, or perhaps even most, of the opportunities exist in small cities and towns across the country. So it’s likely that as few as 4,000 of those jobs would be available in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Because of the attraction of the ethnic communities, it is likely that as many as 7,500 of those newcomers with engineering backgrounds will end up settling in the GTA. If 3,000 Canadian trained engineering graduates were competing against them, that would leave jobs for a fraction of those immigrants with engineering backgrounds.

Perhaps 2,000 would keep looking and find jobs in their field within a few years. But in the end, it is quite conceivable as many as 4,000 of them will be forced to retrain and change careers. Some will return to their country of origin, convinced and upset that Canada recruited them for jobs that do not exist. Many will end up taking survival jobs. And since people who stay too long in those jobs often get trapped by the need to keep providing income for their families, they will continue to work as taxi drivers or store clerks or short order cooks for the rest of their working lives. Some will rise to management positions in their new occupations, but few will ever reach the salary that they would have realized if they had found jobs in their fields.

Meanwhile, 4,000 of the engineering opportunities in places like Estevan, Saskatchewan and Kenora, Ontario will remain unfilled. The 3,000 newcomers who are willing to settle outside of the major cities will have their choice of jobs and the vast majority of them will become well-employed and will be able to use their Canadian experience to move back to the big cities in a few years if they choose to do so.

The Statistics Canada study shows that 37 percent of immigrants who settle in major cities like Toronto will initially earn less than the Canadian average. After four years, the gap closes to 22 percent, but even after 12 years, 10 percent of those immigrants will still be earning less than the national average.

In smaller cities the initial gap of 14 percent disappeared by the fourth year. You may be surprised to learn that those immigrants who settle outside of the major cities actually make 2 percent more than the Canadian average after four years and after 11 years immigrants make 18 percent more than the Canadian average.

The article states that, “The income advantage of immigrants was even more pronounced in small towns and rural areas, where the average income of immigrants was 4 percent higher than that of Canadians after only one year of permanent residence.”

The Solution is Not as Simple as it Seems

If you move away from the large cities, you stand a much better chance of finding a job in your field and of reaching your employment and salary expectations. So why don’t more people do it?

Culture shock and homesickness can make life difficult even for people who settle in their own ethnic communities. Imagine settling in a place where almost no one speaks your first language. There may not be a mosque or temple where you can worship. The nearest restaurant or food store that sells foods and spices you love may be hundreds of miles away. Your nearest friends outside of your immediate family may be thousands of miles away. Your wife or husband may not be able to find a job of any kind, let alone one in their field of expertise. These stresses can tear at the fabric of your family and make life unbearably lonely.

So it really is a trade-off. If you can withstand the stresses of separation from everything you hold dear – even for a year or two – this country can offer enormous potential and almost unlimited opportunity. There’s a good chance you will eventually grow to love your new community. After all, when the immigrants settled in Canada for most of the past few hundred years, there was no choice but to live with your decision to leave your old life behind, and millions of people thrived in their new surroundings.

But in our modern times, you can stay in contact with your personal network on the internet and by telephone. You can order goods and services online and have them delivered to you. You can subscribe to a satellite or internet service and watch tv programs, movies and sporting events in your first language. You can jump on a plane and visit your family back home or relatives who have settled in other parts of Canada. And, if worst comes to worst, you can quit the new job and take your chances in the big city.

But before you settle for that survival job, or get discouraged and depressed by the lack of opportunity where you are, it would be wise to spread your wings and take a chance. Rather than trying to sink your roots into the cracks in the concrete and asphalt, open your mind and look around. Canada is a very big country, and the path to a wonderful future may take you through the fertile ground that lies outside of the big cities.

Source: http://cnmag.ca/issue-29/567-n00-immigrating-the-trade-off

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Immigration: Changing Your Route

Toronto Skyline (Photo credit: Bobolink)

By Pankaj Tripathi

Every adventurer to this land, down from Jacques Cartier in 1536 to you – has experienced doubt. “This isn't turning out as I expected it to.” “Should I have come?” “Is it all worth it?”
Do those doubts and fears have a basis in fact? Are they real? Do others in the same boat feel the same way? Well, sure they do. Even people who move from one city to another lose their networks and may need to start at lower positions.

Those who land jobs before coming to Canada or who have networks of friends or family here may not feel as uncertain or vulnerable as you, but most people deal with some degree of worry and self-doubt.

Middle aged immigrants with families to care for may be facing mid-life crisis, change in career, low self esteem, lack of job and depleting financial resources all at the same time.

But rather than caving in and giving up to depression and resignation, think of the successes that brought you this far in life. Be positive, calm and confident. And, as Ted Rogers said, "Don't be afraid to ask."

Starting down a new road

The first few steps of immigration are relatively easy. From the Permanent Card application, renting an apartment, applying for the Health Card (OHIP), opening a bank account, getting a drivers license, everything is pretty well organized.

Credit Cards might be a bit difficult, but you could always go for a secured credit card.

Then comes the difficult part. With limited financial resources and endless responsibilities, you have to find a job. You send out your résumé and call up companies. You may often be told you don't have Canadian experience, or the position is already filled. You may even encounter fraudulent recruitment agencies. If days turn to weeks, and weeks into months without success, panic can set in. No one intends to leave a stable job and a family that loves you in order to come to this strange land and flip burgers, distribute flyers; become a security guard or recruit other newcomers for a dodgy multi-level marketing scheme. If you were already an engineer, regional sales manager or other professional back home, how do you bring yourself to take a job stocking shelves at the local supermarket?

While volunteer opportunities may get you needed Canadian experience, they are by definition “unpaid” – and you have bills to pay. So what do you do when you are down to your last 1,000 dollars and your worst fears seem about to come true?

A few decide to throw in the towel and go back to their homeland. They may close this chapter forever, or re-plan and come back after a few years.

Some take survival jobs. While you attend school and drive a cab at the same time, keep in mind the individuals in Canadian society who were stocking shelves at the local grocery store twenty years ago and now own multi-million dollar retail chains. Our current Chief of the Defence Staff flipped burgers and was a newspaper boy as a young man in Winnipeg, and one of our prime ministers sold newspapers in Saskatoon. So respect the work you are doing, do it well and be proud of it. This pride and confidence will show in other aspects of your life. But never lose sight of your end goals and allow the survival job to become your new career.

Some of the more tenacious folks get their credentials evaluated, retool themselves, go to school upgrade their qualifications and try to re-enter the job market in their chosen profession. This is the most difficult but potentially rewarding option. It requires stamina, mental toughness, resilience and belief in oneself. You may even have to swallow your pride and accept some form of social assistance. But then who said success is easy? It takes a really special effort.

Be prudent in your spending habits. Look for deals and offers, and don't buy stuff you could do without. Every dollar saved lets you wait one day longer for your success.

Be prepared to make adjustments in your career, level of entry or take any new courses that you might need to kick start your career. From banking to education to driving, systems are different in Canada, and at times simply confusing. Seek help in understanding them. From friendly colleagues to numerous free courses and seminars, there are ways to learn and avoid costly mistakes.

Network, all the time. Find the right person. There is someone, somewhere in this huge crowd, in whichever city, town or village you are in, from Vancouver to Halifax, Toronto to Iqaluit, who will help you or knows someone who will make it happen for you.

As you go about your settlement process, keep in mind that it takes time, and you have to be patient, especially if you are not so young and have no local educational credentials or references. The economic crisis and uncertainty have not made it any easier. You have to balance expectations and reality, as it might be quite a different equation than what you were used to back home.

The process in itself is full of stress and different individuals have varying abilities to cope, based on their financial, emotional and psychological strengths. But the question will you ever make it, and will it all be worth it? Well yes, for sure.

Ask everyone who has stayed behind, done their slogging and made it. Empires don't happen when you have a boat waiting in the harbour. Success is for those who believe beyond belief, not for those who are ready to cut and run.

When the first settlers and homesteaders built this nation, there was no way home for most of them. Canada was born and flourished and grew through their dedication and determination. They were not quitters, and you can hardly stand in that long line, if you even think of quitting.

Employment outcomes for internationally trained professionals have been improving, and with initiatives like the Ontario Regulators for Access Consortium (ORAC), you should be able to restart your career even more quickly. So leverage your strengths, use the available resources, work through the system and be successful. There is no substitute for success, and your kids deserve it.

10 rules that can help you:
1. Re-pledge yourself to your goal and ambition every single day.
2. Look at the positive side of everything.
3. Be open to new ideas, concepts and friends.
4. Don't overspend in your first few weeks and months. Be prudent.
5. Don't cling to what you were back home, instead see the new landscape and assess where you best fit in.
6. Compromise but don't demean yourself.
7. Read about successful immigrants. They are enough success stories all around you, one just has to look for them.
8. Be especially careful of crooks who are out there to make a fast buck from the unwary, ignorant or confused individual.
9. Ask and take support - from friends, neighbours, agencies and government programs.
10. Network all the time. You never know who knows whom, or what leads to where. So network, and keep your eyes and ears open all the time.

Pankaj Tripathi

Pankaj Tripathi is a writer, journalist and management professional with more than
15 years of experience in advertising, marketing, academics, personal coaching and business restructuring. He is a motivational speaker working with young people. Pankaj is currently working on his PhD. He can be reached at (416) 508-5519 or by e-mail at p.tripathi@rogers.com.

Source: http://cnmag.ca/issue-36/462-immigration-changing-your-route-n11

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Housing: Room for Rent…Or Not?

United Nations Human Rights Council logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most stressful aspects of arriving in a new country is trying to get a clean and safe place to live. A lot of newcomers come to Canada with children. The school they select is based upon where they live, so finding good, affordable accommodation quickly becomes one of the most important decisions any newcomer makes while trying to put down roots in Canada.

It is important that newcomers read a bit about the laws that govern housing in Canada. There is a Human Rights Code or Human Rights Act for every province that governs the way accommodations are leased and rented in that province. For instance, according to the Ontario Human Rights housing code,  anyone - be they newcomers or citizens - should be able to get good housing that they can afford. To this end, both tenants and landlords (or housing providers) have clearly defined rights and responsibilities.

To find out more about the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords, I approached John Fraser, Program Manager at the housing advocacy group Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA). He guided me through the minefield of legal terms which are often confusing rather than enlightening.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

CNMag: How will newcomers learn about your organization CERA, as usually they are referred to you only if they have a problem?

JF: Right off the bat I would like to reinforce the fact that as a tenant, newcomers have the right to equal treatment in housing without discrimination and harassment.

The Ontario Human Rights code is very clear that you cannot be refused an apartment, harassed by a housing provider or other tenants, or otherwise be treated unfairly because of your race, colour or ethnic background, religious beliefs or practices, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, including refugee status, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), family status, marital status, including people with a same-sex partner, disability, sexual orientation, age, or because you are receiving welfare.

You are also protected if you feel you have been discriminated against because you are a friend or relative of someone identified above. That said, the facts on the ground are different. People do face discrimination in housing over some of the above issues. It is when they are turned down for accommodation that they approach us through a settlement agency.

CNMag: So you are their last resort?

JF: Yes you can say that. We are the people they turn to before they take any legal action. Although we try and avoid doing this as it is a costly and time consuming affair. The way it works is like this: the settlement worker usually talks to the housing provider on behalf of the potential tenant. It is when the landlord or property management firm tries to avoid solving the problem that we intervene at the request of the social worker.

CNMag: Can you help us understand your advocacy work better with an example?

JF: Sure. I know of this physician from Bangladesh who came here as an immigrant. He came alone and stayed with his brother for six months. He did odd jobs for a few months and got laid off. He is now on social assistance. It was all okay until his brother's wife joined them in Toronto. It was then that the physician decided to look for another apartment. Although there was availability in the same building, the property manager declined him tenancy based on the fact the physician was receiving social assistance. The settlement worker contacted us and we got involved. We spoke to the property management company suggesting to them the different courses of action we could take, including filing a human rights complaint if they did not change their stance. The outcome was positive as the client was offered accommodation and is now quite well-settled.

CNMag: What are the rights of of the housing provider or landlord? After all, they must be sure of the tenants' ability to pay.

JF: The Ontario Human Rights housing code is fair both ways, as after all, the housing provider must be sure of the tenant's ability to pay rent as they are in the business of renting and not a charity. When renting accommodation there are certain rules and regulations which must be observed. Landlords are well within their rights to ask for rental history, credit references and/or credit checks. However, a lack of rental or credit history in the case of an immigrant should not count against you.

CNMag: In general what has been your experience working at CERA?

JF: We commissioned a discrimination audit across Ontario in 2009.  The findings show that 1 in 4 people or 25% were not offered housing because they were on social assistance. 1 in 3 or 35% were discriminated against because of mental health issues, single parents were denied housing 14% of the time, while people with Caribbean accents denied housing 28% of the time and south Asians were discriminated against 23% of the time. We have been doing advocacy work since 1987 and despite the human rights code the barriers that keep disadvantaged people from getting and keeping their home are in no way gone. Housing discrimination most often affects marginalized communities and our aim is to promote and enforce human rights in housing for people across Ontario.

For more information on the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA):
Visit: www.equalityrights.org
Call 1-800-263-1139
Email: cera@equalityrights.org.
Their CHER site provides housing workers and advocates across Canada with tools and information to overcome barriers.

For Human Rights Codes in your province, click these links:

Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland and Labrador
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut (click on "Human Rights Act, consolidation of")
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon

Source: http://cnmag.ca/issue-42/1103-room-for-rentor-not

Adapting: What’s Your Name Again?

University of British Columbia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Sandra Fletcher

One day last month a memo came from Human Resources: “Your employee, Chung Ming Min, needs to complete this form...” No problem... with one exception – who was Chung Ming Min? There were several employees in my division with the last name of Min and several more had Chung or Ming in their names. Who was I looking for?

Turned out it was Jenny Min. It took me a whole day to figure it out and it was only by looking through half a dozen old employee files that I managed to come up with the solution.

Changing or adopting new names in order to more easily assimilate to another culture has been going on for  generations. A century ago, when Irish orphans arrived in Quebec they were asked to adopt French Canadian names. It was thought, at the time, that having names that were similar to the other citizens would make it easier for the children to blend in. Most did change their names but some refused, and to this day you will often hear Irish names still used in Quebec.

To avoid discrimination following World War II, many of the people who immigrated to Canada from Germany and Russia changed their last names. Schwartz was changed to Black (the literal translation from German to English) and the Russian Romanovsky, was changed to Roman. Whether or not the prejudice would have existed based on their name alone is unknown but it gave the families security, believing they had done something to distance themselves from their past.

Sometimes people change their names just for the sake of making things easier to spell. Polish names often contain letters that can’t be translated into English characters. Other names have different meanings in their original language than they do in English. Even the current US President, Barack Hussein Obama was known as Barry Obama in College!

It is very common for newcomers to Canada to adopt a Canadian-ized name – but do you have to in order to get ahead? The simple answer is no. It is not a requirement to have an Anglicised name to get along in Canada. Although it may make your life easier if you make modifications.

According to a study from the University of British Columbia called Why Do Skilled Immigrants Struggle in the Labor Market? A Field Experiment with Six Thousand Résumés, “Canadian-born individuals with English-sounding names are much more likely to receive a callback for an job interview after sending their resumes compared to foreign-born individuals, even among those with foreign degrees from highly ranked schools, or among those with the same listed job experience but acquired outside of Canada.” Professor Philip Oreopoulos, the author of the study published in 2009, argued that the gap in the employment rates of immigrants not even making it to the interview stage in the job application process.”

By law, employers aren’t allowed to discriminate based on your cultural background. Does it happen though? Of course it does. Ask yourself this: When speaking to a recruiter, can I clearly pronounce and have the person I’m speaking to understand what my full name is? If you can’t – then perhaps it would be best to use a pseudonom (same as an alias or a nickname). It’s a name you can substitute for your own.

However, all of us have a legal name. That is the name registered on all of your paperwork and what you would use for banking, taxes and in any dealings with the government. In addition to your legal name you can adopt another.

Eustathios is often changed to Steve, Jaspal can be Jas and Chung Ming can be Jenny. It’s your choice. The trend nowadays on résumés is to provide both options. For example, the name portion of the resume itself would read:

"Kwun-Mei (Bonnie) Tao"

Both the Chinese and Anglicized names are listed. It’s extremely important though that you remain consistent on all of your paperwork, and if you use the name Bonnie – stick with it!

To legally change your name you would need to complete official paperwork with the government. Your papers will all be reissued in your new name. You can find out more information about the fees and requirements on the Government of Canada website.

Ultimately, it’s important to be true to yourself and how you identify yourself is part of that.

I have a friend named May Ling Lee. At work, she is May Ling. To her friends, she is May Ling. To her family, she is Susan – sister to Heather and Jessica. These are the names they helped each other choose when they arrived in Canada as children from Hong Kong. To me, May Ling will never be a ‘Susan’.

To answer the question – what is in a name? – William Shakespeare said “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.

Sandra Fletcher
Sandra has specialized in Employment Services for over a decade. Her areas of expertise are Newcomer Settlement and Privacy Practices. She can be reached at sandrawrotethat@gmail.com

Source: http://cnmag.ca/issue-38/1029-adapting-whats-your-name-again-n00

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