Immigration Canada

British expats have voted Canada the best place to live in.

According to a study of over 1,000 expats carried out by NatWest International, Canada is the country which offers the best qualify of life for Britons abroad.

92 per cent of British expats in Canada surveyed by the bank praised their working environment as "very good” or "excellent”, while 90 per cent rated their financial security as meeting the same criteria.

Canada's health care system, educational standards and attractive natural environment were similarly rated highly by respondents.

Dave Isley, head of NatWest International Personal Banking said: “This is the second year Canada has topped the tables of the NatWest IPB Quality of Life Index. Its excellent working conditions, financial security and peaceful reputation have pushed Canada into this year’s pole position.

“As a member of the Commonwealth, Canada offers Brits common values and goals shared with the UK, helping British expats settle into the country and feel at home.”

Expat Stephen Davis, who lives in Toronto, said: "The media gives excessive attention to areas of sun, sand, sea and easy living etc. Life is not like that in Canada, but what we do have is a meritocracy in an ordered and quite well-organised society... where salaries are reasonable, the country's economy is relatively sound, and almost everyone has access to high quality health care. While no country can ever be perfect, I'm personally very glad I live here."

Stephanie Ash, a British expat who lives in Thunder Bay, north-western Ontario, added that she had personally found that the quality of life in Canada was “superior to anywhere else in the world”.

“Families here enjoy a high disposable income, which means a great lifestyle,” she said. "We have large and affordable homes, a clean and beautiful environment, great employment standards, plenty of business opportunities, and world-class education."

The country does, however, have one crippling disadvantage for expats. It is one of the 150 or so countries where British migrants can expect to have their pensions frozen at the rate they are when they first start drawing them abroad - something which causes serious financial difficulties for many of the country's oldest British settlers.

New Zealand and Australia occupied the second and third places on the index respectively.

The survey found that more than half of those Britons living and working abroad earn between £50,000 and £100,000, with expats based in Hong Kong earning the highest salaries. Nearly half of the expats based there said they were earning more than £100,000 a year

Canada has long sought to boost economic and demographic growth through immigration, and has one of the highest per-capita immigration rates in the world.

McGuinty wants more control over immigration

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TORONTO - Ontario should have greater control over which immigrants come to the province and the programs that help them settle in, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

"We want the federal government to devolve to Ontario the authority to administer, plan and design our own integration and settlement programs for newcomers," McGuinty said.

"We also want more say in the selection of immigrants coming to Ontario so we can make choices that support our economic growth," he said Wednesday.

At present, for example, Ontario gets 16% of economic-class immigrants while the national average is 25%."

Manitoba, B.C. and Quebec have been given more autonomy over immigration matters than Ontario, he said.

Employers complain to the government that they cannot find workers with necessary skills and the province needs to be able to attract immigrants with economically important skills to boost its overall bottom line, he said.

But McGuinty said the province will still welcome new immigrants who arrive through other routes such as family reunification.

"Most of us here come from other parts of the world at some point in time and I bet you that most of our parents, or grandparents or great-grandparents didn't have extraordinary skill sets," he said.

"We started at the bottom. That's certainly where my family came into this. So we never want to shut those people out but what we do want is a better balance."

He intends to continue raising issues of concern to the province, like immigration and health care, throughout the federal campaign, McGuinty said.

Tory MPP Jim Wilson said the premier is deflecting criticism from his own domestic policies that have led to an unemployment rate that's been higher than the national average for 51 months.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also accused McGuinty of trying to change the channel, insisting he should focus on finding appropriate jobs for immigrants who have already arrived.

"We still see many, many people who have skills who are driving cabs, who have skills who are delivering pizzas," Horwath said.

antonella.artuso@sunmedia.ca

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Canada undergoing temporary growth spurt: BoC

Due to its soaring value against the American ...

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The Canadian economy likely expanded by a surprisingly strong 4.2 per cent in the first three months of the year, but it was a temporary burst of activity that is already over, the Bank of Canada says in its new outlook.

Topics :: Canada , United States , Middle East

The central bank's new quarterly outlook paints a picture of an economy that is settling down to a protracted period of slow growth, being held back by a high loonie, a tapped-out consumer and government spending restraint.

The bank says the current second quarter will see growth brake to two per cent, less than half what it was in the first, in part because of supply disruptions to Canada's auto sector caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The disruption will lessen going forward, however.

On an annual basis, the economy is forecast to slow from 2.9 per cent this year, to 2.6 per cent next year and 2.1 per cent in 2013.

The overall take from the document is that the bank appears in no hurry to start raising interest rates to slow the economy because other factors are doing the job.

The bank doesn't appear to be overly worried that high oil and food prices might trigger inflation. It briefly notes that inflation may hit three per cent, at the upper end of the bank's acceptable range, in the next few months, but appears unconcerned.

"The combination of modest growth in labour compensation (wages) and higher productivity is expected to continue to dampen inflationary pressures, with the higher assumed value of the Canadian dollar providing further restraint," the bank said.

Economists had been pointing to either May or July as the most likely dates for the bank to start raising its policy rate from the current one per cent, which would have the effect of also raising short-term interest rates for such things as variable mortgages.

But the dovish tone of the latest outlook suggests interest rates could remain low longer, especially amid fears that moving aggressively in advance of the United States likely would have the undesired effect of lifting the loonie even higher.

The bank does concede that it has been taken by surprise by the 3.3 per cent expansion in the fourth quarter of 2010, and the likely even stronger 4.2 per cent spurt in the first three months of this year.

That means Canada's economy will likely return to full capacity by the middle of next year, earlier than previously expected.

But it stresses temporary factors were responsible, including stronger exports and domestic consumption, and that there is still plenty of slack in the economy.

The exports surge is already over, the bank says, and the persistently strong dollar averaging $1.03 US will continue to restrain exports going forward.

"The bank continues to project ... that the recovery in exports will be subdued relative to earlier global recoveries, with the higher level of the Canadian dollar assumed in this projection adding to long-standing competitive challenges," it said.

Consumption may remain moderately stronger than would be assumed, the bank says, in part because high commodity prices are increasing household purchasing power through gains in the terms of trade, the difference between export and import prices. It estimates the country's gross domestic income will rise by 4.7 this year.

Still, it believes the housing market will continue to cool and that government spending restraint will be a net drag on the economy this year.

The biggest engine of growth remains business investment, it says, in part because the higher Canadian dollar makes investment in foreign-made machinery and equipment less expensive.

Globally, the bank sees little change in the economic outlook, although it continues to stress risk factors such as high debt both among households and governments in the advanced economies, the Japanese crisis, turmoil in the Middle East and high commodity prices, especially oil.

Despite the risks, it says the global recovery is becoming more rooted and that even growth in troubled Europe is strengthening.

"The global economic recovery is projected to proceed at a steady pace over 2011-13," the bank says, projecting growth of 4.1 per cent this year and 3.9 per cent next.

The bank has slightly lowered its forecast for U.S. growth this year to three per cent, from its previous 3.3 per cent call four months ago.

Ladner's Chinese rant ignores economic boom

Image via WikipediaBY ETHAN BARON, THE PROVINCE

Former Vancouver councillor Peter Ladner argues that wealthy Chinese homebuyers are driving Vancouver's real-estate prices to heights unaffordable for regular British Columbians.
"Mainland Chinese immigrants are moving to Metro Vancouver at the rate of 10,000 a year," Ladner said. "These immigrants are in some sense political and economic refugees, securing citizenship in Canada as a backup plan for their children's futures."
Rich Chinese buyers, Ladner suggests, are making a killing. He quotes a realtor's flyer boasting that his average client's equity rose from $150,000 to $4.5 million between 1993 and 2011.
"The result of this frenzy is that Vancouver's housing has priced its average citizens well out of the market," Ladner added.
Cry me a river, and make it the Yangtze. Unless you don't buy Chinese-made products, you've got no grounds for complaint.
British Columbians purchase billions of dollars in goods from China, fuelling the economic boom enriching the people who are buying up Vancouver real estate.
In 2000, B.C. Stats predicted British Columbians' contribution to China's economic expansion.
"As China industrializes, the early indications are that British Columbia will . . . play an important supporting role in the emergence of an Asian economic giant," the agency reported.
Imports to B.C. from China the year that prediction was made stood at $3 billion, according to Statistics Canada. Last year, B.C. imported $8.8 billion in goods from China. Canada as a whole imported $44.5 billion in Chinese products in 2010.
"The top five commodities imported from China in 2010 were electronic computers, telecommunication equipment, games and toys, furniture and fixtures and outerwear," StatsCan's 2010 international trade review says.
China's share of Canada's imports rose to 11 per cent in 2010 from 3.7 per cent in 2001, according to StatsCan.
Why do we buy so many Chinese products? Because they're cheap. Why are they cheap? Because Chinese workers are paid very poorly, often toil in abysmal conditions and sometimes get kicked out of their homes so wealthy industrialists can level them and build more factories. Who benefits from this trade relationship? Why, we British Columbians who save money buying cheap goods, and those Chinese who make money off the cheap production of cheap goods. We get inexpensive sweaters. They get houses in Shaughnessy.
Shop at the dollar store all you want, it ain't gonna get you into West Point Grey.
Ladner is right. He's identified a problem that few will speak about for fear of being labelled as racist. But if you're going to point a finger, make sure you're standing in front of a mirror.
Oh, and about that mirror . . .
ebaron@theprovince.com

Tories promise loans for immigrants seeking to upgrade skills

Image by Kashmera via FlickrBY ANDREW MAYEDA, POSTMEDIA NEWS

MARKHAM, Ont. — A re-elected Conservative government would offer loans to immigrants so they can get the training they need to have their credentials recognized in Canada, Stephen Harper said Wednesday.

Many recent immigrants have trouble getting jobs in the field in which they were educated because their credentials often aren't recognized by professional regulatory bodies.

It's a persistent problem that, according to some studies, has increased the gap in standards of living between immigrants and Canadian-born workers with similar education levels.

The Conservatives hinted at addressing the issue in the budget unveiled last month. On Wednesday, Harper said the Conservatives will offer loans to help immigrants pay for the skills training or upgrading required for credential recognition.

"These bridge loans will make it easier for new Canadians to find jobs that take full advantage of their experience and expertise," Harper said in a statement.

The loans will cover expenses associated with training, training materials, exams, administration and registration fees, and other costs associated with the foreign credential recognition process.

The measure will cost about $6 million annually and won't be delayed until the budget is balanced, like other announcements the Conservatives have made on the campaign.

The Tories hope the measure will help their chances with the large population of immigrants in Canada's biggest city. The Conservatives are optimistic they can increase their seat total in the Greater Toronto Area, especially in the suburban ridings that encircle the city.

Led by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the party has been aggressively courting various ethnic communities in the GTA.

Harper announced the measure in the riding of Oak Ridges-Markham, where Conservative Paul Calandra is the incumbent. Harper will later address a rally in Ajax-Pickering, where Liberal incumbent Mark Holland is facing off against Conservative star candidate Chris Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan.

The Conservatives note that many immigrants have trouble paying the tuition and training costs needed to go through the credential-recognition process.

Many such individuals don't have a credit history that would enable them to take out private loans, and their training courses might not qualify them for federal student loans.

amayeda@postmedia.com

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IMF boosts outlook for Canada

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The International Monetary Fund boosted its expectations for Canadian economic growth this year as it warned the world is facing new threats from surging oil prices, Mideast turmoil, higher inflation in China and Europe's debt woes.

Topics :: IMF , World Bank , The Associated Press ,United States , Canada , China

In a new economic forecast Monday, the organization raised its projection for Canadian growth of 2.8 per cent for 2011, up from an earlier forecast for 2.3 per cent.

The Canadian economy grew 3.1 per cent in 2010.

"Economic developments in Canada last year mirrored those in the United States, with the pace of economic activity moderating in midyear," the report said.

"The deceleration reflected not only the drag on Canadian exports from weak U.S. activity and strong import growth from investment spending amid an appreciating currency, but also a cooling of some domestic activity."

The IMF also lowered its expectations for Canada for 2012 to 2.6 per cent compared with 2.7 per cent in an earlier forecast. The report suggested the risks in Canada for 2011 are tilted to the downside.

"The main domestic risk being deterioration of housing markets and household balance sheets," the IMF said.

"Key external risks are lower-than-expected activity in the United States and renewed sovereign strains in Europe."

The IMF said the global economy should grow 4.4 per cent this year. That compares with global growth of five per cent last year. The IMF projects industrial countries will grow 2.4 per cent while developing countries, a group that includes China, will grow more than twice as fast at 6.5 per cent.

"The world economic recovery is gaining strength, but it is unbalanced," Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, told reporters.

He said it would be critical for countries running large government deficits such as the United States to make progress in getting those deficits under control. At the same time, countries with large trade surpluses, such as China, will need to do more to boost domestic demand and not rely so heavily on exports to generate economic growth.

The IMF's new growth forecast was prepared for spring meetings of the 185-nation IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.

Before those discussions Saturday, finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations will hold closed-door talks on Friday.

The finance officials will try to assess how big a threat the rise in energy and food prices will be and also what they can do collectively in response to the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.

The United States is expected to keep pressing China to move more quickly to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar as a way of making U.S. goods more competitive in China.

China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, will be seeking assurances that Washington is moving to put in place a credible plan to deal with soaring federal budget deficits.

At their last meeting in Paris in February, the G20 officials struck a watered-down deal on a group of technical indicators to track global imbalances. But the G20 left the tricky question of what to do if the balances become dangerous for later discussions.

The IMF, in its new ``World Economic Outlook,'' left unchanged its January projection that the global economy will grow 4.4 per cent this year and 4.5 per cent in 2012.

In 2009, the global economy shrank by 0.5 per cent, its worst downturn since the Second World War, with growth rebounding in 2010 to 5 per cent.

The 2.4 per cent growth forecast for the advanced economies was down 0.1 percentage point from January. The IMF expects these countries to grow 2.6 per cent in 2012.

"New downside risks are building on account of commodity prices, notably oil, and relatedly, geopolitical uncertainty as well as overheating and booming asset markets in emerging market economies," the IMF said.

Growth in the United States was forecast to be 2.8 per cent, down 0.2 percentage point from January, reflecting primarily the drag from higher oil prices. The IMF's forecast is in line with private economists.

Japan, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, was forecast to grow 1.4 per cent this year, down 0.2 percentage point from the January forecast. The expectation is that the world's third largest economy will be slowed at first by the natural disasters but then receive a boost from the reconstruction efforts.

China, now the world's second largest economy, was projected to grow 9.6 per cent this year, a forecast that was unchanged from January. Beijing is raising interest rates to deal with rising inflation risks.

All emerging market economies, a group that includes China, India and Brazil, are expected to grow 6.5 per cent this year and next year.

Developing countries are doing better because they emerged from the recession in much better shape than many industrial countries.

"Economies that are running behind the global recovery typically suffered large financial shocks during the crisis, often related to housing booms and high external indebtedness," the IMF said.

Economic growth in the 17 countries that use the euro including Germany, France and Italy was projected to be 1.6 per cent this year and 1.8 per cent next year, an anemic recovery that reflects continued worries that debt problems in Greece, Ireland and Portugal will spread to other countries.

– With files from The Associated Press

Canada should welcome 100,000 more immigrants per year: Report

By DOUGLAS TODD 31 MAR 2011 COMMENTS(2) THE SEARCH

Filed under: Vancouver, immigrants, Metropolis B.C.

Talk about a discussion starter. Canadian professor Tony Fang is making the contentious recommendation Canada would economically benefit from hiking its annual quote of immigrants to about 350,000 from the current 250,000.

Increasing immigration to Canada by 100,000 per year would boost Canada’s gross domestic product and spur investment in housing, and would not add to unemployment, according to results of Fang's study, which were released at the national Metropolis conference last week in Vancouver.

The York University professor led the study for The Metropolis Project. He claims his projections for the period 2012-2021 show that adding one million immigrants – an extra 100,000 annually over the current level of about 250,000 − would increase productivity and help the government’s balance sheets.

Fang's recommendation conflicts with the impressions of many Metro Vancouver and Toronto residents who worry that housing prices are rising far too high because of a river of immigrants into urban centres, and that strong immigration levels keeps Canadian wages low.

Canada has the highest immigration rate per capita of any major country.

However, a news release about Fang's report justifies his findings on the basis of the way he and his fellow researchers considered the interdependence of factors such as interest rates, wages, inflation, monetary economic policy and standard of living.

"To study the impacts of large-scale immigration on the Canadian economy, the researchers took into account many factors including: immigrants’ participation in the labour force; associated spending on government services and infrastructure; funds brought by immigrants; and labour market differences between migrants (in order to capture the effect of large-scale immigration on Canadian-born workers)," says the release.

Fang, a professor of human resources management professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York, performed a series of macroeconomic simulations with ProfessorMorley Gunderson, of the Centre of Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto, and Professor Peter Dungan, director of the Policy & Economic Analysis Program at the University of Toronto.

Fang's report -- which focusses on the economics of immigration and not other factors, such as cultural and environmental -- says that adding 100,000 more immigrants per year would:
• Increase real GDP by 2.3 per cent over the 10-year period by 2021
• Increase Canada’s population cumulatively by 2.6 per cent, creating demand for goods and services (especially housing)
• Add $14 billion to government coffers because taxes paid by immigrants exceed government expenditures

Conducted with funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and The Metropolis Project, the study proposes to "provide policymakers at all levels of government with information about the costs and benefits of large-scale immigration, to better inform their decisions."

India an answer to Sask. labour shortage: Hopkins

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Saskatchewan should throw its doors wide open to immigrants from India to help solve labour shortage problems, the head of the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.
John Hopkins, the chamber's CEO, said the pending retirement of many workers in the baby boom generation is "the freight train coming down the track," that will add to the labour shortages already being experienced in the province as a result of an economic boom.
Speaking to the chamber's annual general meeting, at the Best Western Seven Oaks Inn, Hopkins said encouraging more immigrants from India could be a big part of the solution to Saskatchewan's labour shortage.
"What we really need is a pro-active Indian strategy," Hopkins said. "India has 1.2 billion people, many who are highly skilled and salivating about coming to a country like Canada."
Potential immigrants from India are "educated in English, which is a huge advantage for us," Hopkins said.
Hopkins, who was part of a Saskatchewan trade mission that visited India recently, said the trip was a success: "We have established great contacts."
In addition to being a potential source for immigrants, India is also an important market for many Saskatchewan products, Hopkins said.
Federal government help -in facilitating immigration from India and in recognizing the need for more immigrants to Saskatchewan -is needed, Hopkins said.
Speaking to reporters following his speech, Hopkins conceded that there is sometimes a problem with immigrants' professional or technical training being accepted in Canada.
Steps, including educational upgrades, need to be taken to address that problem, Hopkins said, adding it might be possible to provide educational upgrades in India, which would give immigrants the chance to have their credentials immediately recognized when they arrive in Canada.
A variety of other measures should be undertaken to deal with labour shortages, including getting more First Nations people engaged in the workforce, and encouraging young people to stay in Saskatchewan, Hopkins said.
Recruiting new workers from other parts of Canada is also part of the solution, Hopkins said, though other parts of the country will also be dealing with labour shortages as the baby boomers retire, so the competition will be stiff.
Convincing some baby boomers to delay retirement or continue working part-time could be part of the solution, Hopkins said.

City top employer for immigrants

Downtown Mississauga as seen from Ontario's Hi...

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The City of Mississauga has been named one of Canada's top 100 "Best Employers for New Canadians" in a fifth annual national survey.
Mississauga was one of just two municipaliies across the nation to make the list. The other was the Region of Halton.
The list, which identifies the best employers for recent immigrants, is a joint initiative of two charitable foundations: The Maytree Foundation and The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.
"These employers offer interesting programs to assist new Canadians in making the transition to a new workplace — and a new life in Canada," said the sponsors. The list was published in this week a special supplement of The Globe & Mail.
The City of Mississauga was cited for "addressing the practical challenges that new Canadians face when seeking employment."
Through the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) Mentoring Partnership, City of Mississauga employees connect with skilled immigrants to provide them with career support and guidance.
The City also hires interns through Career Bridge, an internship program for internationally qualified professionals. More than half of those interns have gone on to secure permanent jobs with the City.
Mississauga also helps internationally-trained engineers develop their English skills through a program sponsored by ACCES Employment.
"We are so pleased that our partnerships ... have been recognized in this way," said City Manager Janice Baker. "Mississauga has benefited from the arrival of thousands of immigrants, and today, almost 50 per cent of our citizens were born in another country. We are working to do our part to give new Canadians relevant work experience and the best possible start in their adopted country."
Also on the best employers list was Xerox Corp., which has a major research facility in the Sheridan Technology and Science Park.
It was also recognized for participating in the TRIEC mentoring partnership and the Career Bridge programs, for including new Canadians on its interview teams and for working directly with the Dixie-Bloor Neighbourhood Centre to connect with new Canadians who are seeking jobs.
jstewart@mississauga.net

Immigration Canada

British expats have voted Canada the best place to live in.

McGuinty wants more control over immigration

YouTube - The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson - full 4hrs (-E06)

Canada undergoing temporary growth spurt: BoC

Ladner's Chinese rant ignores economic boom

Tories promise loans for immigrants seeking to upgrade skills

IMF boosts outlook for Canada

Canada should welcome 100,000 more immigrants per year: Report

India an answer to Sask. labour shortage: Hopkins

City top employer for immigrants

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