Immigration Canada

Province's workforce continues to shrink

MLA says retirements will see B.C. lose one million workers; only 650,000 on hand to fill the need

BY WALTER CORDERY, DAILY NEWS JANUARY 27, 2012

As the baby boomers retire and leave the workforce, British Columbia will need hundreds of thousands of skilled immigrants to replace them.

That need is one of the reasons why the provincial government has established an immigration task force that is travelling throughout the province to determine the needs of individual communities, said RichmondSteveston MLA John Yap, who leads the task force.

"There's no doubt B.C. needs more economic immigrants," Yap said, following a presentation at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre on Thursday.

"Our workforce is shrinking right now because people are retiring. We are losing one million people from the workforce in the near future due to retirement and we only have 650,000 people to fill the need," Yap said.

He leads a 10-member task force that recently started to criss-cross the province, seeking input from employers and others who are worried about the dwindling work force.

He started his consultation with local business and political leaders as well as other interested stakeholders in Fort St. John. "The immigration task force is part of the B.C. Jobs Plan. A strategy aimed at preparing for the expected economic boom," Yap said.

He has until March to consult with communities across the province and then submit his

report to Premier Christy Clark. "Based on the findings we have found so far, we realize that this is a growing problem," Yap said.

"What appears to be happening is businesses that hire new immigrants are seeing a high turnover rate because the immigrants take entry-level jobs when they first arrive and then look around for better work."

B.C. appears to be leading the other provinces in attracting immigrants but it still needs to do more, he said.

Yap praised the provincial nominee program because it accelerates the permanent resident application process for skilled workers, experienced business persons and their family members who want to settle in B.C. permanently. It allows nominees to apply for permanent resident status through Citizenship and Immigration Canada under the fast-tracked program.

Hilde Schlosar, executive director of the Central Island Multicultural Society, was at the meeting, which was closed to the public. Schlosar applauded B.C.'s plan to assist new immigrants and develop the workforce.

"This kind of thinking has worked well in other provinces, like Alberta. They have been able to maintain their workforce through immigration and there's no reason that I can think of why B.C. should be any different."

WCordery@nanaimodailynews.com 250-729-4237

Feds want to tackle troubling trends in immigration program

The Canadian Press

The program — which allows participating provinces and territories to nominate potential immigrants who they believe will meet particular economic and labour market requirements — is under fire for its lack of documentation and standards.

Topics :: RCMP , Atlantic Canada , CALGARY , British Columbia

[CALGARY, AB] — A program which allows provinces to tailor immigration to fit local labour needs may look fine on the surface but a federal government evaluation has uncovered what it says are some troubling trends.

The program allows participating provinces and territories to nominate potential immigrants who they believe will meet particular economic and labour market requirements. It is the second-largest source of economic immigration to Canada and an estimated 42,000 to 45,000 people will be allowed to apply this year.

The evaluation by Immigration and Citizenship Canada says the majority of workers selected by the provinces are succeeding. More than 90 per cent declared employment earnings after one year in Canada and 70 per cent held a job in line with their skills.

But Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says there are problems. One is that less than one-quarter of nominees who moved to the Atlantic provinces stayed there compared with a 95 per cent rate in British Columbia.

Another is that too many of those coming to Canada have little or no proficiency in either official language. Kenney wants a minimum language standard for all provincial nominees and stronger links between their occupations and local job needs.

"It's a partnership, not an Ottawa-knows-best situation, but at the end of the day we are going to be quite assertive in saying that we do think it's best to have a standard, national language benchmark," Kenney said in Calgary on Thursday.

He said some provinces don't seem to care whether their nominees speak the language at all.

"I guess what we're saying to them is it doesn't make a lot of sense to invite someone to Canada who doesn't speak any English ... and some of the provinces have been, I would say, undervaluing language proficiency in their selection," he said.

Fraudulent immigration applications are significant, and there is a correlation between provinces that don't enforce a language requirement and a higher rate of fraud, Kenney added.

"Some of the people who have little or no language proficiency come in through these investor schemes that we've had to shut down because they were quite dodgy. There were some provinces allowing consultants to run fast and loose to attract people who had a lot of money but no language proficiency."

Kenney said there are always "people around the world, particularly in the industry of bottom-feeding, unscrupulous immigration agents and consultants, who are willing to cut corners in order to make money to get people to Canada."

In November, New Brunswick stopped accepting applications under a Chinese immigration pilot program after an internal review. The auditor general there has also flagged concerns after finding that the province accepted about 5,000 immigrants during a 10-year span but didn't track where they ended up living.

In Prince Edward Island, a former civil servant has alleged she saw senior provincial officials accept bribes to expedite immigration applications. Immigration Canada has forwarded that allegation to the RCMP, who are deciding whether to investigate.

In Nova Scotia, the government had to pay a $25-million settlement to immigrants who paid thousands of dollars for the promise of middle-management jobs which they never received.

Kenney said problems in Atlantic Canada can partially be blamed on a higher unemployment rate. As well, there may not be a strong established immigrant community to provide guidance and support.

"We need to work with the Atlantic provinces. They have benefited from this program. I don't want to be too critical of the program."

Ontario missing benefits of ‘nominee’ immigrants, report says

Nicholas KeungImmigration Reporter

Ontario is lagging behind in reaping the benefits of a program that brings in skilled immigrants more quickly and more successfully, a new government report shows.

A review of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), which allows provinces to select their own immigrants based on local economic needs, found that 80 per cent of the selected immigrants are employed in the first year — most of them in their area of expertise. The program fast-tracks immigrants with the right skills, bringing them to Canada in less than a year.

Their average income, depending on province, ranges from $29,600 to $41,700 in the first year, and rises to between $35,200 and $45,100 after three years.

Although newcomers selected through the standard federal skilled immigrant program have a similar employment rate initially, they lag behind the provincial nominees by a full 10 per cent after three years. About 87 per cent of the federal skilled immigrants are employed then, compared with 97 per cent among the nominees.

The federal immigrants tend to earn less than the provincial nominees for the first three years, but do catch up and surpass them after five years.

“PNP has grown a great deal, representing 20 per cent of the total economic class immigration in 2009,” says the Citizenship and Immigration Canada report released Thursday.

“For some provinces, such as Manitoba, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, the program is the primary vehicle through which they attract immigrants to their province.”

Ontario doesn’t benefit to the same extent, even though it’s still Canada’s top destination for immigrants with almost 120,000 — or 42 per cent of all immigrants — settling here in 2010.

The province was a late-comer to the program, launching its own nominee procedure only in 2007. Between 2005 and 2009, only 1,247 — or 1.2 per cent of the total nominees — came to Ontario.

Ontario Immigration Minister Charles Sousa said the evaluation report “does not fully capture our high retention rates or the high calibre of PNP immigrants coming to Ontario. This is because they used data predominantly from the years before our program was fully up and running.”

Sousa pointed out that the province’s nominee target of 1,000 is set by Ottawa and “has been unilaterally frozen for this year.”

“This is just another reason why Ontario needs a stronger say on immigration selection, to ensure we have the right immigration mix that continues to support our economic prosperity,” he said.

But the highly touted program isn’t without problems.

Thanks to the pre-screening done by the provinces, immigrants coming in through PNP get approved at a rate of 96 per cent, compared with just 50 per cent under the usual federal application program.

But the report raises concerns over the lack of “systematic collection and reporting” of program information and the need for a “strong emphasis on program integrity.”

Serious allegations of corruption and mismanagement have been raised about the program in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

“There are differing levels of rigour applied by provinces and territories when confirming applicants’ adherence to eligibility criteria and, as a result, fraud and misuse can occur,” said the report, which surveyed federal and provincial officials and external groups representing unions, employers and immigrant nominees.

“But the general perception was that it was no more likely that there would be fraud (mainly related to jobs) on PNP applications than on any other economic program applications.”

The report calls for the establishment of minimum language standards for all nominees and stronger links between their occupations and specific local labour market needs. It also recommends a monitoring and reporting mechanism to boost the program’s accountability and integrity.

Good news for Intra-company Transfers to Canada

January 2012

Author Yusra Siddiquee

We are pleased to announce that there has been a positive change to Canadian immigration policies to benefit employees holding Intra-company Transfer work permits who travel frequently outside Canada.

Limit to the duration of Intra-company Transfer (ICT) work permits

The rule previously was the following: After ICTs have reached their maximum work permit duration (five years for specialized workers, seven years for senior management), they would have to complete one year of full-time employment with the company outside Canada if they wished to re-apply as an ICT. If they were unable to complete one year outside Canada, then the foreign worker would have to obtain a work permit under the Labour Market Opinion category, a very long and cumbersome process.

New rule

Recaptured Time — Normally, the duration of the work permit is used to calculate the maximum time limit that an ICT is allowed to work in Canada. However, time spent outside Canada during the duration of the work permit can now be “recaptured.” For example, if an ICT worker has a work permit for one year and spends two months over the course of the 12 months working in the US, then only 10 months would count against his or her five- or seven-year limit as an ICT. In summary, documented time spent outside Canada can be recaptured to allow the ICT full years of physical presence in Canada.

This is great news for cross-border employees. For your employees to benefit from this change, we recommend that a travel chart of entry/exit dates be maintained. We also recommend that employees retain copies of travel itineraries/ airline tickets, hotel stays, etc., showing precise lengths of stay in Canada each year. With such information, your employees will be able to recapture the time spent outside Canada when extending their work permits.

Ottawa moves to tighten provincial immigration program

ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 8:16PM EST

Last updated Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 8:23PM EST

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is setting out more stringent standards for the way provinces pick immigrants, even as he lauds the strategy as a success and economic boon.

The Provincial Nominee Program, which allows provinces to select their own quota of immigrants based on local economic needs, has received plaudits for turning Prairie provinces into migrant magnets.

But its record is far spottier out east: Incarnations of the program in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have been beset by allegations of corruption, scathing auditors-general reports and multimillion-dollar settlements paid to immigrants claiming they’d been bamboozled by misleading claims. Concerns around investor streams of the program spread to Manitoba, where the Auditor-General is conducting her own review pre-emptively.

The program has expanded significantly and is changing the face of immigration in Canada, sending newcomers to regions in need of tradespeople rather than urban hubs where highly skilled immigrants often can’t get a job.

An evaluation of the nominee program, to be released Thursday, indicates Ottawa wants to have a more direct hand in ensuring the initiative works the way it wants it to.

Provinces will need to provide evidence they need the workers they pick and they’ll have to more closely monitor visa offices abroad, “including [for] fraud detection,” according to a summary provided to The Globe by a government source.

The summary also states that nominated immigrants will need to meet minimum language standards before immigrating. It recommends putting a “monitoring and reporting framework” in place to ensure provinces meet “agreed-upon performance indicators.” The suggestion is that failure to do so would have consequences on those provinces’ programs.

Mr. Kenney hinted at this leash-tightening in an interview with The Globe late last year. The program is a success, he said, but “we do have some concerns.”

“We want to make sure the provinces are managing the program with proper due diligence and proper integrity. We need to continue working with the provinces in that respect,” he said, making special reference to immigration consultants in Maritime provinces’ investor streams as a cause for concern.

“They’re approaching people overseas who have no intention of settling in Atlantic Canada,” he said. “That’s the kind of thing that we need to be mindful of and that’s one of the reasons we are not going to continue with the rate of growth in the program over the past few years until we’re able to sit down with the provinces and make sure our concerns are addressed.”

International students at Ottawa

The Canadian capital is enjoying an economic boost thanks to the almost 500 international students currently attending Ottawa high schools.

The number of foreign students at Ottawa high schools has been rising rapidly since 2000, as increasing numbers of high school students from all over the world discover the advantages of pursuing a high school diploma in Canada.

Canada is an attractive destination for foreign students because of its high quality of education at affordable rates. In addition, many international students who have studied in Canada find that some Canadian immigration options become open to them once they complete their program of study.

It is estimated that the international students at Ottawa high schools bring an average of $30,000 dollars per person into the Ottawa economy. This money can be used to improve the schools even further, by hiring more teachers and enhancing the programs.

These students are part of the 90,000 international students that arrive in Canada each year to pursue educational programs at various levels of study.

Source: http://www.canadianimmigration.net/news/

Aging Boomers, Immigration To Boost Demand For Housing In Canada

by Jim Adair

Canada's rate of homeownership is expected to increase and the future for condominiums looks bright according to an updated analysis of future Canadian housing demand.

By 2036, there will be more one-person households in Canada than any other category, due to the aging of the baby boomer generation. But the country is counting on immigration to be the main driver of household growth in the next 20 years, says a recent report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).

The report is part of this year's 184-page Canadian Housing Observer, an annual report on the state of Canada's housing by the federal government's housing agency.

The report says the growth of housing stock in Canada is driven by household formation, which is linked to changes in the size and composition of the population. It grew faster in 2008, 2009 and 2010 than at any other time since the early 1990s. In 2010, 271,000 immigrants landed here – the highest total in 40 years.

International migration now accounts for about two-thirds of the population growth in Canada, compared to about 40 per cent in the early 1990s.

"During the 1990s, natural increase (the difference between births and deaths) shrank considerably as baby boomers aged," says CMHC. "Although births rose from 2001 to 2010, the number of births per woman (1.66 in 2007) is still well below replacement level (2.1)."

Most immigrants to Canada settle in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, which is why population growth differs across the country. But the report says immigration is increasing in smaller Canadian urban centres. From 2008 to 2010, Saskatoon had the fastest rate of population growth in the country, followed by Vancouver, Calgary, Regina and Edmonton.

Recent immigrants (in Canada less than five years) are about half as likely as non-immigrants to own a home, but as time goes on and their incomes improve, they are more likely to become homeowners.

"Immigrants' propensities to rent or own housing differ by place of origin," says the report. For example, 42 per cent of recent immigrants from Eastern Asia, the region that includes the People's Republic of China and Japan, owned their homes in 2006, compared to 11 per cent of recent immigrant households from Northern Africa.

"With immigration now the principal driver of population growth in Canada, immigrants are bound to be an important influence on housing demand, especially in cities that attract a disproportionately large share of new immigrants," says CMHC.

In Canada, the number of seniors (age 65 and older) will more than double by 2036, growing eight times faster than the number of people under 65. Seniors currently represent about 14 per cent of the population, but that share will be almost 24 per cent by 2036.

The city with the highest proportion of seniors in 2010 was Peterborough, Ont., where 19.4 per cent of the population was over 65. The lowest percentage was Calgary at 9.5 per cent. A recent bank survey asked which city in Canada people would most like to retire in, and the winner was Victoria. It currently ranks fourth for highest proportion of seniors, after Peterborough, Trois-Rivieres, Que. and Kelowna, B.C.

The leading edge of boomers started turning 65 in 2011, but the largest number of boomers won't reach 65 until 2024, and the youngest will turn 65 in 2030. The impact of the boomers will be felt on the housing market for many years, the report says.

"Aging households will support continued growth in condominium markets," it says. "Seniors have higher rates of condominium ownership than any other age group, and those rates have been rising. We can also expect to see growing demand for home adaptations and support services aimed at allowing aging residents to remain living comfortably in their homes."

Seniors are less likely to move than younger people. About 20 per cent of seniors moved between 2001 and 2006, compared to 44 per cent of non-senior households.

"The relatively low mobility rates of seniors are evidence of a preference on the part of many for staying in their current homes for as long as possible. Though behaviour could change in the future, mobility rates have historically been very stable," says the report.

The average age of the head of the household is rising – those aged 55 and older will make up half of all households by 2036. With the aging boomers will come a rise in one-person households, particularly women. MHC says one-person households will become the biggest single category of households by about 2021.

Alberta and B.C. are expected to see the fastest pace of household growth, while Newfoundland and Labrador will see the lowest.

Published: January 17, 2012

Senior Immigration Canada manager pleads not guilty in bribery scheme

Case alleges accused received money for fast-tracking residency applications
BY ANDREW SEYMOUR, OTTAWA CITIZEN JANUARY 24, 2012

Secretly recorded telephone calls and undercover police surveillance will paint a portrait of a senior Citizenship and Immigration Canada manager taking cash in exchange for preferential treatment on permanent residency applications, a prosecutor said Monday on the first day of a trial into an alleged bribes-for-status scheme.

Assistant Crown attorney Mike Boyce said Diane Serre teamed up with Issam Dakik to take thousands of dollars from mostly Arab immigrants in exchange for fast-tracking their applications. Dakik would meet with the applicants and collect the money before contacting Serre who would use her influence as a manager and supervisor in Citizenship and Immigration Canada's Catherine Street office, said Boyce.

Serre, 41, pleaded not guilty to 28 charges Monday, including multiple allegations of fraud against the government and breach of trust of a public official. She is also charged with one count of bribery.

Dakik portrayed himself as someone who had inside information, Boyce added.

Dakik, who has pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme, along with credit card fraud, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison in 2006. At the time, Dakik admitted he paid Serre a portion of the proceeds of the scheme.

The scheme allegedly began in January 2003 and continued until December 2004, when Serre and Dakik were arrested by RCMP in an operation dubbed "Project Argon."

Nine applicants made the illegal cash payments, which the RC-MP said at the time of Serre's arrest ranged from between $4,000 and $25,000.

In an opening address, Boyce outlined Crown evidence that will be presented over the six-week trial, including wiretap evidence that the prosecutor said proved that Serre was Dakik's "insider" at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Police surveillance observed visits to Dakik's home by Serre that corresponded with wiretapped telephone calls to some of the applicants - calls where Dakik would often either put the applicants on hold or could be heard consulting with someone else in the room.

Boyce alleged when an undercover police agent approached Dakik, he was told the first $300 he paid would go to "the lawyer." Bills with the same serial numbers were recovered two weeks later from Serre's bedroom, said the prosecution.

Among the allegations is that Serre also handed over sensitive Citizenship and Immigration Canada documents to Dakik and made phone calls to outside government agencies, including CSIS, to see if some of the steps of the application process could be expedited.

Not all of Serre's actions would be improper when viewed in isolation, said Boyce, but when viewed in the context of Serre's relationship with Dakik, they equated to a breach of trust.

"She accepted or agreed to accept a benefit for her assistance in processing these claims," Boyce told Ontario Superior Court Justice Catherine Aitken.

Boyce said the Crown intends to prove Serre not only committed a breach of trust by taking money, but by the very fact she agreed to give preferential treatment to the claimants at all.

"Just through acts of giving preferential treatment to those files would be a breach of trust by Ms. Serre," he said.

The nine applicants who paid Dakik are expected to be called as witnesses this week and next. Their evidence will include tape-recorded conversations and agreements they made with Dakik. Dakik is expected to take the witness stand in about two weeks, where prosecutors expect to confront him with the wiretaps and other surveillance.

The Crown will also introduce evidence that will show when Serre or others searched for the applicants' electronic files. Occasionally Serre would search the files within a day of discussing them with Dakik, Boyce alleged.

The prosecution spent much of the first day introducing many of the exhibits seized from searches of Citizenship and Immigration Canada office and Serre and Dakik's homes.

The trial continues Tuesday.

aseymour@ottawacitizen.com