Ladner's Chinese rant ignores economic boom

Image via WikipediaBY ETHAN BARON, THE PROVINCE



Former Vancouver councillor Peter Ladner argues that wealthy Chinese homebuyers are driving Vancouver's real-estate prices to heights unaffordable for regular British Columbians.
"Mainland Chinese immigrants are moving to Metro Vancouver at the rate of 10,000 a year," Ladner said. "These immigrants are in some sense political and economic refugees, securing citizenship in Canada as a backup plan for their children's futures."
Rich Chinese buyers, Ladner suggests, are making a killing. He quotes a realtor's flyer boasting that his average client's equity rose from $150,000 to $4.5 million between 1993 and 2011.
"The result of this frenzy is that Vancouver's housing has priced its average citizens well out of the market," Ladner added.
Cry me a river, and make it the Yangtze. Unless you don't buy Chinese-made products, you've got no grounds for complaint.
British Columbians purchase billions of dollars in goods from China, fuelling the economic boom enriching the people who are buying up Vancouver real estate.
In 2000, B.C. Stats predicted British Columbians' contribution to China's economic expansion.
"As China industrializes, the early indications are that British Columbia will . . . play an important supporting role in the emergence of an Asian economic giant," the agency reported.
Imports to B.C. from China the year that prediction was made stood at $3 billion, according to Statistics Canada. Last year, B.C. imported $8.8 billion in goods from China. Canada as a whole imported $44.5 billion in Chinese products in 2010.
"The top five commodities imported from China in 2010 were electronic computers, telecommunication equipment, games and toys, furniture and fixtures and outerwear," StatsCan's 2010 international trade review says.
China's share of Canada's imports rose to 11 per cent in 2010 from 3.7 per cent in 2001, according to StatsCan.
Why do we buy so many Chinese products? Because they're cheap. Why are they cheap? Because Chinese workers are paid very poorly, often toil in abysmal conditions and sometimes get kicked out of their homes so wealthy industrialists can level them and build more factories. Who benefits from this trade relationship? Why, we British Columbians who save money buying cheap goods, and those Chinese who make money off the cheap production of cheap goods. We get inexpensive sweaters. They get houses in Shaughnessy.
Shop at the dollar store all you want, it ain't gonna get you into West Point Grey.
Ladner is right. He's identified a problem that few will speak about for fear of being labelled as racist. But if you're going to point a finger, make sure you're standing in front of a mirror.
Oh, and about that mirror . . .
ebaron@theprovince.com

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Tories promise loans for immigrants seeking to upgrade skills

Image by Kashmera via FlickrBY ANDREW MAYEDA, POSTMEDIA NEWS

MARKHAM, Ont. — A re-elected Conservative government would offer loans to immigrants so they can get the training they need to have their credentials recognized in Canada, Stephen Harper said Wednesday.

Many recent immigrants have trouble getting jobs in the field in which they were educated because their credentials often aren't recognized by professional regulatory bodies.

It's a persistent problem that, according to some studies, has increased the gap in standards of living between immigrants and Canadian-born workers with similar education levels.

The Conservatives hinted at addressing the issue in the budget unveiled last month. On Wednesday, Harper said the Conservatives will offer loans to help immigrants pay for the skills training or upgrading required for credential recognition.

"These bridge loans will make it easier for new Canadians to find jobs that take full advantage of their experience and expertise," Harper said in a statement.

The loans will cover expenses associated with training, training materials, exams, administration and registration fees, and other costs associated with the foreign credential recognition process.

The measure will cost about $6 million annually and won't be delayed until the budget is balanced, like other announcements the Conservatives have made on the campaign.

The Tories hope the measure will help their chances with the large population of immigrants in Canada's biggest city. The Conservatives are optimistic they can increase their seat total in the Greater Toronto Area, especially in the suburban ridings that encircle the city.

Led by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, the party has been aggressively courting various ethnic communities in the GTA.

Harper announced the measure in the riding of Oak Ridges-Markham, where Conservative Paul Calandra is the incumbent. Harper will later address a rally in Ajax-Pickering, where Liberal incumbent Mark Holland is facing off against Conservative star candidate Chris Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan.

The Conservatives note that many immigrants have trouble paying the tuition and training costs needed to go through the credential-recognition process.

Many such individuals don't have a credit history that would enable them to take out private loans, and their training courses might not qualify them for federal student loans.

amayeda@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/amayeda

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IMF boosts outlook for Canada

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The International Monetary Fund boosted its expectations for Canadian economic growth this year as it warned the world is facing new threats from surging oil prices, Mideast turmoil, higher inflation in China and Europe's debt woes.

Topics : 

IMF , World Bank , The Associated Press ,United States , Canada , China

In a new economic forecast Monday, the organization raised its projection for Canadian growth of 2.8 per cent for 2011, up from an earlier forecast for 2.3 per cent.

The Canadian economy grew 3.1 per cent in 2010.

"Economic developments in Canada last year mirrored those in the United States, with the pace of economic activity moderating in midyear," the report said.

"The deceleration reflected not only the drag on Canadian exports from weak U.S. activity and strong import growth from investment spending amid an appreciating currency, but also a cooling of some domestic activity."

The IMF also lowered its expectations for Canada for 2012 to 2.6 per cent compared with 2.7 per cent in an earlier forecast. The report suggested the risks in Canada for 2011 are tilted to the downside.

"The main domestic risk being deterioration of housing markets and household balance sheets," the IMF said.

"Key external risks are lower-than-expected activity in the United States and renewed sovereign strains in Europe."

The IMF said the global economy should grow 4.4 per cent this year. That compares with global growth of five per cent last year. The IMF projects industrial countries will grow 2.4 per cent while developing countries, a group that includes China, will grow more than twice as fast at 6.5 per cent.

"The world economic recovery is gaining strength, but it is unbalanced," Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, told reporters.

He said it would be critical for countries running large government deficits such as the United States to make progress in getting those deficits under control. At the same time, countries with large trade surpluses, such as China, will need to do more to boost domestic demand and not rely so heavily on exports to generate economic growth.

The IMF's new growth forecast was prepared for spring meetings of the 185-nation IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.

Before those discussions Saturday, finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Group of 20 major industrial and developing nations will hold closed-door talks on Friday.

The finance officials will try to assess how big a threat the rise in energy and food prices will be and also what they can do collectively in response to the political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.

The United States is expected to keep pressing China to move more quickly to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar as a way of making U.S. goods more competitive in China.

China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, will be seeking assurances that Washington is moving to put in place a credible plan to deal with soaring federal budget deficits.

At their last meeting in Paris in February, the G20 officials struck a watered-down deal on a group of technical indicators to track global imbalances. But the G20 left the tricky question of what to do if the balances become dangerous for later discussions.

The IMF, in its new ``World Economic Outlook,'' left unchanged its January projection that the global economy will grow 4.4 per cent this year and 4.5 per cent in 2012.

In 2009, the global economy shrank by 0.5 per cent, its worst downturn since the Second World War, with growth rebounding in 2010 to 5 per cent.

The 2.4 per cent growth forecast for the advanced economies was down 0.1 percentage point from January. The IMF expects these countries to grow 2.6 per cent in 2012.

"New downside risks are building on account of commodity prices, notably oil, and relatedly, geopolitical uncertainty as well as overheating and booming asset markets in emerging market economies," the IMF said.

Growth in the United States was forecast to be 2.8 per cent, down 0.2 percentage point from January, reflecting primarily the drag from higher oil prices. The IMF's forecast is in line with private economists.

Japan, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, was forecast to grow 1.4 per cent this year, down 0.2 percentage point from the January forecast. The expectation is that the world's third largest economy will be slowed at first by the natural disasters but then receive a boost from the reconstruction efforts.

China, now the world's second largest economy, was projected to grow 9.6 per cent this year, a forecast that was unchanged from January. Beijing is raising interest rates to deal with rising inflation risks.

All emerging market economies, a group that includes China, India and Brazil, are expected to grow 6.5 per cent this year and next year.

Developing countries are doing better because they emerged from the recession in much better shape than many industrial countries.

"Economies that are running behind the global recovery typically suffered large financial shocks during the crisis, often related to housing booms and high external indebtedness," the IMF said.

Economic growth in the 17 countries that use the euro including Germany, France and Italy was projected to be 1.6 per cent this year and 1.8 per cent next year, an anemic recovery that reflects continued worries that debt problems in Greece, Ireland and Portugal will spread to other countries.

– With files from The Associated Press

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Canada should welcome 100,000 more immigrants per year: Report

By DOUGLAS TODD 31 MAR 2011 COMMENTS(2) THE SEARCH

Filed under: Vancouver, immigrants, Metropolis B.C.

Talk about a discussion starter. Canadian professor Tony Fang is making the contentious recommendation Canada would economically benefit from hiking its annual quote of immigrants to about 350,000 from the current 250,000.

Increasing immigration to Canada by 100,000 per year would boost Canada’s gross domestic product and spur investment in housing, and would not add to unemployment, according to results of Fang's study, which were released at the national Metropolis conference last week in Vancouver.

The York University professor led the study for The Metropolis Project. He claims his projections for the period 2012-2021 show that adding one million immigrants – an extra 100,000 annually over the current level of about 250,000 − would increase productivity and help the government’s balance sheets.

Fang's recommendation conflicts with the impressions of many Metro Vancouver and Toronto residents who worry that housing prices are rising far too high because of a river of immigrants into urban centres, and that strong immigration levels keeps Canadian wages low.

Canada has the highest immigration rate per capita of any major country.

However, a news release about Fang's report justifies his findings on the basis of the way he and his fellow researchers considered the interdependence of factors such as interest rates, wages, inflation, monetary economic policy and standard of living.

"To study the impacts of large-scale immigration on the Canadian economy, the researchers took into account many factors including: immigrants’ participation in the labour force; associated spending on government services and infrastructure; funds brought by immigrants; and labour market differences between migrants (in order to capture the effect of large-scale immigration on Canadian-born workers)," says the release.

Fang, a professor of human resources management professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York, performed a series of macroeconomic simulations with ProfessorMorley Gunderson, of the Centre of Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto, and Professor Peter Dungan, director of the Policy & Economic Analysis Program at the University of Toronto.

Fang's report -- which focusses on the economics of immigration and not other factors, such as cultural and environmental -- says that adding 100,000 more immigrants per year would:
• Increase real GDP by 2.3 per cent over the 10-year period by 2021
• Increase Canada’s population cumulatively by 2.6 per cent, creating demand for goods and services (especially housing)
• Add $14 billion to government coffers because taxes paid by immigrants exceed government expenditures

Conducted with funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and The Metropolis Project, the study proposes to "provide policymakers at all levels of government with information about the costs and benefits of large-scale immigration, to better inform their decisions."

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India an answer to Sask. labour shortage: Hopkins

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Saskatchewan should throw its doors wide open to immigrants from India to help solve labour shortage problems, the head of the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.
John Hopkins, the chamber's CEO, said the pending retirement of many workers in the baby boom generation is "the freight train coming down the track," that will add to the labour shortages already being experienced in the province as a result of an economic boom.
Speaking to the chamber's annual general meeting, at the Best Western Seven Oaks Inn, Hopkins said encouraging more immigrants from India could be a big part of the solution to Saskatchewan's labour shortage.
"What we really need is a pro-active Indian strategy," Hopkins said. "India has 1.2 billion people, many who are highly skilled and salivating about coming to a country like Canada."
Potential immigrants from India are "educated in English, which is a huge advantage for us," Hopkins said.
Hopkins, who was part of a Saskatchewan trade mission that visited India recently, said the trip was a success: "We have established great contacts."
In addition to being a potential source for immigrants, India is also an important market for many Saskatchewan products, Hopkins said.
Federal government help -in facilitating immigration from India and in recognizing the need for more immigrants to Saskatchewan -is needed, Hopkins said.
Speaking to reporters following his speech, Hopkins conceded that there is sometimes a problem with immigrants' professional or technical training being accepted in Canada.
Steps, including educational upgrades, need to be taken to address that problem, Hopkins said, adding it might be possible to provide educational upgrades in India, which would give immigrants the chance to have their credentials immediately recognized when they arrive in Canada.
A variety of other measures should be undertaken to deal with labour shortages, including getting more First Nations people engaged in the workforce, and encouraging young people to stay in Saskatchewan, Hopkins said.
Recruiting new workers from other parts of Canada is also part of the solution, Hopkins said, though other parts of the country will also be dealing with labour shortages as the baby boomers retire, so the competition will be stiff.
Convincing some baby boomers to delay retirement or continue working part-time could be part of the solution, Hopkins said.

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-Post

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