Whats New in Canada-Update on CA

[mayankpandya]

Dear all forum members.

In this new thread i request all of you to post any update related to canada .

Hope this thread will be useful to all .

Regards,
Mayank

 

[mayankpandya]

Canadians more positive towards immigration than US, Europe-Survey

Canada, 4th February: Canadians have a positive attitude towards immigration as compared to other Western nations including the US and Europe, findings of a recent survey indicate.

The poll undertaken by Transatlantic Trends, a Washington-based think-tank, maintains that Canada is the most welcoming nation to the immigrants.

Around two-thirds of people in Canada are of the view that immigrants are successfully integrating into their society.

However, the percentage of Canadians having the same view about increasing Muslims in Canada is merely 45 percent, the survey reveals. Number of Canadians viewing immigration as a problem and not as an opportunity is just 27 percent while, in Europe and other nations, the percentage of people considering immigration as a big problem is certainly quite high.

Author of the 2010 Immigration Public Opinion Survey, Delancey Gustin said that Canadians are quite positive about immigration and they seem to be less bothered by issues of immigrants taking away their jobs leading to lower wages.

This positive attitude of Canadians towards newcomers in Canada revealed in the recent survey released Thursday reiterates that Canadians value and recognize the advantages of immigration, said Myer Siemiatycki, a professor at Ryerson University and an immigration expert.

Talking of the UK, the survey shows that around 23 percent of Britons regard immigration as the biggest problem faced by the nation. And the number of people having same view about immigration in the US and EU is nearly 10 percent.

Around 59 percent of Britons feel that their nation has a large number of immigrants and were of the opinion that immigrants snatch away jobs from native-UK workers. They considered immigrants as a huge burden on the nation and around 25 percent of the survey respondents from the UK stated that legal immigrants should not be provided access to either state schools or the NHS.

Nearly 70 percent of Britons feel that the government has been unsuccessful in tackling immigration. Commissioned by the GMF (German Marshall Fund), the survey involved Canada, the UK, the US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.

President of the GMF Craig Kennedy regarded the poll findings as a wake-up call for the governments of the participating nations in the survey.

 

[mayankpandya]

Canada opens summer jobs to help students and the Canadian community

Since the years 2009 and 2010, Canada has increased its funding for summer jobs as one of its action plan that would help the growth of its economy in during the last economic downturn.

The funding and the program is made to help Canadian students have a work experience that would also help the non-profit organizations, public sector employers as well as small businesses create a high-quality job experiences for students aging from 15-30.

The Canadian Summer Job Program for students

By this program, the non-profit organizations hiring students for their summer jobs would actually get about 100% of the provincial or territorial minimum hourly wage as well as the mandatory related costs of hiring a student. The public sector employers and small businessmen on the other hand will be getting about 50% of the wage. And as of July 2010, there were about 22,100 agreements have been signed to support the creation of about 39,000 jobs in the country and among these jobs, about 3,600 are attributed to the funding made through the action plan for the economy.

The people qualified for applying the program are the non-profit organizations, the public sector employers as well as small businessmen that were to hire students for a work experience by doing a summer job in the country.

Sectors that would benefit from the Canadian Summer Job Program

The program also is designed to help employers create work experiences for students that would help focus on local priorities and also helping the students and the employers, as well as their communities. Its aim is to provide work experiences for students, support organizations especially those that provide important community services and recognizes that local circumstances, the community needs and priorities vary widely.

The qualifications and criteria for the Canadian Summer Job Program

Also, the criteria that will be set to assess the proposal for summer jobs will include and give focus on services to local communities, jobs that support local priorities, jobs providing career-related experiences or early work experiences, jobs that have a salary that will contribute to the student’s income, projects that are directed towards and will support the vitality of an official language minority community, employers that will give supervision and mentoring, as well as those employers who are intending to hire priority students, like students with disabilities, as well as aboriginal students and students that belong to a minority group.

Interested employers can apply to the program based on the following criteria: eligibility, instructions for completing the Canada Summer Jobs application, assessment process, and approval process. And before completing the application, the employers must be consulted by the Canada Summer Jobs Application Guide and the local priorities will be reviewed for their constituencies, which are available online of through any Service Canada Centers, nationwide.

The application for the 2011 Canadian Summer Jobs will be from February 1-28, 2011.

 

[mayankpandya]

Canada medical care costs and insurance for new immigrants

Canada, 4th February: Canada has been witnessing increasing rise in the costs of health and medical care in the recent years.

The health-care system in Canada is in need of reforms to not just make the healthcare and medical care in Canada more affordable but also for bringing significant improvements in terms of quality.

This is especially important keeping in the view the fact that healthcare eats up around 50 percent of the Ontario’s program spending and it might go even higher to 80 percent by the year 2030 if no steps are taken to control rising costs of healthcare in Canada.

Several Canadian provinces are waking up to the need for reforms and are taking steps to control healthcare costs. Ontario took the initiative by announcing reduction of around 50 percent in the prices of the generic drugs along with wiping away of incentive fees to manufacturers of generic drugs.

It was followed by B.C. (British Columbia) and Quebec in introducing measures for controlling high costs of medical and healthcare in Canada. While B.C. announced introduction of fee-for-procedure payments to hospitals, Quebec proposed for payments on every single medical visit.

Private funding for knee surgery, cataract and hip surgery is on the agenda of a couple of Canadian provinces.

What steps are needed—?

• Nurses and doctors in Canada should take their responsibilities for giving suggestions with regard to bringing improvisations in quality and efficiency in the healthcare in Canada.

• Universities and research organizations must play their role in bringing everyone closer by involving the media for getting consultations from the public.

• Drug manufacturers must suggest cost saving techniques. • Academics should chalk out proposal for promoting good health in the nation.

Health coverage for newcomers in Canada---—

• If you are a potential immigrant wanting to move to any of the Canadian provinces including British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, make sure to buy short-term healthcare insurance from any private company before you arrive here. The reason is that you will not be eligible for health plan incentives till you have stayed for a minimum of three months after moving here. In case, you don’t do so, at least ensure to get health insurance within 5 days after arriving in Canada.

• After your arrival in Canada. Apply soon for a health card in the concerned Canadian province to get free health coverage in Canada by showing three identity proofs of your immigration status in Canada.

 

[mayankpandya]

Canada-USA relationship is hanging by a thread?

The relationship between Canada and the USA again is now getting by the ropes as a report says that the Canadian border to the USA is posing a threat to the US security as prominent American legislators are proclaiming that the USA is facing danger due to the out pour of terrorists from the northern border from Canada.

And an analysis was created stating that the terrorists would chose to enter the USA through the “weak link” so that there is a higher risk of terrorism coming from Canada than from Mexico because as they say, there are more Islamic extremists groups in Canada than in Mexico.

And Canada is said to have a more lenient immigration law as compared to the US that resulted in the situation of terrorism being high in the country, that prompted the Chairman of the US Homeland security to be alarmed with the news and suggested that the two countries, Canada and the USA would take an immediate action regarding the situation.

USA’s suggestion to remove the problem of “terrorism” from the northern border

The action would be to require a visa from the Canadian people to be able to enter into the USA. In this act, the US border patrol agents would have proper control in the exercise of its jurisdiction over the 51 kilometer boundary from the USA to Canada. And as an audit reported that the US border patrol does not have the ability to detect illegal activity on its northern border and despite spending millions of dollars in securing the US-Canada border, the border patrol isn’t even aware of about 75% of the border, meaning the US defense over its northern border is very weak.

Canadian government’s response to the suggestion

The action suggested by the Chairman of the US Senate’s Homeland security was flatly rejected by the Canadian government. The issue was started when the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington to have a meeting with US President Barack Obama with regards to the issues of border security, the trouble in Egypt, as well as the plans for both countries in the “Clean Energy Dialogue”.

Canadian Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff has accused Prime Minister Harper of having the talks with the situation of border security kept in secret and that any deal made should be put to an open debate with the House before Harper surrenders Canadian sovereignty, in which Prime Minister Harper made false saying that he will not surrender Canadian sovereignty.

Canada’s decision on the USA suggestion regarding border security

On the other hand, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made a quick move to close the notion that would require Canadians obtaining visas to enter into the USA, saying that for bilateral travel for nationals on both country, it is not necessary to require a visa upon entering the territories, and it would give a very big problem for the economic prospective of both countries if that were to happen.

He stated that the situation should not be taken seriously and he had urged the people not to give the comment too much attention.

 

[mayankpandya]

Canada rejects US visa requirement

Canada, 3rd February: The Canadian government has declined to accept the requirement of US visas for gaining entry into the US by Canadians after a recent report by the Government of Accountability Office concerning security was released on February 1.

The report maintains that US Homeland Security has been found to be having acceptable control of less than one percent of 6,400-kilometre US border with Canada.

And this security breach is a strong factor prompting a US senator Joe Lieberman to make a proposal for US visa requirements for Canadians.

Lieberman did not advocate US visa requirement for Canadians, but expressed the need for discussions between the US and Canada.

Meanwhile, Jason Kenney, Canada’s immigration minister has urged Canadians not to express their views about this issue. Speaking about the issue, Mr. Kenney said that both the US and Canada always have enjoyed visa-free travel for the citizens of both the nations.

Hence, there is no reason to change this rule since it will result in creating problems from economic point of view, added Kenney.

Senator Lieberman, who is the chairman of the US Senate’s Homeland Security committee, had stated that the problems concerning the security at the US border was complicated since Canadians could move to the US without having the need to get a US visa.

Although, he has not called for making US visa a compulsion for Canadians, however, Lieberman called for a discussion between Canada and the US regarding this issue.

Lawrence Cannon, the Foreign Affairs Minister stated that David Jacobson, the US ambassador to Canada, gave him assurances that there are no plans to make US visas a requirement for Canadians and it’s not the intention of the Obama administration.

Following the release of the report, Jacobson had revealed that relations between the US and Canada on the issues of border and security management had been great for the last several years. The issue is likely to be discussed with US President Obama by the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during his official visit to the US this Friday.

The report carried out between December 2009 and December 2010 stated that the US should have proper control over 51 kilometers of the US border with Canada.

 

[pittabread]

good work buddy...... +1

 

[qorax]

Fri Feb. 04 2011 7:28:23 PM | The Canadian Press
Harper, Obama announce plan to co-operate on trade, border security



WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama says he has no doubt Stephen Harper will safeguard Canadian sovereignty in a new Canada-U.S. border security agreement that has raised the hackles of opposition politicians and privacy watchdogs back home.

"It would be unrealistic to expect Canada and the U.S. to march in lockstep on every element of border security", Obama added, "But we match up more than probably any country on Earth."

The newly formed Canada Regulatory Co-operation Council will also look for ways to ease red tape and harmonize regulations between both countries, although proposals on how to do so are months away.

"This declaration is not about sovereignty," Harper said as Obama looked on solemnly. "We share an integrated economic space where it doesn't make sense to constantly, you know, check the same cargo over and over again. If we can do that at a perimeter, if we can de-congest the border, that's what we should be doing. If we can harmonize regulations in ways that avoid unnecessary duplication and red tape for business, these are things that we need to do."

Harper also talked tough when asked by an American reporter about the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, which -- if approved by the U.S. State Department -- will transport oil from Alberta's controversial oilsands into the United States. "The need of the United States for fossil fuels -- far in excess of its ability to produce such energy -- will be the reality for some time to come," he said.

Indeed, a new study commissioned by the U.S. government has argued that the pipeline could substantially reduce American dependency on Middle East oil. It also suggested the proposed 3,060-kms pipeline, coupled with a reduction in overall U.S. oil demand, "could essentially eliminate Middle East crude imports longer term."

"The U.S. and Canada are not simply allies, not simply neighbours," Obama said. "We are woven together like perhaps no two other countries in the world."

Harper said some eight million U.S. jobs are dependent on trade across the northern border, and described Canada as the single largest, most secure and most stable source of American energy. "It is in both our interests to ensure our common border remains open and efficient," he said.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ref:
http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110204/110204_harper_obama/20110204/?hub=CP24Home

 

[mayankpandya]

The higher value of the Canadian dollar and both its ups and downs

The value of the Canadian dollar plays a very important role in the political and economic life of Canada with regards to other national currencies.

And with having recorded a good appreciation last year, it is no surprise that there will be interested party that will do a movement for the Canada-USA exchange rate and the effects it would cost in the bilateral trade of both countries that will greatly affect the overall economy of Canada.

The steady rise of the CAD compared to the USD

Since 2003, the Canadian dollar has appreciated sharply against the US dollar in which it had risen 20% starting from an exchange rate of 65 cents US in the first week of the year to an exchange of 75 cents per US dollar. And in 2010, the Canadian dollar has recorded fairly strong appreciating 5.5% against the US dollar as an encore to a gain of 16% in 2009. And its rise has very little volatility staying between the exchange range of $0.00-$1.01 CAD/USD. And in 2011, the trading is expected to continue within the 1:1 trade against the USD though analysts are not sure on whether which side of the parity it will go to.

Higher Canadian dollars negative and positive effects

However, the higher the cost of the Canadian dollar would get, the lesser the economic growth will be for Canada, due to an expected erosion in the trade balance between Canada and the USA as Canadian exports would become more expensive in the USA and other international buyers, that will cause a great layoff for Canadian workers. Another thing would be that a higher Canadian dollar could reflect higher commodity prices.

On the other hand, higher Canadian dollar will not all give negative effects. Higher Canadian dollar would mean lower prices for technology and components imported from the USA, and it will give more buying powers for Canadians travelling and shopping abroad. And in the long run, the higher Canadian dollar would signal Canadian firms to be more productive and be more competitive.

Affected firms in the rise of the Canadian dollar

The Canadian industries that will most probably be negatively affected by the rise of the Canadian dollar would be forestry, the auto sector, hospitals and natural gas productions. Industries that would be remaining neutral in the rising of the Canadian dollar would be oil production, banking and utilities. While the industries that would mostly become beneficiaries in the rising of the Canadian dollar would most probably be the Canadian housing market, the Canadian consumer, and certain consumer-related industries as well as US manufacturing.

 

[mayankpandya]

Brain – Gain project launched to help Canada’s economy


As the number of Canadians, mostly young Canadians who leave the country in the hope of getting experience in both academic as well as experience, the number of Canadians who return home have the experience and the knowledge help others in their country and create employment opportunities for the fellow Canadians.

The situation started long ago through some Christian missions in the 19th century which brought a spirit of cooperation among everyone and helped in the promotion of social justice. And Canada is among the first countries to help promote a spirit of cooperativeness to the government and the non-government organizations that started way back in the 1960s when the government gave a grant to a volunteer-sending organization that brought Canadians abroad to get experiences and to help other Canadians in their return home based on the experience they gained in the process.

The government’s strategy in getting Canadians to come back home

Today, as the situation of Canadians going abroad to gain experiences academically as well as job-oriented experiences, the Canadian government has come up ways in luring them to come home and to serve the country and help economic growth.

The “brain-gain” pilot project

The strategy is termed as the “Brain-Gain” program. This program helps native high-skilled Canadian workers that have been away from home and have married non-Canadian people to return to Canada together with their non-Canadian spouse as well as the whole family and help lay a foundation of a long-term economic growth for the country.

This is a pilot project started in Ontario in the hope of getting skilled workers with permanent residence in Ontario can return home together with their families and work for the government. Other non-Canadian people that can apply to the pilot project are the spouses, common-law partners and dependent children that are old enough to work that are sponsored by spouses or parents that are permanent residents of Ontario and are returning home to work as a health professional, or an academic individual for post-secondary public institution in Ontario, since the province has suffered shortages in the health and academic sectors in the recent years.

Occupations that are offered in the pilot project

The open occupations for returning Canadians and their families are positions for health care professionals, specialist physicians, general practitioners as well as people who practice family medicine, dentists, veterinarians, optometrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, dieticians and nutritionists, nurses, licensed practical nurses, medical laboratory technologists, technicians and pathologist’s assistants as well as other health diagnosing and treating professionals, other professions in therapy and assessment, university professors, post-secondary education for public institutions, post-secondary teaching and research assistants and college and other vocational instructors.

The pilot project will operate in May 22, 2012 and is in partnership with the government of Canada and the province of Ontario.

 

[mayankpandya]

Rate Hikes by Canadian banks might lead to Collapse in Canadian Housing Market

The Bank of Canada is now threatening to conduct a rate hike that will be occurring later that could take effect Canada’s housing market.

It could even trigger a multi-year 25% collapse in housing prices. The raise of rates is done to stop inflation. And it is said that in the coming low inflation environment, the debt burden doesn’t go down and as normal rates remain low and the wage growth also slows. This situation will make housing less affordable in the years to come as the debt levels remain high.

The situation of the Canadian housing market if rate hikes progress

The value of houses in Canada is about 5.5 times the leverage disposal income, and the present fair value of a house is about 3.5 times above the price of the disposable income.

The action of rate hike increase would mean that a home owner with a $250,000 mortgage from the new rate of 5.85% with a 25-year amortization would pay about $1,577 per month signifying that the home owner would pay $88 more from paying $1,489 per month before the rate hike.

Rate hike’s effect on Canadian economy

This would mean that if the Bank of Canada will get a rate hike this year, it could easily lead to a house price collapse. And if house prices do fall, the effects on consumer spending and housing investments would be significant and maybe even be strong enough to take the economy into another recession.

Falling home prices could also cause unemployment, because the demand for new and existing homes fall as prices fall. People would often have the option to buy at the top, rather than like a very few, buy at the bottom in any market. Falling prices are seen as negative in the basis of purchasing assets. As prices fall, buyers become scarce.

Also, in the broader economy, wealth effect spending would dry up as home equity extraction is highly correlated with house price increase. The result will be that unemployment is inversely correlated with house prices.

What would be the future of the Canadian housing market

The real problem that this situation will cause is credit deflation. If that would happen, the situation will be more likely to follow the situation between the USA and Japan where real estates has gone bust amidst very low interest rates. And as deflation will pull on employment and wages, commodity price inflation will sap living standards which will not be a pretty sight.

Hopefully, any rate hikes this year will be unwound as a simulative measure as housing and the bigger economy cools down.

 

[donutbox]

Dear all forum members.

In this new thread i request all of you to post any update related to canada .

Hope this thread will be useful to all .

Regards,
Mayank

The info. you have posted so far seems great, but could you also provide the source of the info. that you are posting?

 

[chandi2564]

thanks a lot
good topic,very worth

 

[aaycee]

The info. you have posted so far seems great, but could you also provide the source of the info. that you are posting?

here is a nice source:
muchmormagazine.com

AC

 

[onestar]

Nice
do you have any information
what Canadian immigration is doing for old applicants
like 2004 2005 and 2006