Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has announced that refugees from five countries with high levels of conflict will be refused a Canadian visa if they have already entered the United States before attempting to enter Canada.
The five countries include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. Immigration Minister Jason Kenny says that refugees will be refused entry to the country because they should seek protection in the country they arrive in first.
Approximately 5,000 people will be affected by this every year according to government estimates.
A lifting of the deportation ban for refugees from Burundi, Liberia and Rwanda was also announced and is effective immediately.
Since 1994 a ban has been in place on deporting refugees from these counties, but an internal review reported “improved conditions” in all three countries. Amnesty International, however, is still reporting abuses that are happening in Burundi and Liberia.
Up to 2,100 refugees that already moved to Canada could be affected by this sudden change. This follows the new visa requirements imposed on Mexican and Czech citizens, which sparked outrage that originated from a visa battle. Reaction from the new affected countries is still unreported.
The Canadian banking system, considered the world's healthiest according to The World Economic Forum, was recently announced to have come out of the economic recession. Canada hasn't had a single bailout, bank failure or need for government to interfere with its financial system.
While US banks are leveraged at an average of 26 to 1, Canadian banks only borrow 18 to 1. Unlike much of the rest of the world, Canada has stuck to the tried-and-true rules of banking, borrowing, and risk. It has remained conservative and sensible, and hasn't been tricked into thinking it could beat the markets.
Furthermore, housing is remarkably robust in Canada and instead of having a budget deficit the Canadian economy has run a surplus for the past dozen years and now has cash that can pull it out of any economic drags it may be facing.
Furthermore, while the Canadian healthcare system comprises only 9.7 percent of the GDP it still outperforms the US system by all measures. As a result, the life expectancy in Canada is 81 compared to the 78 years in the US.
For years car manufacturers have been moving jobs to Canada to avoid the high healthcare costs in the US. Now Ontario is the largest carmaker in North America, even out-producing Michigan.
This survey, the first of its kind in Canada, provides citizens in 31 cities across the country with comparative data on how well—or poorly—their city is run, measured by the cost and quality of the public services it delivers. (Why 31? We took the 30 largest cities in Canada, added whatever provincial capitals were not on the list, then subtracted a few cities from the Greater Toronto Area for better regional balance. Somehow that left 31.)
Though the overall results—Burnaby, Saskatoon and Surrey, B.C. lead the pack; Charlottetown, Kingston, Ont., and Fredericton trail—will be of particular interest, they are less important than the process this is intended to kick off. We aim not merely to start some good barroom arguments, but to help voters to hold their representatives to better account, and indeed to help city governments themselves. For without some sort of yardstick to measure their performance, either against other cities or against their own past record, how can they hope to know whether they are succeeding?
To compile the survey, Maclean’s commissioned the Halifax-based Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, expanding on the institute’s earlier work measuring the performance of municipalities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Unlike other studies, this does not try to measure quality of life, or which city is the “best place to live.” Rather, it focuses on the contribution of local governments to this end.
This survey looks at a city’s efficiency—the cost of producing results—and the effectiveness of its services, including how well each city does when it comes to things like maintaining roads and parks, picking up garbage and putting out fires.
A case study by Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has recognized North Bay, Ontario’s successes in terms of immigrant attraction and retention.
The community project included three cities: North Bay, Brockville and Chatham-Kent. The results will contribute to new government policy aimed at encouraging immigrants to settle in communities other than major cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
North Bay’s mayor, Vic Fedeli, stated that the city's focus on immigrant attraction and retention originated after realizing that the city was homogenous.
“It was just a natural feeling that we needed to expand our horizons. When we did our business and retention program we realized there were huge gaps in our labour pool and we knew that immigration was one way to bring people here,” he states.
The first step before developing the project was to work with the area newcomers. Marla Tremblay of the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development formed the North Bay Newcomer Network (NNN). In April 2006, an immigration symposium was held with more than 80 participants. One of the main outcomes of the symposium was the need to establish an immigrant settlement agency for both attraction and retention.
FedNor, a federal regional development organization in Ontario, provided funding in December of 2006 to hire a researcher and give NNN a better understanding of newcomers’ needs.
After listening to Citizenship and Immigration Canada note how settlement agencies are funded, NNN members chose a non-profit media organization, Young People’s Press, to apply for settlement funding. Their work resulted in the opening of the North Bay and District Multicultural Centre in February 2008.
With the progress that has happened in three years, Fideli still sees immigration as a priority. “We’ve got a lot of sweat equity into our immigration strategy and it would be a huge step backward to let it fall from being a priority,” he says.
Statistics Canada points out that by 2011, all net growth in the Canadian labour force will be through immigration, and by 2026 all growth in population will be through immigration.
In the past, Canadians don’t generally think of their own country among the world’s great vacation spots. That’s all changed now with the economic downturn. A global poll listed Canada first as the most appealing vacation destinations in the world, ahead of Italy and Australia. More and more Canadians are staying home instead of going after the sunny Caribbean, exotic Asian cities and Europe’s historic capital. The world sees Canada for its unspoiled nature, vibrant cities, fascinating history and friendly people. Here are other Canadians attractions, having talked enough about Vancouver, Toronto and Quebec.
Newfoundland has St. John’s, North America’s oldest city. It has heritage sites and outdoor adventures. The National Park was designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Hiking trails are an integral part of the Newfoundland travel experience. Nova Scotia has Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Island. There are all kinds of festivals like the Halifax International Busker Festival and the Luneburg Folk Harbor Festival and the Pictou Lobster Festival.
Prince Edward Island is a wonderful island for adventure and culture. The Charlottetown Festival is a three-month festival of musical theater, comedy and artistic performances by top Canadian performers. Then, there is the 2009 Canada Games with 18 events and one can watch future Olympians. No Canadian province has a monopoly on great golf. Prince Edward Island is the country’s top golfing holiday destination.
New Brunswick has colorful Fredericton, the provincial capital that has been designated as one of Canada’s cultural capitals. There are several outstanding galleries and it is a must to visit the historic St. Andrews By-The-Sea.
Then, there’s the festival oriented Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba, enchanting Saskatchewan with its rolling terrain and Calgary with its world famous Calgary Stampede, an event that can compete with the cowboys of Texas.
For a finale, there is Nuvavut (in the north). It is home to the meeting point of glaciers and sea ice. The Northwest Territories is the best place to watch the Aurora Borealis, something that must be seen in a lifetime, just like the pyramids of Egypt. Visualize breathtaking ghostly colors dance in the night sky. The entire province is really the perfect viewing post for this experience that will bring to mind episodes of The X-Files.
We celebrated Canada Day last July Ist. It was Canada’s 142nd birthday and there are a lot of things to be proud. Here’s a collection of data from different publications that will make every Canadian proud of Canada.
We can be proud that Canada is renowned and respected peacekeepers around the world and that we are known to be polite and that we have more fresh water than anyone else. And that we are only 33.7 million of us which means we have space to move around.
Other things to be proud about is the fact that Canada ranks No. 2 among the top industrialized countries in the world and we are ahead of Britain, France and Germany.
Canadians have a higher household incomes than the Australians and the British and a higher level of home ownership than the Americans.
On the subject of immigration, maybe we are letting too many people into the country. Canada granted more new citizenships per capita than any other nation. Canada’s wealth, education system, diverse and tolerant society are primary lures to immigrants.
When it comes to life expectancy, Canada is now estimated to be 81.23 years, eighth in the world and when it comes to quality of life, the number of years lived free from disease, Canada tied with France.
The health issue could be due to the fact that Canada was named the second-fittest and second-most relaxed country in the world (behind the Netherlands and Spain). And despite having the third-largest number of McDonald’s franchises per capita in the world, Canadians are relatively careful about what they put in their bodies. This is specially true in British Columbia, specially in Vancouver.
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