Canada leads North America in economic freedom, tied with Australia for fifth spot globally; U.S. sinks to 18 th in international rankings

economic-freedom-2009 (Photo credit: TZA)

September 18, 2012
For Immediate Release
TORONTO, ON—Canada is among the top five most economically free countries in
the world, well ahead of the United States which has fallen to 18
th
 overall, according
to the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of the World report.
Canada, with an economic freedom score of 7.97 out of 10, tied with Australia to rank  
fifth out of 144 nations and territories included in the Economic Freedom of the
World: 2012 Annual Report. Last year, Canada ranked sixth overall.
“Canada’s relatively high level of economic freedom has resulted in stronger
economic growth, higher income levels, and less pain from the global recession,” said
Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute vice-president of international policy research.
“Meanwhile, other nations embraced heavy-handed regulation and extensive overspending in response to the American and European debt crises. Consequently, their
levels of economic freedom decreased.”
The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom among large
industrial nations, continues its protracted decline in the global rankings. This year,
the U.S. plunged to 18
th
, its lowest-ever ranking and a sharp drop from second overall,
the position it held in 2000. Much of this decline is a result of high spending on the
part of the U.S. government.
Hong Kong again topped the rankings of 144 countries, followed by Singapore, New
Zealand, and Switzerland. Australia and Canada tied for fifth overall.
Research shows that people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom
enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer life spans.
Globally, the average economic freedom score rose slightly to 6.83 in 2010, the most
recent year available, after plummeting to its lowest level in nearly three decades with
a score of 6.79 in 2009.
The annual Economic Freedom of the World report is the premier measurement of
economic freedom, using 42 distinct variables to create an index ranking of countries
around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The
cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom
to compete, and security of private property. Economic freedom is measured in five
different areas: (1) size of government, (2) legal structure and security of property
rights, (3) access to sound money, (4) freedom to trade internationally, and (5)
regulation of credit, labour, and business. The full report is available at
www.freetheworld.com.
Canada’s scores in key areas of economic freedom (from one to 10, where higher

values indicate higher levels of economic freedom) are:
• Size of government: 6.12 (74
th
 overall)
• Legal system and property rights: 8.74 (12
th
 overall)
• Access to sound money: 9.46 (25
th
 overall)
• Freedom to trade internationally: 7.65 (43
rd
 overall)
• Regulation of credit, labour, and business: 8.48 (sixth overall)
 (more) Economic Freedom of the World—page 2
International rankings
Hong Kong offers the highest level of economic freedom worldwide, with a score of 8.90 out
of 10, followed by Singapore (8.69), New Zealand (8.36), Switzerland (8.24), Australia and
Canada (each 7.97), Bahrain (7.94), Mauritius (7.90), Finland (7.88), and Chile (7.84).
The rankings of other large economies include: United States (18
th
), Japan (20
th
), Germany
(31
st
), South Korea (37
th
), France (47
th
), Italy (83
rd
), Mexico (91
st
), Russia (95
th
), Brazil (105
th
),
China (107
th
), and India (111
th
).
Venezuela has the lowest level of economic freedom among the 144 jurisdictions measured.
Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Republic of Congo, and Angola round out the bottom five nations.
“Sadly, citizens living in the bottom-ranked countries face a significantly lower quality of life
since they lose the benefits that come from growth spurred on by economic freedom and suffer
reduced prosperity,” McMahon said.
When the rankings are adjusted to account for changes over the years, it shows that during the
past decade some African and formerly Communist nations have experienced the largest
increases in economic freedom worldwide: Rwanda (44
th
 this year, compared to 106
th
 in
2000), Malawi (84
th
, up from 114
th
), Ghana (53
rd
, up from 101
st
), Romania (42
nd
, up from
110
th
), Bulgaria (47
th
, up from 108
th
), and Albania (32
nd
, up from 77
th
).

Countries showing the greatest declines since 2000 in the adjusted rankings include Venezuela
(123
rd
 this year, down from 94
th
), Argentina (110
th
, down from 34
th
), Iceland (59
th
, down from
11
th
), and the United States (19
th
, down from second overall).

Related articles

• Canada rises to top five in world economic freedom ranking as U.S. plummets to 18th
• The U.S. Takes a Dive in Economic Freedom of the World Index
• Report: There's More Economic Freedom in Canada Than the U.S.
• The United States Plummets to 18th in New Economic Freedom of the World Rankings
• Report: There's More Economic Freedom in Canada Than the U.S.
• The United States, long considered a champion of economic freedom, plunged to No. 18 in new rankings published in the 2012 Economic Freedom of the World
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News Release — Canada imposes visas on St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland

This news release was updated September 12, 2012.

Ottawa, September 11, 2012 — Beginning at 12:01 a.m. EDT today, citizens of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (St. Vincent), Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland now require a visa to travel to Canada, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced.

For the first 48 hours, or until 11:59 p.m. September 12, 2012, citizens of these countries who are in transit to Canada at the time the visa requirement takes effect will be able to receive a Temporary Resident Permit on arrival in Canada, free of charge, if they are not otherwise inadmissible to Canada.

"We continue to welcome genuine visitors to Canada," said Minister Kenney. "These changes are necessary to protect the integrity of Canada's fair and generous immigration system by helping us to reduce an unacceptably high number of immigration violations."

These changes will allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and its partners to ensure that those seeking to visit Canada intend to return to their country of origin, rather than overstaying or committing other immigration violations.

A key reason why the government has imposed visa requirements on St. Lucia and St. Vincent is unreliable travel documents. In particular, criminals from these countries can legally change their names and acquire new passports. In some instances, people who were removed from Canada as security risks later returned using different passports. In the case of Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland, human trafficking, especially of minors, and fraudulent documents are of significant concern.

There has also been an unacceptably high number of asylum claims from St. Lucia and St. Vincent, with about one and a half percent and three percent of the population of these countries making asylum claims in Canada over the past five years. The African country that has the highest immigration violation rate is Namibia, with eighty-one percent in 2011. Seventy-one percent of travellers from Namibia made asylum claims in 2011.

"These changes are necessary because all the countries concerned have an immigration violation rate of over thirty percent, well above the level we deem acceptable for countries benefiting from a visa exemption," said Minister Kenney.

Canada regularly reviews its visa requirements toward other countries. Countries are aware that they have a responsibility to satisfy certain conditions to receive a visa exemption.

This visa policy change means that nationals from St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland who want to travel to Canada will first need to apply for a visitor visa and meet the requirements to receive one.

It is up to the applicants to satisfy visa officers that their visit to Canada is temporary; they will not overstay their authorized stay; they have enough money to cover their stay; they are in good health; they do not have a criminal record; and they are not a security risk to Canadians. These requirements are the same for anyone who wants to visit Canada.

Applicants from St. Lucia and St. Vincent can now submit their applications by mail or in person to the Canadian visa office in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Applications will be accepted by the visa office in Pretoria, South Africa, for those from Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland. In the months ahead travellers to Canada will be able to apply online for all temporary visas.

This decision will further strengthen the immigration and asylum systems, and it complements the measures the government is implementing this year under the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, which recently received Royal Assent.

"The Government of Canada remains committed to protecting the integrity of our immigration system and welcoming bona fide visitors from around the world."

News Release — Reducing Backlogs to Achieve a Fast and Flexible Immigration System

The Centre Block on Parliament Hill, containing the houses of the Canadian parliament (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ottawa, September 17, 2012 —The Government of Canada welcomed the findings of a report on immigration backlogs by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration and tabled its response in Parliament today.

“I think we can all agree that backlogs are unfair to applicants, harmful to Canada’s ability to attract the best and brightest from around the world, and hold back economic and job growth,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney. “I thank the Standing Committee members for their hard work in compiling their report.”

The Committee commented favourably on what the Government has already achieved to date through the Action Plan for Faster Immigration and the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification. However, the Committee report also made clear that more needs to be done in order to better align application intake with admission levels.

The committee report recognizes that backlogs have occurred because for too long Canada has accepted more applications than it can process and admit in a given year.  Over time, this annual surplus of applications resulted in a backlog of more than a million applicants, and processing delays of eight to ten years in some immigration categories. The report concluded that, in order to avoid future backlogs, it is critical that the Government act to ensure that the annual number of applications better align with the number of admissions.  The report also recommended exploring further options to deal with the problem of existing backlogs, particularly in the federal skilled worker, immigrant investor, and parent and grandparent classes.

The Government agrees with all of the Standing Committee’s report recommendations and has already acted quickly to tackle application backlogs in key areas. Successes include:

• Reducing the pre-2008 Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) backlog by more than 50 percent by 2011 – two years earlier than expected – through the 2008 Action Plan for Faster Immigration and successive Ministerial Instructions limiting application intake.  Most recently, Economic Action Plan 2012 removed around 280,000 applicants from that FSW backlog, which paves the way for a faster and more flexible economic immigration system;
• Managing intake of the Immigrant Investor Program applications starting in July 2011.  Most recently, a temporary pause on new applications was introduced on July 1, 2012 to allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to focus on processing existing applications and reviewing the program’s effectiveness;
• Significantly decreasing the backlog of applications for parents and grandparents since fall 2011, as a result of increased admission targets and a two-year pause on new applications under the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification.  At the same time, CIC introduced a new “Super Visa,” which allows for visits of up to two years by parents and grandparents, and has proven to be a popular alternative for applicants.

In the last year, the Government has also launched public online consultations on re-designing the parent and grandparent program, and reforming the Immigrant Investor Program.  Policy work on reformed programs is now underway.

“The economy and job growth remain the Government’s number one priority,” said Minister Kenney. “We continue to take the issue of immigration backlogs very seriously, and we will be doing even more in the future to transform our immigration system into one that is fast, fair, flexible, and serves the interests of Canada’s long-term prosperity.”

The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration tabled its report, entitled “Cutting the Queue: Reducing Canada’s Immigration Backlogs and Wait Times,” in March 2012.

Canada Closing Its Doors To The Roma – OpEd

Young Hungarian Roma dancing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By: VOR

September 16, 2012


By John Robles

The situation for the Roma in Europe is not improving. Trapped in a cycle of discrimination and poverty where they are not allowed a decent education and therefore cannot obtain decent jobs and in many cases segregated, not allowed proper health care and under constant attacks by ever increasing nationalist groups all over Europe, many turn to crime, prostitution and any other means they can to simply survive. This only reinforces the negative view of the Roma and leads to even more discrimination against them.


Canada
The Hungarian Roma community, which accounts for approximately 7% of Hungary’s population, continues to face discrimination in every aspect of their lives. Since a report issued by Amnesty International in 2009 little has changed for Hungary’s Roma, they still face discrimination and segregation in all areas of life. This includes public education, housing, employment and medical care.

The Roma not only face daily racism and discrimination but they have to contend with violent attacks by nationalist and neo-Nazi groups such as the illegal paramilitary Hungarian National Guard, which was disbanded by the Hungarian government but reformed and continues to grow. It is for the most part an anti-Roman organization whose members have included high level Hungarian officials in the past.

Last month the Hungarian Guard held an inauguration ceremony for 140 new members in a secret location in Dunaföldvár Hungary. Although the police came out in force, with over 300 officers taking part in an operation to shut down the ceremony and arrest members, the group managed to confuse police with decoys and misleading phone calls, and the police raided a location where none of the group’s members were actually present.

The discrimination of the Roma is by far not limited to Hungary, they face discrimination all over Europe but the reason that I am focusing on the Hungarian Roma is because soon they may have no place to go as many who were seeking asylum in Canada are being sent back and the doors for Roma asylum seekers in Canada are about to be all but closed.

With the passing of the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, a Canadian piece of legislation that some are calling the “anti-Roma law, the process for the Roma obtaining asylum will be all but impossible and their deportation will be much easier and quicker.

According to Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, in a report on the cic.gc.ca website; “This legislation will help stop foreign criminals, human smugglers and those with unfounded refugee claims from abusing Canada’s generous immigration system and receiving taxpayer funded health and social benefits. Canada’s immigration and refugee system is one of the most fair and generous in the world and will continue to be so under the new and improved system.”

In reality the law will stop the waves of Roma that had begun to arrive in Canada and were abusing the system, often by returning to Hungary and still receiving benefits from the Canadian government. But the reason they return is not so simple as the government wants to portray. For many of the Roma they have no choice, many arrived in Canada with the hope for a better life but were trapped in conditions that were worse than the ones that they had left another example of the vicious cycle that the Roma are trapped in.

The new law now allows the Canadian Government the option of adding countries to a safe list in order to speed up the processing of refugees and deporting them. If a refugee comes from a country on the list, their claim will be processed in 45 days, not the 1,000 days that the other claimants have.

Such a move may help Canada to implement a universal no-visa policy for the entire European Union, something it currently does not have. For example Hungarians do not require a visa to travel to Canada but Czechs do. Their non-visa status was revoked due to the number of Roma claims for asylum.

According to the Budapest times the Canada Border Services Agency has recently reported that they are worried about the rising level of crime being committed by Hungarian Roma refugees in the country, these crimes mainly include skimming fraud and check fraud with a rising level of cases where checks are stolen and deposited into the bank accounts of refugee claimants who returned to Hungary.

The Budapest Times reported last year that the head of the National Roma Self-Government Flórián Farkas was warned by the Canadian Ambassador in Budapest, that Roma travelling to Canada “face prolonged and complicated procedures and have little chance of their asylum application being successful.”

So for the Roma seeking a better life and to break the cycle discrimination which starts with poor education, poor medical care and poor housing and continues and leads to job discrimination and no chance for quality employment and the betterment of their lives due to the previous reasons, another door appears to have been closed due to the actions of some who have supposedly cheated the system.
Unfortunately for the Roma the vicious cycle they are trapped in may not have an exit.

Source: http://www.eurasiareview.com/16092012-canada-closing-its-doors-to-the-roma-oped/

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New Canadian visa links immigrant entrepreneurs with local investors

Canada hopes to attract high-potential startups to the country by creating a new type of visa for entrepreneurs, and in particular those involved in the technology industry, reports The Globe and Mail.

The country has placed a moratorium on issuing its existing entrepreneur visa class that requires immigrants to hire at least one person living in Canada for one year. It intends to issue a new type of visa where individuals would be accepted if they were in receipt of Canadian venture investment funds.

The moratorium on its existing entrepreneur visa class will see the country clear its backlog of applications by 2014. It is then hoped that the new visa class will see new applicants gain entry in months.

A press secretary for Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, stated,

“The startup visa is an initiative that the government of Canada is exploring to assist in transforming our immigration system into a fast, fair and flexible system that will meet the needs of our economy and help grow our country.”

So, if a Canadian venture capital firm identified a particular startup to invest in, and which intends to establish base in Canada, the Canadian authorities would grant an entrepreneurial visa based on this evidence and the startup could be cleared for entry “within weeks”. The concept behind the new visa class is to “unite Canadian money with foreign brains”.

“This program will link brilliant, job-creating, immigrant entrepreneurs with Canadian investors. We want the world’s best and brightest to come to Canada – to start businesses and to create jobs in Canada.”

In 2011, the Canadian government issued 700 visas under the current entrepreneur class. The the new visa class, expected to be unveiled in greater detail later this year, will issue up to 2,750 visas per year for startup entrepreneurs and their family members.

Canada has the highest sustained level of immigration in the world.

A new type of investor class visa is also intended to be introduced. The right to immigrate would be granted if the investor lent $400,000 – $800,000 to local governments.

Source: The Globe and Mail, Canadian flag image from Bigstock

Project connects immigrants with small businesses

CARYS MILLS

The Globe and Mail

After a two-year job hunt, Richie Sanasy finally found a business looking to hire newcomers to Canada like him.

Despite a business management degree and accounting experience, Mr. Sanasy had been unable to find relevant work since arriving in Kitchener, Ont., from the tiny island of Mauritius.

Then, last year, he met Prakash Venkataraman, president and chief executive officer of Brantford, Ont.-based Redragon Oil and Gas Systems International Inc. The manufacturer of custom utility and recycling engineering was looking specifically for bilingual newcomers with overseas connections to help the business expand internationally.

It’s the kind of fit that far too many small and medium-sized businesses and new immigrants overlook, according to an upcoming report from the Maytree Foundation, a charitable agency.

Many small business owners are in desperate need of skilled workers, but are either unaware of or don’t consider the qualified pool of new immigrants that have already arrived in Canada, says Maytree president Ratna Omidvar.

At the same time, many newcomers want to work at large companies they’ve heard of back home but either do not know of or don’t think about approaching smaller companies that could use their skills, she adds.

Maytree has set up a new project under its Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies (ALLIES) that is trying to come up with strategies to connect the two, contending it will bring benefits to both. ALLIES, in partnership with The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, began the new initiative last October; it will wrap up its consultations with small businesses this fall and use its findings to help formulate pilot projects to be later rolled out.

Canada brings in about 250,000 immigrants each year, according to Maytree. While the largest group is skilled immigrants, only one in four immigrants is able to find employment relevant to their education and experience, Maytree has found.

About 30 per cent of immigrants who have come to major cities including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax in the last decade hold a bachelor’s degree, according to Maytree.

Ms. Omidvar points out that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hire 64 per cent of private-sector workers in Canada, so immigrants are overlooking many job possibilities if they don’t consider them as potential employers.

But “part of our challenge is that new immigrants don’t tend to go to SMEs,” she says.

At the same time, smaller companies may lack the human resource expertise and staffing to reach out to and recruit the ready pool of immigrants that are right at their doorstep, she says.

Ms. Omidvar says it may feel daunting for a smaller business, whose owner may be in charge of hiring, to interpret overseas qualifications and check up on foreign references. Costs associated with training or making a wrong hire may make a newcomer applicant seem riskier than someone with extensive Canadian experience and education, she says.

“We understand that mitigating risk is a huge factor for any employer. No employer wants to take a risk but bigger employers may be more likely,” she says.

Existing programs that bring small businesses together with immigrants are spotty throughout the country. One, the Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment Network (WRIEN), funded by the Ontario government, helps employers connect with immigrants by running networking and internship programs.

It was through that network that Redragon’s Mr. Venkataraman met Mr. Sanasy at an event last year. Mr. Venkataraman, who is originally from India, says he understands the employment hurdles newcomers face since he’s an immigrant himself.

Before meeting Mr. Venkataraman, Mr. Sanasy spent two years searching for jobs in his field while working in manual labour jobs and attending college.

“I was ready to hit the ground running but needed this one opportunity to start my life here,” says Mr. Sanasy,. “It was quite hard.”

At the event, the two chatted about business. Mr. Sanasy was offered an interview and later hired for a shipping and receiving job at the company. Within six months, he was promoted to materials manager.

Mr. Venkataraman says initiatives including WRIEN have helped him recruit recent immigrants from India, Australia, the Philippines, Cuba, the Middle East and Sri Lanka. Those international connections and the fact that his 30 employees speak a total of 25 languages have helped Mr. Venkataraman expand his business to hundreds of clients worldwide since opening in 2005, he says.

“It’s the chicken-and-the-egg case,” Mr. Venkataraman says.”You need to give them the opportunity before you can expect Canadian experience.”

Other small-business employers have also seen opportunity in recruiting immigrants that have already arrived in Canada.

Peter Kelk, president of George Kelk Corp., says he relies heavily onLinkedIn to recruit talented newcomers. Being open to international applicants has meant the majority of his hires have been newcomers, he says.

“We’re a high-technology company and the immigrant population tends to be highly educated,” says Mr. Kelk, whose Toronto-based company produces sensors for steel rolling mills.

He says checking international references has become easier with the increasing popularity of the Internet worldwide.

“It’s simply that we’ve been open-minded,” Mr. Kelk says. “It’s not charity on our part; it’s good business.”

Despite academic qualifications, getting an interview with companies other than the likes of Redragon or Kelk may be stymied by lack of Canadian experience, says Anil Verma, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and theRotman School of Management.

Employers are looking for professionals like engineers and electricians who already know country-specific standards and regulations, he says.

“These newcomers need some kind of investment in training and opportunity to work, let’s say, as an intern or apprentice,” Prof. Verma says. “Small businesses do not have a surplus of the manpower or the time or cost to give these opportunities to people, so this is what causes the mismatch.”

To help bridge those kinds of gaps, Maytree’s preliminary suggestions include more internship programs throughout the country that could be subject to government wage subsidies.

New approach proposed for immigrant recruiting

WALLACE IMMEN

The Globe and Mail

When George Kelk Corp. is looking to recruit new employees, it sets its sights on Canada’s immigrant community first.

“Eighty per cent of our staff of 160 was born outside of Canada,” said Peter Kelk, president of the Toronto company, which makes instruments for mining and metal forming. “Since we export 98 per cent of our production, their understanding of how business is done in their home areas helps us enormously.”

The approach stands in stark contrast to the immigrant hiring practices of most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to a report released by Maytree on Tuesday.

Canada annually receives about 250,000 immigrants – many of whom have advanced degrees and skills that are in demand – but only a small fraction of them manage to land jobs at SMBs, which represent 64 per cent of new private-sector positions. The issue is two-fold, the report concludes: Smaller employers are often unaware of the skills immigrants bring to the table or how to reach out to them, while newcomers tend to focus their job hunts on well-known corporations.

“This represents a huge opportunity,” said Ratna Omidvar, president of study sponsor Maytree, a non-profit foundation that develops programs to integrate immigrants into the work force. The consultations for Global Talent for SMEs: Building Bridges and Making Connections, conducted by a division of Maytree, included 300 small-business owners in five focus groups across Canada, and individual interviews with entrepreneurs.

“They said they’re just as open to hiring foreign trained talent as anyone else. Their problem is they don’t have the connections to find immigrants with the skills they need,” Ms. Omidvar said. “They tend to hire just in time: it’s ‘who do you know and who’s in front of me?’”

The researchers also found that immigrant advocate groups have tended to focus only on big employers “because they are the ones who can come to the table during discussions and have the capacity in their HR departments to recruit and vet immigrant candidates,” Ms. Omidvar added.

A primary recommendation of the report is for a single point of SMB access to recruiting and hiring support for immigrants.

Small-scale programs of this nature already exist locally. Pat d'Entremont, partner with technology services company Nicom IT Solutions, said his 85-employee company has recently found immigrants for hard-to-fill positions through the Greater Halifax Partnership’s Connector Program, which helps immigrants expand their personal networks to connect with business people. The Nova Scotia government has also set up programs to encourage immigrant hiring, Mr. D’Entremont pointed out, including a job board for skilled immigrants and – in some cases – financial assistance.

The focus groups agreed SMBs would do better if there was an online data base of screened immigrant candidates. “They said they need something that is sector-wide and they would benefit from an HR advisory or consulting site that they could use when they’re looking for talent,” Ms. Omidvar said.

Lionel Carriere, president of mobile software company XEA Services in Edmonton, said he’d have immediate use for such a data base. “We’re a growing company facing challenges in finding people with the skills we need. But as a small enterprise, we don’t have access to tools and resources that would allow us to recruit foreign trained workers. Our only (hiring) option is for them to find us.”

In consultations with Maytree, Mr. Carriere recommended the agency that runs the data base also provide pre-screening of equivalency of international experience and reference checks, as well as assistance in supporting any new employee’s adaptation to Canadian culture.

Another recommendation in the report is for governments to provide wage and orientation subsidies as incentives for small employers, which can’t offer compensation at the same level as larger employers. These might include bonuses payable when an SMB hires an eligible skilled immigrant for at least 12 months, or a tax credit similar to the federal subsidy on Employment Insurance payments for small business hiring that was extended in the recent federal budget.

“Given the austere times, financial assistance programs, like first-job subsidies, are probably not going to be as likely to be available as an option, but we should keep it on the books for better times,” Ms. Omidvar conceded.

Most immediately, the report recommended targeting SMBs with information campaigns. “We want to use trusted intermediaries – services and institutions that SMEs use – to promote the programs and the advantages of tapping into the pool of skilled immigrants,” Ms. Omidvar said.

Most specifically, “the consultations found employers trust their accountants. We want to work with accounting organizations to provide information about services that are available and explain the advantages of hiring talented immigrants, particularly for a company that wants to develop a global market,” Ms. Omidvar said.

Maytree plans to do a pilot program with these ideas later this year, she said. They will look for partners in local communities, including governments, advocacy groups and colleges and universities, as well as leading employers.

“We don’t want to tell them what to do. Local employers know their particular sector and the needs of local employers. We want more SMEs to come out and tell us what will work.”

Canada designs new visa for immigrant entrepreneurs

RANDALL PALMER

Reuters

Canada plans to create a new class of visa it hopes will attract high-tech and other entrepreneurs to immigrate to the country to start new companies, officials said Tuesday.

It has put a moratorium on issuing its existing entrepreneur visa, which only required an immigrant to hire one person for one year, and intends to initiate a visa that would be issued to people identified by venture capital funds as candidates to create startup firms in Canada. The venture funds would be required to invest in the startups.

The startup visa is one of several changes being undertaken by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in what he says is an effort to make the immigration system more responsive to Canada’s economic needs. “Canada seeks young, ambitious, innovative immigrants who will contribute to Canada’s job growth and further drive our economy,” said Mr. Kenney’s press secretary, Alexis Pavlich.

“The startup visa is an initiative that the government of Canada is exploring to assist in transforming our immigration system into a fast, fair and flexible system that will meet the needs of our economy and help grow our country.”

Venture investment funds would choose entrepreneurs to invest in, and the government would try to clear them for entry into Canada within weeks. The idea is to unite Canadian money and foreign brains. An initial source of candidates could be frustrated foreigners in the high-tech sector in the United States who have not been able to land resident status there.

“This program will link brilliant, job-creating, immigrant entrepreneurs with Canadian investors. We want the world’s best and brightest to come to Canada – to start businesses and to create jobs in Canada,” Ms. Pavlich said.

The program, expected to be unveiled in detail later this year, would set up external safeguards and spot checks to make sure the venture funds are investing as promised. The government will set aside 2,750 visas a year for startup entrepreneurs and their families. Last year it issued about 700 visas under the old entrepreneur class, under which an immigrant could do something as simple as buy a corner store and hire one person, and then get out of the business after a year.

The immigration department said Vancouver-based Version One Ventures, which invests in five to 10 tech or Internet startups in Canada and the United States every year, was one of the venture funds it consulted in developing the new visa program. “There are never enough brains in a country,” Version One Ventures founder Boris Wertz said. “Every country’s going to compete for the best brains in the world.”

He cited the case of a team of Romanian engineers who worked in Vancouver but could only get six-month visas, requiring them to leave the country and return repeatedly. Eventually their outfit was sold and they moved to Silicon Valley in California. “We lost them, and part of the reason was always they never had the security that they could really stay in the country (and) focus on building the product,” Mr. Wertz said.

Mr. Kenney also intends to revamp a separate investor class visa, which granted people the right to immigrate if they ponied up $400,000 to $800,000 to lend to provincial governments.

The biggest changes to the system have been to the skilled worker program, which had a decade-long backlog. By returning years’ worth of older applications and by putting a moratorium on new applications, the government hopes to clear the backlog by 2014 and enable new applicants to gain entry in months.

Toronto-Dominion Bank issued a study Tuesday that said Canada would have to increase its annual immigration level to 300,000 after 2016, from the current 250,000, if it wants to keep growth in the labour force in line with the historical trend.

However, TD said that until more is done to improve the economic prospects of newcomers to Canada, it would likely be counter-productive to do so. Responding to the report, Ms. Pavlich said immigration is not a panacea for labor shortages. “Canada already maintains the highest sustained level of immigration in the world.

“In order for Canada to maintain an open and generous immigration system, it is important that Canadians continue to believe that immigration serves our national interest. Canadians have been clear - the vast majority do not want the government to massively increase immigration levels.”

Canada Nets Thousands in Immigration Crackdown

English: Oath of citizenship ceremony (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Nirmala Menon

The Canadian government will revoke the citizenship of 3,100 people it says obtained  the status fraudulently, and is investigating thousands more who may have lied to obtain citizenship or maintain permanent-resident status in Canada.


Reuters
Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Though the process of revoking citizenship is “very cumbersome,” many targeted individuals aren’t challenging the action because the government has “absolutely compelling evidence” about the fraud, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday.

“Canadian citizenship is not for sale,” he declared while providing an update on the crackdown on immigration fraud, launched last year.

Permanent residents must live in Canada for three of the four years prior to applying for Canadian citizenship, and have to be physically present in the country for two out of five years in order to maintain permanent resident status. Canada’s investigation takes aim at people who live overseas and pay upwards of 25,000 Canadian dollars (US$25,557) to immigration consultants to establish fake proof of residency.

“There is a global industry of unscrupulous, unethical immigration and citizenship agents posing as bona fide consultants who will sell people advice on how to scam the Canadian system,” Mr. Kenney said.

He said those who use the services of these agents typically live in tax havens. “This is an economic calculation for many of them,” Mr. Kenney said, pointing out that a Canadian passport comes with “huge advantages,” such as high-quality healthcare and subsidized post-secondary education.

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Jason Kenney expected to announce 2,900 being stripped of citizenship for fraud

Stewart Bell | Sep 9, 2012 9:24 PM ET
More from Stewart Bell


A widening federal crackdown has identified a record number of people suspected of acquiring their Canadian citizenship and immigration status through fraud, according to a government source.

The number of newcomers under investigation for misrepresenting themselves in their dealings with Citizenship and Immigration Canada has ballooned to an historic 11,000 as a result of nation-wide enforcement.

The figure is almost double the 6,500 identified by federal officials less than a year ago, suggesting that Canada’s citizenship and immigration fraud problems may be more widespread than previously thought.


Often facilitated by immigration consultants, this type of fraud has allowed foreigners to sponsor relatives and qualify for Canadian passports, benefits and the right to vote — all without ever having lived in Canada for any significant period.

Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, was expected to brief reporters on the new figures on Monday. A source said he would announce that officials were stripping 2,900 Canadians of their citizenship for fraud.

The announcement comes nine months after Mr. Kenney said his department was working with the Canada Border Services Agency and RCMP to combat the problem, and vowed to prosecute those involved and strip them of their Canadian status.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a percentage of applicants from the Middle East obtain permanent resident status, then Canadian citizenship, with the goal of acquiring a second passport as insurance
Since then, dozens of charges have been laid, mostly against immigration consultants accused of helping clients defraud the government. Mr. Kenney has said consultants were collecting “upwards of $25,000” per family for this service, making it a multi-million dollar racket.

At least 5,000 of the 11,000 now under investigation are permanent residents suspected of committing residence fraud, which occurs when an immigrant claims to have moved to Canada but actually continues to live abroad.

Immigrants are required to actually live in Canada to maintain their status. But officials have been documenting a growing number who only come to Canada long enough to get their immigration papers stamped.

They then return to their home countries. Nonetheless, they pretend to be living in Canada so they can sponsor relatives and qualify for Canadian citizenship after three years. In some cases, those committing residence fraud have set up elaborate paper trails to give the appearance they are living in Canada.

Many of those involved in the scam are from the Middle East, particularly Lebanon. While they do not wish to actually move to Canada, they want an escape hatch in the event their home countries become unstable, according to internal documents.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests that a percentage of applicants from the Middle East obtain permanent resident status, then Canadian citizenship, with the goal of acquiring a second passport as insurance in case of instability in their country of first residence,” reads a federal study.

[M]any permanent resident applicants are reluctant to leave the Gulf to settle in Canada permanently but want to obtain PR [Permanent Resident] status and citizenship for reasons of security
The study, released under the Access to Information Act to Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland, found a significant level of fraud among permanent residents applying to sponsor family members in Lebanon.

Only residents of Canada can sponsor a relative to immigrate. But the study said up to a third of Lebanese sponsorship cases were suspect. In other words, the sponsors did not really reside in Canada but were pretending to in order to help their relatives acquire immigrant status.

The problem is also said to be acute in the Persian Gulf, with its high-paying jobs and business opportunities.

“As a result,” reads another government report released to Mr. Kurland, “many permanent resident applicants are reluctant to leave the Gulf to settle in Canada permanently but want to obtain PR [Permanent Resident] status and citizenship for reasons of security, the future of their children and a potential doubling of their salary by virtue of holding a Canadian passport.” It said a “significant” number of sponsorships were fraudulent.

A common scenario involves immigrant families. While the spouse and children do live full-time in Canada, the breadwinner continues to work abroad but lies about it to immigration authorities to maintain Canadian status. Investigators have been identifying such cases partly through a recently-established telephone tip line.

A source said the spike in the fraud numbers was also the result of a new case management system that alerts enforcement officials when a large number of immigrants give the same address as their home in Canada — which can be an indicator of residence fraud.

Revoking permanent resident status from fraudsters is fairly straight forward, but a Cabinet order is required to strip citizenship from a Canadian. Some are expected to fight the decision through the courts.

Source:
National Post
sbell@nationalpost.com