NEWCOMERS: WHY CHOOSE PETERBOROUGH, ONTARIO?

Posted by Guest Writer on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 · 

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“The community greeted us with open arms. Neighbours and co-workers helped us get settled and find suitable daycare for our young children, which made the transition and move much easier. Peterborough has given us the sense of community that we couldn’t find in a larger city. It’s a great place to raise our children” Binu Jain—Peterborough Resident originally from India.

In Peterborough, you will experience all the advantages of city living, while enjoying the benefits of the natural world.  Home to approximately 80,000 residents, Peterborough offers exceptional quality of life, an affordable cost of living, and access to first-rate educational institutions.  An ideal place to start your own business, offering many resources and programs to help you along the way, Peterborough is also the focal point of many immigration success stories.  Beginning in the 1800’s, successive waves of people moved to the area to build Peterborough into the city rich in history and culture that we know today.

“We are a people who believe that our origins matter less than our destinations.  And that where you come from is not as important as where you are going.” Meet Daryl Bennett—Mayor of Peterborough

WelcomePeterborough.ca contains information for those who are either thinking of immigrating to Canada, or who have recently arrived.  It will help you decide if you want to live in Peterborough and how to get settled here.

• Information about the history of immigration to Peterborough, local weather, and geography can be found in the “About Peterborough” section.

• For help with immigrating to Peterborough, including what to do before arriving and resources to assist you with settling after you arrive; check out the “Immigrating” section.

• In the “Living” section, you will find everything you need to know about housing, food, finance health, transportation, and much more.

• The “Working” section provides important and useful information about finding a job, starting a business, and getting your credentials recognized.

• To learn about Peterborough’s college, university, school boards, and opportunities for lifelong learning, check out the “Learning” section.

Stories from Newcomers at WelcomePeterborough.ca

After a short stay Windsor, Hua Chen and his wife moved to Peterborough in 2005, where they both attended Trent University.  Originally from Beijing, China, Hua struggled initially with his English but soon made Peterborough his home.  Today, Hua describes Peterborough as a welcoming and beautiful city.  For those looking to further their education, Hua recommends Peterborough’s Trent University, saying that “Trent is small but good because the professors are very nice. They know the students and their needs, and are willing to talk to, and help anyone”.

Rene, an accountant, and Maria Ferrer, a copywriter, immigrated to Peterborough in 1989 from the Philippines to pursue better educational opportunities for their son.  Starting over was tough, but with hard work, both Rene and Maria landed their dream jobs.  Twenty-two years later, their oldest son now travels the world as an engineer and their youngest is now studying at Queen’s University.  They are all proud to call Peterborough home!

Shah Mohammad Yousuf moved to Toronto from Bangladesh in 2005.  After working what he refers to as a “survival job” for a period of time, Shah found employment in Peterborough as a Spatial Data Analyst.  When asked what he likes about Peterborough, Shah had to say that “[the] people are great, helpful, and co-operative. It is a quiet and family-oriented community where I can find quality healthcare and recreation. There are also many different agencies that help newcomers and immigrants to settle here”.  Like all newcomers, Shah misses his family but doesn’t have any regrets about moving to Peterborough.  “I like my life here, and I love Peterborough”.

Since 1971, Jim’s Pizzeria has been a Peterborough favourite.  Owners John and Hellen Kostsovos emigrated from Greece to Montreal in 1959, along with their brothers and sisters.  After a few years adjusting to Canadian culture, the doors of the first Jim’s Pizzeria opened in Belleville in 1969; followed by the second in Trenton in 1970.  After opening the third Jim’s Pizzeria in Peterborough, John and Helen decided to stay and raise their family.  When asked about Peterborough, their daughter Effie says that “Peterborough was small enough to feel safe, but large enough to sustain a profitable business”.

Karma Phuntshok and his wife initially emigrated from New York to Toronto in 1999.  His wife was pregnant with their son at the time, and Karma decided that Toronto was too large of a city to raise a child in.  At the suggestion of friends, Karma and his wife moved to Peterborough, where he found work at a local meat packer.  Karma had always wanted to open a restaurant and in 2004 he opened Karma’s Café, a South Asian and Himalayan restaurant on Hunter Street.  If you ask Karma about Peterborough today, he’ll say that he “loves it here”. Excitedly he claims that “Peterborough has the best services, restaurants, art, and music for the size”.

In 2000, Binu Jain and her family emigrated from India to Canada.  Initially, the Jain family lived in Waterloo before moving to Peterborough in 2005.  Her husband Pankaj accepted work at Siemens and Binu began to look for employment in Peterborough and surrounding area.  With a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics and a Project Management Professional designation, Binu was offer a job at Siemens shortly after.  When asked about Peterborough, Binu says “the community greeted us with open arms. Neighbours and co-workers helped us get settled and find suitable daycare for our young children, which made the transition and move much easier.

Peterborough has given us the sense of community that we couldn’t find in a larger city. It’s a great place to raise our children. They are more in touch with their Indian heritage and culture in Peterborough than they would have been growing up in India. Peterborough has become our home, and is heaven on earth. It’s difficult to imagine living anywhere else”.  Binu advises that “there is a positive trade off to moving to a small community, you have more time to bond with your family and contribute to the community. The community is so open and helpful – the possibilities are endless.”

Full length success stories can be found at WelcomePeterborough.ca 

Source: http://www.muchmormagazine.com/2011/08/newcomers-why-choose-peterborough-ontario/

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Steve Lafleur: Only more immigrants can save Canada’s economy

National Post, National Post
Monday, Aug. 1, 2011

In his immigration policy remarks on July 19, Minister Jason Kenney acknowledged that Canada would need roughly one million immigrants per year in order to maintain the ratio of working age citizens to retirees. Citing a lack of resources for integrating new Canadians, and a concern that accelerating immigration levels too rapidly could lead to a nativist backlash, he said that it won’t happen.

While the Minister’s expressed concerns are valid, they pale in comparison to the demographic reality. The proportion of Canadians aged 60 and over is projected to increase from roughly one-fifth to nearly one-third by 2020. Our national debt stands at over $582-billion, and is increasing at a rate of more than $1,400 per second. This burden doesn’t include provincial government debts, or unfunded pension liabilities such as the $748-billion shortfall for the CPP. For those Canadians hoping to start collecting CPP in the next decade, the question shouldn’t be if we can integrate one-million immigrants per year, but how.

While taking in four times more immigrants than we do now would present some logistical challenges, they are not insurmountable. One criticism against more immigrants is that more immigrants will put greater stress on the housing market. This assumes that the housing stock is fixed, and that all immigrants will go to the hottest real estate markets. Canada’s three biggest cities have admittedly been hostile to new development, which is pricing many out of the market. A healthier attitude toward development will be crucial if those cities are to remain affordable.

However, the immigration question presents a great opportunity not just for smaller metropolitan areas, but for rural areas as well. Rural areas in Canada are often resource rich, but population poor. It is most evident in Saskatchewan, where there are typically 10,000 vacancies in any skilled trade in the province. There are plenty of resources, but not many people. Saskatchewan is twice the size of Germany, with 1/80th the population. There is no shortage of room or resources.

Smaller centres also offer the advantage of lower cost housing, and would require less expensive infrastructure upgrades. Manitoba is leading the country in terms of targeted immigration to smaller centres. Rural Manitoba received nearly 3,200 immigrants in 2008 alone, and the province is clamouring for more. For too long, our immigration policy has been fixated on Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. High levels of rural immigration can revitalize communities, and Manitoba has shown the way.

The immediate costs of immigration have to be acknowledged. Language training, security screening and so forth cost money. Some argue that the costs outweigh the benefits. It is reasonable to require newcomers to our country to shoulder the full cost of their resettlement here, and Canada should consider changing its immigration system to ensure that absorbing a new immigrant does not impose a financial cost on the country as a whole.

Further, rather than relying on the federal immigration system, the federal government should give in to provincial demands for an increase in the number of immigrants admitted through provincial immigrant nominee programs. The programs attract immigrants who come to Canada to fill labour market vacancies, as well as immigrant entrepreneurs.

The federal government has announced that it will increase the quota from 36,000 to 40,000. But this increase is nowhere near enough. The nominee program helps places in lesser demand attract workers and revitalize small urban and rural communities. It also ensures that participants have employment before they arrive in the country. Smaller communities are typically better at welcoming and integrating newcomers, too. If the federal government is concerned about the costs of immigration, and they should be, they could even reduce regular immigration rates and aggressively expand provincial nominee programs.

Regardless of how they go about it, the federal government needs to ensure that we have enough workers to fuel the country’s economic growth where it needs fuelling, and to fund the Baby Boom generation’s retirement obligations. Having made these commitments to retirees, the government must find a way to meet them.

More retirees and fewer workers will make funding unfunded pension liabilities and repaying our national and provincial debts a staggering burden on young workers. Short of forcing people out of retirement, or returning to steady pre-Second World War fertility levels, more immigration is our only option for addressing our demographic decline. The only other option will be steep cuts to social entitlement programs, an option no politician is likely to propose.

National Post

Steve Lafleur is policy analyst with the [external] Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Steve Lafleur: Only more immigrants can save Canada’s economy

National Post, National Post
Monday, Aug. 1, 2011

In his immigration policy remarks on July 19, Minister Jason Kenney acknowledged that Canada would need roughly one million immigrants per year in order to maintain the ratio of working age citizens to retirees. Citing a lack of resources for integrating new Canadians, and a concern that accelerating immigration levels too rapidly could lead to a nativist backlash, he said that it won’t happen.

While the Minister’s expressed concerns are valid, they pale in comparison to the demographic reality. The proportion of Canadians aged 60 and over is projected to increase from roughly one-fifth to nearly one-third by 2020. Our national debt stands at over $582-billion, and is increasing at a rate of more than $1,400 per second. This burden doesn’t include provincial government debts, or unfunded pension liabilities such as the $748-billion shortfall for the CPP. For those Canadians hoping to start collecting CPP in the next decade, the question shouldn’t be if we can integrate one-million immigrants per year, but how.

While taking in four times more immigrants than we do now would present some logistical challenges, they are not insurmountable. One criticism against more immigrants is that more immigrants will put greater stress on the housing market. This assumes that the housing stock is fixed, and that all immigrants will go to the hottest real estate markets. Canada’s three biggest cities have admittedly been hostile to new development, which is pricing many out of the market. A healthier attitude toward development will be crucial if those cities are to remain affordable.

However, the immigration question presents a great opportunity not just for smaller metropolitan areas, but for rural areas as well. Rural areas in Canada are often resource rich, but population poor. It is most evident in Saskatchewan, where there are typically 10,000 vacancies in any skilled trade in the province. There are plenty of resources, but not many people. Saskatchewan is twice the size of Germany, with 1/80th the population. There is no shortage of room or resources.

Smaller centres also offer the advantage of lower cost housing, and would require less expensive infrastructure upgrades. Manitoba is leading the country in terms of targeted immigration to smaller centres. Rural Manitoba received nearly 3,200 immigrants in 2008 alone, and the province is clamouring for more. For too long, our immigration policy has been fixated on Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. High levels of rural immigration can revitalize communities, and Manitoba has shown the way.

The immediate costs of immigration have to be acknowledged. Language training, security screening and so forth cost money. Some argue that the costs outweigh the benefits. It is reasonable to require newcomers to our country to shoulder the full cost of their resettlement here, and Canada should consider changing its immigration system to ensure that absorbing a new immigrant does not impose a financial cost on the country as a whole.

Further, rather than relying on the federal immigration system, the federal government should give in to provincial demands for an increase in the number of immigrants admitted through provincial immigrant nominee programs. The programs attract immigrants who come to Canada to fill labour market vacancies, as well as immigrant entrepreneurs.

The federal government has announced that it will increase the quota from 36,000 to 40,000. But this increase is nowhere near enough. The nominee program helps places in lesser demand attract workers and revitalize small urban and rural communities. It also ensures that participants have employment before they arrive in the country. Smaller communities are typically better at welcoming and integrating newcomers, too. If the federal government is concerned about the costs of immigration, and they should be, they could even reduce regular immigration rates and aggressively expand provincial nominee programs.

Regardless of how they go about it, the federal government needs to ensure that we have enough workers to fuel the country’s economic growth where it needs fuelling, and to fund the Baby Boom generation’s retirement obligations. Having made these commitments to retirees, the government must find a way to meet them.

More retirees and fewer workers will make funding unfunded pension liabilities and repaying our national and provincial debts a staggering burden on young workers. Short of forcing people out of retirement, or returning to steady pre-Second World War fertility levels, more immigration is our only option for addressing our demographic decline. The only other option will be steep cuts to social entitlement programs, an option no politician is likely to propose.

National Post

Steve Lafleur is policy analyst with the [external] Frontier Centre for Public Policy.