Census numbers prove Canadians need to accept more immigration or more sex

By Andy Radia | Canada Politics – 18 hours ago

If the census figures released Thursday prove anything, it's that there's not enough of us in Canada.

There's not enough young people to support an aging population and there's not enough skilled workers to keep Canada's companies competitive.

According to CBC.ca, between now and 2020, baby-boomer retirements coupled with declining birth rates are expected to produce labour deficits of approximately 163,000 in construction, 130,000 in oil and gas, 60,000 in nursing, 37,000 in trucking, 22,000 in the hotel industry and 10,000 in the steel trades.

Notwithstanding the current headlines that trumpet high unemployment rates, governments must deal with this enduring problem now or face a future of economic stagnancy.

Our country's primary strategy to cope with our labour problems has been to attract workers from other countries.

In 2010 Canada welcomed a record number of immigrants (280,000), plus a record number of temporary foreign workers (182,000) and foreign students (96,000).

Yet to maintain even a nominal level of growth in our labour force, that number needs to increase in the coming years.

The challenge however, is that other industrialized jurisdictions around the world are feeling the same labour pinch and like Canada, have also chosen immigration as their policy solution.

The U.S., U.K., and Australia, in particular, have been proactive in luring skilled migrants and thus have made the business of immigration increasingly competitive. Moreover, the two countries that we have traditionally relied on for new workers -- China and India -- have fairly robust economies themselves, resulting in fewer people wanting to emigrate.

It's clear Canada needs to find alternative solutions. A more sustainable strategy might be for governments and businesses to focus on developing a 'homemade' labour supply; maybe it's time for governments to tackle the problem of slumping fertility rates.

But as Licia Corbella of the Calgary Herald explains, Canadians don't like having babies.

"Since the late 1960s — the sexual revolution of birth control and rising abortion rates — the number of births in Canada declined, and by 1976, fertility had fallen to less than 1.8 children per woman, when the replacement level is 2.1 children per woman," she wrote.

University of B.C. family policy professor Paul Kershaw recently released a survey suggesting a crucial factor in declining birthrates is the increasing cost of raising children in Canadian cities.

Unfortunately, Canadian governments and business have historically done little to assist new parents with financial aid. Despite common perceptions, Canada trails behind much of the developed world in offering the maternity and family benefits that would facilitate a homegrown solution to our labour shortage.

A 2008 study conducted by McGill University found that 106 countries provide mothers with 100 per cent wage replacement while on maternity leave; in most provinces, women are only guaranteed 55 per cent.

Thirty-nine countries have implemented laws that guarantee women paid leave to address their children's health needs; in Canada, no province or territory provides such an allowance.

Canada can no longer ignore that it's becoming less efficient for us to import people; worldwide demand of the scarce "human resource" will only continue to increase. As a result, governments must do a better job to encourage the "manufacture" of babies.

Media Advisory - New Canadians Say Diversity Policies Aren't Working

Bosses Need to Step Up

TORONTO, Feb. 8, 2012 /CNW/ - A new study suggests that, despite their good intentions, Canadian employers have been slow to embrace diversity policies in the workplace.

The study, commissioned by the Progress Career Planning Institute (PCPI) is being released just as new census figures are expected to show a sharp decline in immigration in Ontario that could affect the province's economy.

The study focused on mid-career immigrants with six to 15 years experience in the workplace. It found fewer than half were working in companies that have policies welcoming new Canadians.

The full study will be released at the 9^th Annual Internationally Educated Professionals Conference hosted by PCPI and funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. This is the largest networking event of its kind - bringing together over 120 business leaders and over 1,000 internationally educated professionals from 100 countries to share their experience and strategies in helping newcomers succeed in Canada's workforce.

According to the Conference Board of Canada, Canada loses anywhere from $3 to 5 billion annually by not hiring the thousands of internationally trained professionals who come to Canada.

Foreign workers fill agricultural labour shortage

Nicholas KeungImmigration Reporter

They pay income tax and contribute to Canada’s employment insurance and pension plans, just like Canadian workers.

But the 24,000 migrant agricultural workers who come here yearly — 90 per cent destined for Ontario — live at the mercy of Canadian farm owners and must leave the country once the planting and harvesting in fields, orchards and greenhouses is done.

Migrant workers who come through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program help grow Canada’s farm products, from tobacco to vegetables, fruits, flowers and sod, earning the provincial minimum wage or the so-called “prevailing” wage set by Ottawa.

The program began in 1966 when Jamaican workers were brought in for work through a bilateral agreement.

It was later expanded to other countries, with the majority of migrant farm workers coming from the Caribbean and Mexico to work across Canada.

“The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program matches workers from Mexico and the Caribbean countries with Canadian farmers who need temporary support . . . when qualified Canadians or permanent residents are not available,” Service Canada says on its website.

With an increasingly knowledge-based economy, Canada relies on foreign farm workers. Their annual number has grown by more than a third in the last decade, from 18,500 to 24,000.

In Ontario, employers request workers through Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services, with the approval of Service Canada.

Migrant workers, selected and screened by their countries, sign a contract with individual farm owners detailing their rights, obligations and length of employment, usually from three to eight months.

Service Canada says airfare is shared by the workers and employers, who must provide free housing and a kitchen with pots and pans if migrants choose to make their own meals. (Employers offering meals can deduct up to $6.50 a day from a worker’s wages.)

Farm owners are also responsible for registering workers with the provincial health insurance plan and provide compensation such as “free, on-the-job injury and illness insurance,” said Service Canada.

The program isn’t without its controversies.

A policy paper by Justice for Migrant Workers, an Ontario-based advocacy group, detailed key concerns raised by these farm workers:

 •  Working 12 to 15 hours without overtime or holiday pay.

 •  Denial of necessary breaks.

 •  Use of dangerous chemicals/pesticides with no safety equipment, protection or training.

 • Unfair paycheque deductions for EI and other services in cases where workers get little or nothing in return.

“Migrant workers perform rigorous and often dangerous rural labour that few Canadians choose to do,” the policy paper said. “Many workers are reluctant to stand up for their rights since employers find it easier to send workers home instead of dealing with their serious concerns

New Web site to help skilled immigrants find jobs in Toronto

A new online network with the goal of connecting immigrants with jobs is set to go live tomorrow, according to the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC).

With funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Scotiabank, the Web site will highlight existing networks of professional immigrants, and showcase them in front of Greater Toronto Area (GTA) employers. The URL of the site will be revealed early tomorrow, says Racquel Sevilla, manager of program development at TRIEC.

“It's one way for employers to find the talent out there,” she says. “Especially for a niche role. This allows them a broader talent pool they haven't looked into before.”

The Web site's goal is to raise awareness of immigrants with professional skills that are looking for jobs. It will focus on collaboration between the various immigrant networks in the Toronto area already trying to do this along industry and ethno-cultural lines.

Related Story | Canadian experience not required 

Immigrant networks are typically volunteer-run, membership associations that are created to help connect newcomers with quality jobs. Examples in the GTA include theInternational Doctors Network, Hispanotech, and the Association of Filipino Canadian Accountants.

A survey conducted in 2009 of immigrant networks found 70 such groups in the GTA, and the Web site is launching with more than 30 of them in a searchable directory.  The public site will allow employers to search through associations by alphabetical listing, profession, or ethno-cultural group. It will also feature news stories and success stories.

The members-only version of the site will provide a place for network leaders to talk on discussion boards and with a messaging function. “It's kind of like LinkedIn,” Sevilla says. “I could use the messages to make a job posting for free.”

There will also be a free classifieds section and a community calendar on the site, she adds. 
 
Almost one in five employers in the Greater Toronto Area has hired a skilled immigrant specifically to target local cultural communities to find new business opportunities, according to an EKOS poll conducted for TRIEC in spring 2011. Also, one in five employers brought an immigrant on board to diversify their company's global client base. The vast majority of employers agreed that their immigrant employees were effective at meeting these objectives.

Funding provided by the government and Scotiabank is part of a $100,000 budget provided to The Professional Immigrant Networks initiative. PINs was launched in 2009 with a mandate to work with immigrant networks and help them connect skilled immigrant members with jobs, according to TRIEC.

TRIEC will be reaching out to its counterparts in other areas and offering use of the platform, Sevilla says. It has the potential to become a national destination.

Canada Census 2011: Immigrants and newcomers drive population growth

Postmedia News  Feb 8, 2012 – 9:28 AM ET

Aaron Lynett / National Post / Files

Tommy Su rises and signs the national anthem with fellow new Canadians during the Canadian citizenship ceremony on Canada Day, July 1, 2010 at Queen's Park in Toronto. The ceremony welcomed thirty candidates from eighteen different countries.

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By Tobi Cohen

Harpreet Rehlan and his wife, Ravinder Kaur, are emblematic of a new trend that has come to define the changing face of Canada — two-thirds of the country’s population growth is now fuelled by immigration.

Moreover, newcomers aren’t necessarily going to Central Canada in the same numbers, and are instead moving to other cities in the West, such as Regina, where the couple landed a little more than two weeks ago after saying goodbye to their families in India.

“I heard Regina is a good place to live,” said Rehlan, who learned about the Saskatchewan capital from a friend who is there on a work visa.

While they both have master’s degrees, they came to Canada under the federal skilled worker program — Rehlan as an automotive technician and Kaur, as a school librarian.

They’ve already found an apartment, a decent curry restaurant, and Kaur has enrolled in English classes at a local immigration centre.

Rehlan said they’ve had several job interviews and he’s optimistic about their future.

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It appears, for good reason.

Saskatchewan recently reported some of the highest job vacancy rates in all of Canada and, according to the latest census figures released Wednesday, newcomers are flocking there like never before.

Since 2006, Saskatchewan welcomed nearly three times as many immigrants as it did in the previous five years, while the number of immigrants who settled in Manitoba doubled, according to Statistics Canada.

Meanwhile, Ontario — which was hit harder by the economic downturn and has struggled with an ailing manufacturing sector — saw 96,000 fewer immigrants settle in the province during the most recent census period.

“People go where the jobs are. That’s always been the case,” said Susan McDaniel, a sociologist and demographer with the University of Lethbridge, noting growth in the oil and gas sector, the potash industry and high tech fields are fuelling population spikes in places such as Saskatchewan.

“With Ontario, there’s been a huge hollowing out of the industrial base there.”

Nationally, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has identified immigration reform as a necessary prerequisite to building a stronger Canadian economy for the future. He has signalled the government will put a greater emphasis on accepting immigrants into Canada who have a particular skill that is needed in the workforce.

Prince Edward Island, another province that has embraced Citizenship and Immigration’s provincial nominee program, which gives provinces and territories greater say over the selection of immigrants, has also experienced a massive influx of newcomers with more than 8,100 settling there since 2006 compared to just 1,100 between 2001 and 2006.

It’s a trend that won’t last, said Godfrey Baldacchino, a sociology professor and Canada Research Chair in Island Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Much of the immigrant-fuelled Maritime population spike since 2006 — it occurred to a lesser extent in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — was due to abuse of the provincial nominee program, which is now under investigation in those provinces.

In a bid to attract wealthy immigrant investors, the provinces expedited the visa process and before long allegations of bribery and corruption followed, along with scathing auditor general’s reports, lawsuits and police investigations.

Noting unemployment rates in P.E.I. are among the highest in the country, Baldacchino said there is already evidence that many of those immigrants who came through the program have since moved on to other parts of the country, in some cases without ever even stepping foot in P.E.I.

“I think we’ve hit the maximum,” he said. “The numbers will start going down.”

Unlike the United States, where growth is still driven by natural increases in population — the difference between births and deaths — only a third of Canada’s growth is due to fertility.

It’s a trend that’s been going on for about a decade due to the rapid decrease in fertility that began in the late 1960s and 1970s and the increase in the number of deaths due to an aging population.

“As a result, the numbers of births and deaths have converged since the end of the Baby Boom in Canada, and migratory increase has taken on an increasingly important role in recent Canadian population growth,” Statistics Canada’s census report concluded.

Population projections suggest the trend will continue as baby boomers die off and that by 2031, immigration will account for more than 80 per cent of Canada’s overall population growth.

“Without a sustained level of immigration or a substantial increase in fertility, Canada’s population growth could, within 20 years, be close to zero,” the report found.

With an immigration system that’s placed a greater emphasis on temporary foreign workers and student visas combined with huge backlogs in applications for permanent residence, it also raises questions about whether Canada may not just become a country of immigrants, but whether it may also become a country of non-Canadians.

While it’s not clear exactly how many of the 33,476,688 people enumerated in the 2011 census are landed immigrants, refugees or people here on study or work permits, all are included in Canada’s total population.

Asked about the possibility of a Canada comprised of mostly non-Canadians, Rick Dykstra, the parliamentary secretary to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, said the government is looking at ways to expedite the citizenship process, but is also being careful to ensure those who take the leap are worthy.

“If you’re going to be a Canadian citizen, you have to treat it with the type of honour and dignity and respect that it deserves,” he said.

“We think you should really have to achieve a high level of understanding of this country in terms of its history, what it’s all about, to accept the values that we practise in this country, the democracy that we have and obviously the ability to be able to speak one of the official languages at a capacity that enables them to be able to interact with other Canadians,” he said.

Postmedia News

Immigration bolsters Eastern Canada's population ranks, census numbers show

By: Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX - After decades of losing its young people to the lure of high-paying work in Ontario and Western Canada, the Atlantic region is showing signs of having turned things around, the latest census figures show.

Despite the ever-present prospect of better jobs outside the region, the four Atlantic provinces managed to grow their ranks during the past five years by placing a greater emphasis on attracting and retaining immigrants from abroad.

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Census figures released Wednesday show Eastern Canada with a growth rate of 1.9 per cent, led by Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick at 3.2 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. Growth was modestly higher in Nova Scotia — 0.9 per cent, up from 0.6 for the previous five-year period.

Even Newfoundland and Labrador, long a perennial population loser, managed to post its first positive growth rate since 1986 — 1.8 per cent.

Some, of course, come for love, not money.

Lured from her native China by the charms of Adam White, a foreign exchange student from Lower Sackville, N.S., Lurace Lee arrived last year armed with two university degrees, three years of work experience at an aerospace firm in Beijing and a firm grasp of English.

She was exactly what Canada’s long-suffering Atlantic provinces had been looking for.

Before leaving China, Lee visited discussion sites on the Internet that were teeming with Chinese migrants abuzz about the Atlantic provinces — particularly Prince Edward Island and its wildly successful immigrant nominee program.

"I went a lot to these websites to talk to other people and share opinions," Lee said. "A lot of people were talking about the P.E.I. program."

P.E.I. attracted more than 2,500 new immigrants in 2010, up from fewer than 500 in 2005. Both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick attracted more than 2,000 immigrants in 2010. Newfoundland and Labrador was fourth at about 700 — a figure that hasn't changed much in the past 20 years.

What’s more, they’re staying longer than they used to, said Ather Akbari, a professor of economics at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

“All of the Atlantic provinces have been successful at retaining immigrants,” Akbari said, citing the example of Nova Scotia, where the retention rate jumped to 65 per cent by 2007, up from 40 per cent only a few years earlier.

“More of the immigrants coming to this region are job-focused in that they have a job before coming here. The provincial nominee programs have played an important role in this.”

Lee knew going in that finding work in Halifax would be difficult.

"Even for local people, it's not easy to find your ideal job," she said. "Nova Scotia is a small province."

But the province was ready to help. She took classes at Immigration Settlement and Integration Services, where she improved her English, learned about resumes and cover letters and received training in basic accounting.

And she networked, mainly with the help of the Greater Halifax Partnership, which offers several programs to help immigrants prosper.

While Nova Scotia has welcomed immigrants for centuries, it was only in 2005 that the province introduced a formal strategy to draw more people to the province.

Last April, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter said his government planned to attract 7,200 immigrants a year by 2020, up from the current goal of 3,600. To do that, he added $790,000 to the province's $5.1-million immigration budget.

In December, all four Atlantic premiers called on Ottawa to increase the caps on each province's nominee program.

In New Brunswick, the province's Population Growth Secretariat set a goal in 2008 of growing the population by 100,000 by 2026. By 2009, the secretariat reported it had almost reached its first interim goal of adding 6,000 residents that year alone.

But the process of boosting the region's population has not come easily. All of the Maritime provinces have had problems with their nominee programs, including allegations of mismanagement and bribery.

The region is also still dealing with the legacy of a declining birth rate.

Today, Nova Scotia has the oldest population in Atlantic Canada. By 2019, the province's working age population — those from 18 to 64 — is expected to shrink by 36,000. Business leaders have long complained they can't find enough skilled workers to fill jobs.

However, there are signs of further change on the demographic front.

As Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador prepare to tackle some large industrial projects, there are signs that the long-standing problem of out-migration is finally slowing down, thanks to a stronger economy.

In October, Nova Scotia won a $25-billion federal contract to build Canada's next fleet of warships over 30 years, creating about 11,000 jobs for the region. Last month, the province crowed about awarding Shell Canada offshore exploration rights under a $970-million, six-year agreement.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick's onshore natural gas industry is poised for growth as exploration continues for conventional sources and shale gas deposits. There’s also talk of expanding the province's potash industry.

And though Newfoundland hasn’t attracted immigrants the same way its neighbours do, a booming offshore oil and gas industry has fuelled strong job creation and economic growth.

The province is also counting on a flood of jobs from a tentatively approved plan to build the $6.2-billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador. Under the plan, Halifax-based Emera Inc. would pay for a subsea-transmission link between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland at a cost of $1.2 billion.

“That will also play an important role in keeping people here,” Akbari said. “The policies and initiatives that have been adopted by the governments ... have played an important role in retaining people.”

The flow of people leaving for greener pastures slowed after the recession started constraining oilpatch growth in 2008, said Patrick Brannon, a research analyst at the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council.

“A lot of people did come back from Alberta,” Brannon said, citing Atlantic Canada’s net increase of 3,000 people from other provinces in 2009. Out-migration has been on the rise since then, though not at the rate seen during the Alberta oil boom in 2006, he added.

“The pace of economic activity in the Maritimes has been very modest in comparison to some of the western provinces," he said. "Newfoundland has been the exception, where there has been some big projects going on there.”

As for Lee, she and her new husband plan to stay in Nova Scotia, where a good job and the natural setting are big draws.

“There's a lot of nature around ... and the people are more friendly,” she said. “So I prefer it here.”