This article appeared in the Los Angeles Times. While some of the comments are an oversimplification of what transpired ( for example, it ignores the major role that commodity price increases had in lowering the massive deficit of the 1990s), the major points are still valid.
Canada's economy in good shape: U.S. could learn from Canada - latimes.com
Canada's economy can teach the U.S. a thing or two
The United States will probably take years to recover from the global recession and credit crunch, economists say, but its northern neighbor is back in fine shape.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times
8:26 PM PDT, July 11, 2010
Reporting from Washington —
Whatever else they've thought about their much smaller neighbor to the north, Americans have almost never looked to Canada as a role model.
Indeed, during the long, bitter push to revamp the U.S. healthcare system, opponents repeatedly warned that, if we weren't careful, we could end up with a medical system like Canada's.
But on healthcare, as well as on such critical issues as the deficit, unemployment, immigration and prospering in the global economy, Canada seems to be outperforming the United States. And in doing so, it is offering examples of successful strategies that Americans might consider.
While the United States, Japan and much of Europe are struggling with massive fiscal deficits, Canada's financial house is tidy and secure. Most economists say it will take years for the United States to make up the 8 million-plus jobs lost during the recession, but Canada — despite its historic role as a major supplier for the still-troubled U.S. auto industry — already has recovered essentially all of the jobs it lost.
Meanwhile, as Americans continue their grueling battle over immigration, Canadians have united behind a policy that emphasizes opening the door to tens of thousands of skilled professionals, entrepreneurs and other productive workers who have played an important role in strengthening the Canadian economy.
Granted, Canada's problem with illegal immigration is smaller, and its economy does not match the scale and dynamic productivity of the world's largest. But on the most troubling issues of the day, the U.S. is locked in near-paralyzing political and ideological debates, while those same issues are hardly raising eyebrows in Canada.
"We did a lot of things right going into the financial crisis," said Glen Hodgson, senior vice president at the Conference Board of Canada, a business-membership and research group in Ottawa.
One of the most important, he said: Back in the 1990s, it cleaned up the fiscal mess that most every developed nation is now facing.
Earlier that decade, Canada too was straining from years of excessive government spending that bloated the nation's total debts, to 70% of annual economic output — a figure the U.S. is projected to approach in two years.
As with Greece, Portugal and Spain this year, Canada's credit rating was downgraded in the early 1990s, sharply raising its borrowing costs. With its economy suffering and pressure mounting from international investors — Wall Street bankers in particular — Canadian officials slashed spending for social programs and shifted more of the cost burden to provincial governments, which almost everyone in Canada felt.
"I had to share a phone line with another professor. Can you believe it?" recalled Wenran Jiang, who joined the University of Alberta's political science faculty in 1993. Professors there and elsewhere also took salary cuts.
It would take several years of such tough medicine, but as Canada headed into the new millennium, the government's total debts were shaved nearly in half, and then whittled down to a little more than 20% of gross domestic product just before the global recession began in 2008 — by far the lowest ratio among major developed countries.
With the economic downturn, Canada pumped up public spending to stimulate growth, as other nations did. Even so, its fiscal shortfall this year is projected at $33 billion, comfortably below the 3%-of-GDP threshold that economists consider a manageable level of debt.
Washington's deficit this fiscal year is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $1.35 trillion — or 9.2% of projected GDP.
The United States' larger size — its population and economy are roughly 10 times those of Canada — makes direct comparisons difficult. And many Canadians readily acknowledge that American entrepreneurship and productivity are enviably stronger.
But having learned to tighten their belts in the 1990s, Canadians such as Michael Gregory have little sympathy for U.S. consumers who pile debt onto their credit cards and homes.
"We've been taught: You don't buy what you can't afford," said Gregory, a senior economist at the Bank of Montreal.
Similarly, Canadian banks have been more conservative than American ones. So they made few subprime loans, and home equity lines are relatively recent offerings in Canada.
Yet their solid if unexciting product lines and financial results mean Canadian firms can now expand lending. This as U.S. banks continue to refrain from extending credit, thus restraining spending, investment and job growth.
Canada's stricter banking regulations and bankruptcy rules certainly have played a role too, but Gregory attributes part of the difference to cultural factors. When he worked for now-defunct Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. in New York in the late 1990s, Gregory drove a Ford minivan or a Toyota Camry, while many of his colleagues tooled around in BMWs and other luxury brands.
"It was consumerism. People spent more money, ate out more, bought more stuff," Gregory said. "I felt awkward."
Canadian firms weren't unscathed by the credit debacle and the global economic retreat. And Canada's strong currency — the loonie is worth just a few cents less than the U.S. dollar — is sure to pinch Canadian exports, much of which head south.
But unlike the United States, where the financial crisis turned into the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, the hit to Canada was fairly mild.
In the final quarter of last year, Canada's GDP surged nearly 5%, rising even higher in this year's first quarter. Growth in the U.S. slowed sharply early this year, heightening fears of a double-dip recession.
"U.S. businesses are certainly looking at lessons learned from Canada," said Bart van Ark, chief economist at the Conference Board in New York. "In a nutshell, Canada has been very pragmatic in dealing with the economy."
Its approach to immigration is one example. With one of the highest immigration rates in the world, Canada has been receiving about 250,000 permanent residents annually. About one-fourth of the new arrivals gain entry through family relations, but more than 60% are admitted as "economic immigrants" — that is, skilled workers, entrepreneurs and investors.
In the U.S., it's basically the reverse: Most of the 1 million-plus permanent residents received annually have been family-sponsored; only about one in seven are admitted on the basis of employment preferences.
That is, Washington emphasizes bringing in family members of immigrants already in the United States. Ottawa put the emphasis on admitting those who can contribute to the economy.
Many Americans, of course, don't see that as the key difference. The estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. are what dominate public discussions of immigration policy.
"The thing about the U.S. is you have a border with Mexico, which Canada doesn't," said Jeffrey Reitz, a sociologist and immigration expert at the University of Toronto.
He figures that as many as 300,000 illegal immigrants reside in Canada, not a small number for a country of its size. But there's no really good estimate, which Reitz views as a reflection of just how little the subject weighs on the nation.
"The big issue is how immigrants, though highly skilled, aren't getting jobs as easily," Reitz said.
As for most Canadians' attitude toward immigration, he said, they seem to know that their country needs new arrivals because of Canada's small population and a birth rate that is lower than in the U.S.
"The vast majority of Canadians accept that immigration is essential to the economic and demographic future of the country, and that openness is a Canadian value," said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. "I know that sounds terribly crazy to us."
Even as some economists in the U.S. have pushed for a Canadian-style system that gives points for higher education, work skills and experience, the policy discussion almost always seems to hinge on illegal immigrants.
"That sucks all the oxygen from the debate," Papademetriou said. As a result, he said, not much policy attention is given to important concerns — increasing visas for skilled workers, enabling people with advanced degrees to obtain residency, adding greater flexibility to the system to better compete in a global economy.
Over the years, Canada in fact has adapted some of the strengths of the U.S. immigration policy, such as the H1B work visa program, to shore up its weaknesses, he said. The H1B program allows employers to bring in foreign workers in specialty occupations on a temporary basis. The U.S., on the other hand, has dealt with its immigration policy like a political hot potato.
"Canada has really outshone the United States," he said. "That's a reality."
Monday, July 12, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
US WORKERS SHOULD SEEK JOBS IN CANADA
Great advice from a popular US publication. Give me a call to help you migrate if you are qualified.
U.S. job seekers should move to Canada
Popular Huffington Post website touts Canada’s booming economy
Published on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010 11:20AM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010 11:31AM EDT
A popular U.S. website has a unique suggestion for Americans desperately seeking work.
The advice? Move to Canada.
There's a fluttering Maple Leaf on the homepage today of the Huffington Post, a site popular for its news and celebrity blogs.
The accompanying headline says: Need A Job? Try Canada, Where Hiring Is Booming And Home Prices Are Rising.
That article comes amid news that Canada's economy added a whopping 93,200 new jobs last month; the U.S., meanwhile, continues to struggle with unemployment woes.
The bottom of the HuffPost article carries a poll, asking people whether they would be willing to move to Canada for work.
The early results of that poll – which is by no means scientific: Fifty-five per cent said they'd move to Canada if that's where the jobs are, while 19 per cent said they'd stay in the States.
The article tells readers: “Stubbornly high unemployment rates got you down? Not sold on the economic recovery? Look no further than America's polite neighbor to the north, where jobs numbers are surging and home prices have been rising steadily for nearly a year.
“Last month, Canada, a nation with roughly one tenth of our population, created about 10,000 more new jobs than America.”
U.S. job seekers should move to Canada
Popular Huffington Post website touts Canada’s booming economy
Published on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010 11:20AM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 09, 2010 11:31AM EDT
A popular U.S. website has a unique suggestion for Americans desperately seeking work.
The advice? Move to Canada.
There's a fluttering Maple Leaf on the homepage today of the Huffington Post, a site popular for its news and celebrity blogs.
The accompanying headline says: Need A Job? Try Canada, Where Hiring Is Booming And Home Prices Are Rising.
That article comes amid news that Canada's economy added a whopping 93,200 new jobs last month; the U.S., meanwhile, continues to struggle with unemployment woes.
The bottom of the HuffPost article carries a poll, asking people whether they would be willing to move to Canada for work.
The early results of that poll – which is by no means scientific: Fifty-five per cent said they'd move to Canada if that's where the jobs are, while 19 per cent said they'd stay in the States.
The article tells readers: “Stubbornly high unemployment rates got you down? Not sold on the economic recovery? Look no further than America's polite neighbor to the north, where jobs numbers are surging and home prices have been rising steadily for nearly a year.
“Last month, Canada, a nation with roughly one tenth of our population, created about 10,000 more new jobs than America.”
CANADA CREATES RECORD JOBS IN JUNE
Confidence: Canadian business has it; U.S. doesn't
Paul Vieira, Financial Post · Friday, Jul. 9, 2010
OTTAWA -- Somebody forgot to tell Canada that the global economy is slowing down and, worse still, at risk of falling into the throes of a double-dip recession.
Jobs data for June were simply “off the charts,” said Michael Gregory, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, in describing the 93,200 gain in employment for the month. The result caps a record three-month performance in terms of employment levels, with 227,000 new jobs added. This gives Canada the honour of being the first Group of Seven economy to nearly recoup the job losses sustained during the recession, and Canada did so at a faster pace than the downturns of the 1980s and 1990s.
The numbers are impressive on their own, and even more so when compared with the mighty U.S. economy, which last month recorded a net job loss of 125,000. Since July of last year, the Canadian economy has added 403,000 net new jobs. Meanwhile, the United States churned out 176,000 positions, and its payrolls remain 5.4% below peak levels.
This gigantic gap between Canada and the United States comes down to one thing.
“The root of it is confidence,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. “In the U.S., employers are not very confident. They are worried. But in Canada, businesses are dealing with a domestic economy that has been far more resilient through the recession. They are feeling quite confident.”
For instance, Mr. Burleton said U.S. companies might be scared off by the size of the trillion-dollar budget shortfalls Congress is racking up on an annual basis, with no clear near-term plan to rein it in especially ahead of mid-term elections. “If you are a company and you are looking to invest, you have to factor in the cost of future tax changes. That’s not driving all the decisions but that is a factor.”
Canada’s deficit has ballooned, but in contrast Ottawa has outlined a strategy to get back to budget balance by mid-decade. In fact, the shortfall for the fiscal year just passed may turn out to be as much as 13% less than the $53-billion forecast, based on preliminary estimates.
Unlike Canada’s recessions of the 1980s and 1990s, this downturn emanated from abroad — the result of excessive risk-taking in real estate by U.S. and European lenders. Canada’s financial system didn’t suffer to the same degree, due to conservative lending practices and tighter regulation, and so it was able to keep credit channels open during the worst of the global downturn.
Canada’s GDP shrank 3.3% from peak to trough during the three-quarter downturn, but that was mostly due to a collapse in global demand. Alas, the manufacturing industry accounting for half the drop in GDP during the recession.
Meanwhile, the services sector hummed along, with employment growth taking off as it dealt with robust domestic demand (expanding at a roughly 5% annualized clip in each of the last three quarters). The service sector accounted for the bulk of new jobs in June, and economists at National Bank Financial noted employment in services is now 2.2% above the pre-recession peak, or the equivalent of 287,000 new jobs.
The strength of the domestic economy will likely push the Bank of Canada to raise its benchmark rate again at its coming July 20 meeting, analysts say. As it was the first G7 member to recoup lost jobs, Canada was also the first to raise interest rates from emergency levels of 0.25%, or the lowest possible level.
The emergency-level rates “helped restore domestic demand since the end of the recession. Now that the goal has been achieved, such a policy is no longer warranted,” said Yanick Desnoyers, assistant chief economist at National Bank Financial.
With analysts agreeing that record-low rates succeeded in spurring job creation, questions emerge as to whether it was necessary for federal and provincial governments to carry out $60-billion-plus in spending to boost what proved to a pretty resilient domestic economy.
“At the time, no one knew where we were headed. Maybe in retrospect the full amount of stimulus wasn’t required, but hindsight in 20/20,” said Mr. Burleton, adding the Conservative government was initially skeptical about stimulus based on the strength they saw in domestic fundamentals.
.
Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/news/Confidence+Canadian+business+doesn/3258751/story.html#ixzz0tHtnEQBJ
Paul Vieira, Financial Post · Friday, Jul. 9, 2010
OTTAWA -- Somebody forgot to tell Canada that the global economy is slowing down and, worse still, at risk of falling into the throes of a double-dip recession.
Jobs data for June were simply “off the charts,” said Michael Gregory, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, in describing the 93,200 gain in employment for the month. The result caps a record three-month performance in terms of employment levels, with 227,000 new jobs added. This gives Canada the honour of being the first Group of Seven economy to nearly recoup the job losses sustained during the recession, and Canada did so at a faster pace than the downturns of the 1980s and 1990s.
The numbers are impressive on their own, and even more so when compared with the mighty U.S. economy, which last month recorded a net job loss of 125,000. Since July of last year, the Canadian economy has added 403,000 net new jobs. Meanwhile, the United States churned out 176,000 positions, and its payrolls remain 5.4% below peak levels.
This gigantic gap between Canada and the United States comes down to one thing.
“The root of it is confidence,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. “In the U.S., employers are not very confident. They are worried. But in Canada, businesses are dealing with a domestic economy that has been far more resilient through the recession. They are feeling quite confident.”
For instance, Mr. Burleton said U.S. companies might be scared off by the size of the trillion-dollar budget shortfalls Congress is racking up on an annual basis, with no clear near-term plan to rein it in especially ahead of mid-term elections. “If you are a company and you are looking to invest, you have to factor in the cost of future tax changes. That’s not driving all the decisions but that is a factor.”
Canada’s deficit has ballooned, but in contrast Ottawa has outlined a strategy to get back to budget balance by mid-decade. In fact, the shortfall for the fiscal year just passed may turn out to be as much as 13% less than the $53-billion forecast, based on preliminary estimates.
Unlike Canada’s recessions of the 1980s and 1990s, this downturn emanated from abroad — the result of excessive risk-taking in real estate by U.S. and European lenders. Canada’s financial system didn’t suffer to the same degree, due to conservative lending practices and tighter regulation, and so it was able to keep credit channels open during the worst of the global downturn.
Canada’s GDP shrank 3.3% from peak to trough during the three-quarter downturn, but that was mostly due to a collapse in global demand. Alas, the manufacturing industry accounting for half the drop in GDP during the recession.
Meanwhile, the services sector hummed along, with employment growth taking off as it dealt with robust domestic demand (expanding at a roughly 5% annualized clip in each of the last three quarters). The service sector accounted for the bulk of new jobs in June, and economists at National Bank Financial noted employment in services is now 2.2% above the pre-recession peak, or the equivalent of 287,000 new jobs.
The strength of the domestic economy will likely push the Bank of Canada to raise its benchmark rate again at its coming July 20 meeting, analysts say. As it was the first G7 member to recoup lost jobs, Canada was also the first to raise interest rates from emergency levels of 0.25%, or the lowest possible level.
The emergency-level rates “helped restore domestic demand since the end of the recession. Now that the goal has been achieved, such a policy is no longer warranted,” said Yanick Desnoyers, assistant chief economist at National Bank Financial.
With analysts agreeing that record-low rates succeeded in spurring job creation, questions emerge as to whether it was necessary for federal and provincial governments to carry out $60-billion-plus in spending to boost what proved to a pretty resilient domestic economy.
“At the time, no one knew where we were headed. Maybe in retrospect the full amount of stimulus wasn’t required, but hindsight in 20/20,” said Mr. Burleton, adding the Conservative government was initially skeptical about stimulus based on the strength they saw in domestic fundamentals.
.
Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/news/Confidence+Canadian+business+doesn/3258751/story.html#ixzz0tHtnEQBJ
IMMIGRATION AND THE LABOUR FORCE
Interesting article from the Montreal Gazette. The debate continues...
Immigration is not a quick fix to fill labour shortages
Immigration is not a quick fix to fill labour shortages
Canada should aim to attract people who can adapt to market changes
By JANET BAGNALL, The Gazette July 9, 2010 It's a miracle that as many as four in five Canadians support immigration, calling it a good thing for the country in a recent poll. For years we've been told our immigration system is dysfunctional: People arrive not knowing either official language; their qualifications don't match Canadian standards; the job vacancies they were brought in to fill have usually vanished in the years it took them to make it through the 800,000-application backlog.
In the same poll, however, Canadians showed little enthusiasm for increasing the number of immigrants to Canada. In their view, the current level of 250,000 newcomers a year should be maintained or even reduced. Pollster Nik Nanos explained the apparent contradiction -immigration is good but only in moderation -by saying that Canadians tend to be in favour of as many immigrants as there are jobs for them.
Getting that balance right -ensuring 1,000 Canadian engineering jobs are open at the precise time that a backlog of 1,000 South Asian engineers is cleared -is impossible.
It is also likely to be detrimental to Canada's long-term goals, according to a new research paper by Jeffrey Reitz, University of Toronto professor of ethnic, immigration, and pluralism studies, part of a report this month from the Conference Board of Canada. But where the board's chief economist, Glen Hodgson, argues in favour of changing Canada's system to give more weight to selecting immigrants on their ability to fill Canada's immediate job needs, Reitz says the country's current approach works well over time.
Under Canada's points-based system, the majority of immigrants have been selected on the basis of a high level of education. The advantage of taking in highly educated people is that they are more likely to be able to cope well with good times and bad. As Reitz explained, they are more resourceful in dealing with problems that come up as they adapt to their new country. When they lose their jobs, they find new ones more quickly. Because they are highly educated, their children also tend to be highly educated.
In Europe and the U.S., Reitz points out, where immigrants are less skilled and have less education, the process of adaptation has been marked by social conflict. Reitz does not think Canada's relatively easy relations between newcomers and native Canadians are a result of multiculturalism. People integrate well when they have jobs and better-educated people have an easier time finding work.
For a long time, Canada's need for immigrants has been viewed as a straightforward equation between jobs that need filling and suitably skilled candidates brought in from elsewhere. The problem with this approach, says Reitz, is that labour markets can change so fast that no system can keep up.
Reitz cites a 2009 Statistics Canada study showing that the continuing decline in immigrant employment in Canada since 2001 might have its roots in the "IT bust," the point at which the high-tech bubble burst throughout North America. Just a few years before, Canada scrambled to find enough skilled workers abroad to fill the information-technology market shortage.
But what looked like a rational response to an urgent need might have added to long-term unemployment among immigrants, wrote Reitz. People with specific skills were brought in only to have the jobs they were to fill vanish.
Arguing against any change in Canada's immigration policy to favour short-term labour-market needs, Reitz points out that Australia, which also uses a points-based system, also ran into trouble when it focused on short-term job needs. In the past few years, it selected two groups of workers whom it felt had better chances of filling market needs: temporary immigrants who already had a job and international students who were already in the country getting local credentials.
But a 2007 survey showed that neither category had the same employment success as immigrants selected abroad on the basis of their education.
If Reitz is right -and Canada is better off choosing highly educated immigrants -that still leaves the thorny problem of needing a better system of recognizing the professional credentials that are the basis of their selection in the first place.
Solving that problem calls on skills that seem to be in short supply in Canada: interprovincial co-operation coupled with the willingness to negotiate a common set of standards for various occupations. Maybe we could import a few experts with those skills.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Immigration+quick+fill+labour+shortages/3254349/story.html#ixzz0tHhpguzG
Immigration is not a quick fix to fill labour shortages
Immigration is not a quick fix to fill labour shortages
Canada should aim to attract people who can adapt to market changes
By JANET BAGNALL, The Gazette July 9, 2010 It's a miracle that as many as four in five Canadians support immigration, calling it a good thing for the country in a recent poll. For years we've been told our immigration system is dysfunctional: People arrive not knowing either official language; their qualifications don't match Canadian standards; the job vacancies they were brought in to fill have usually vanished in the years it took them to make it through the 800,000-application backlog.
In the same poll, however, Canadians showed little enthusiasm for increasing the number of immigrants to Canada. In their view, the current level of 250,000 newcomers a year should be maintained or even reduced. Pollster Nik Nanos explained the apparent contradiction -immigration is good but only in moderation -by saying that Canadians tend to be in favour of as many immigrants as there are jobs for them.
Getting that balance right -ensuring 1,000 Canadian engineering jobs are open at the precise time that a backlog of 1,000 South Asian engineers is cleared -is impossible.
It is also likely to be detrimental to Canada's long-term goals, according to a new research paper by Jeffrey Reitz, University of Toronto professor of ethnic, immigration, and pluralism studies, part of a report this month from the Conference Board of Canada. But where the board's chief economist, Glen Hodgson, argues in favour of changing Canada's system to give more weight to selecting immigrants on their ability to fill Canada's immediate job needs, Reitz says the country's current approach works well over time.
Under Canada's points-based system, the majority of immigrants have been selected on the basis of a high level of education. The advantage of taking in highly educated people is that they are more likely to be able to cope well with good times and bad. As Reitz explained, they are more resourceful in dealing with problems that come up as they adapt to their new country. When they lose their jobs, they find new ones more quickly. Because they are highly educated, their children also tend to be highly educated.
In Europe and the U.S., Reitz points out, where immigrants are less skilled and have less education, the process of adaptation has been marked by social conflict. Reitz does not think Canada's relatively easy relations between newcomers and native Canadians are a result of multiculturalism. People integrate well when they have jobs and better-educated people have an easier time finding work.
For a long time, Canada's need for immigrants has been viewed as a straightforward equation between jobs that need filling and suitably skilled candidates brought in from elsewhere. The problem with this approach, says Reitz, is that labour markets can change so fast that no system can keep up.
Reitz cites a 2009 Statistics Canada study showing that the continuing decline in immigrant employment in Canada since 2001 might have its roots in the "IT bust," the point at which the high-tech bubble burst throughout North America. Just a few years before, Canada scrambled to find enough skilled workers abroad to fill the information-technology market shortage.
But what looked like a rational response to an urgent need might have added to long-term unemployment among immigrants, wrote Reitz. People with specific skills were brought in only to have the jobs they were to fill vanish.
Arguing against any change in Canada's immigration policy to favour short-term labour-market needs, Reitz points out that Australia, which also uses a points-based system, also ran into trouble when it focused on short-term job needs. In the past few years, it selected two groups of workers whom it felt had better chances of filling market needs: temporary immigrants who already had a job and international students who were already in the country getting local credentials.
But a 2007 survey showed that neither category had the same employment success as immigrants selected abroad on the basis of their education.
If Reitz is right -and Canada is better off choosing highly educated immigrants -that still leaves the thorny problem of needing a better system of recognizing the professional credentials that are the basis of their selection in the first place.
Solving that problem calls on skills that seem to be in short supply in Canada: interprovincial co-operation coupled with the willingness to negotiate a common set of standards for various occupations. Maybe we could import a few experts with those skills.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Immigration+quick+fill+labour+shortages/3254349/story.html#ixzz0tHhpguzG
Thursday, July 8, 2010
CONFERENCE BOARD OF CANADA URGES IMMIGRATION REFORMS
Not surprisingly , the Conference Board of Canada urges more emphasis on economic immigrants, tying their immigration to the skills the labour force needs. It makes perfect sense.
Immigration policies must improve to meet economic needs: Report
By Derek Abma, Financial Post
July 7, 2010
OTTAWA — Immigration policies need to be modernized to avoid a stifling of economic growth in the future caused by labour shortages, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.
The Ottawa-based think-tank suggests, among other things, placing more importance on the skills of prospective immigrants and whether they match the labour-force needs of Canada.
The report, written by the Conference Board's chief economist Glen Hodgson, said the recent recession provided some relief from tight labour markets.
However, he predicted the supply of workers will soon become an issue for the country's economic development with steady job growth once again the norm, and the large baby-boomer generation either at or approaching retirement age.
Hodgson wrote: "A country's long-term potential for economic growth, or at least sustainable economic growth, is essentially driven by three factors: growth in the labour force (and total hours worked), investment in physical capital and increased productivity."
He said that while Canada has generally outperformed other industrialized countries in labour-force growth in recent decades, it has lagged in capital investments and improving productivity.
Hodgson reasoned that, without improved immigration policies, Canada will hit a wall in terms of growing the workforce, given that the current birthrate of 1.66 children per woman is far from the level of 2.1 that's considered enough to sustain a population.
The Conference Board report recommends: more weight be given to immigration applicants' skills in relation to Canada's needs: that immigration processes and policies be streamlined between different levels of governments; an expansion in the use of temporary foreign workers to fill short-term needs; involving employers more in the immigration decision-making process; making it easier for temporary foreign workers and foreign students to become permanent residents; and improved recognition of foreign professional credentials.
While promoting more consideration of economic elements in immigration, Hodgson doesn't recommend doing away with other factors such as family unification, humanitarian reasons and protecting refugees.
"An easy way to achieve the economic objective would be to maintain the number of annual immigrants meeting social objectives or criteria and steadily increase the number selected by economic factors," he said.
The Conference Board's report assumes the rate of immigration will grow to about 350,000 per year by 2030 from the government's current target of as much as 265,000.
Despite urging more co-ordinated immigration programs between different levels of government, the Conference Board is not recommending the federal government have a monopoly on this area of public policy.
"Since provincial governments tend to be closer to the ground in terms of their interface with business, their engagement is essential," the report said.
Immigration policies must improve to meet economic needs: Report
By Derek Abma, Financial Post
July 7, 2010
OTTAWA — Immigration policies need to be modernized to avoid a stifling of economic growth in the future caused by labour shortages, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.
The Ottawa-based think-tank suggests, among other things, placing more importance on the skills of prospective immigrants and whether they match the labour-force needs of Canada.
The report, written by the Conference Board's chief economist Glen Hodgson, said the recent recession provided some relief from tight labour markets.
However, he predicted the supply of workers will soon become an issue for the country's economic development with steady job growth once again the norm, and the large baby-boomer generation either at or approaching retirement age.
Hodgson wrote: "A country's long-term potential for economic growth, or at least sustainable economic growth, is essentially driven by three factors: growth in the labour force (and total hours worked), investment in physical capital and increased productivity."
He said that while Canada has generally outperformed other industrialized countries in labour-force growth in recent decades, it has lagged in capital investments and improving productivity.
Hodgson reasoned that, without improved immigration policies, Canada will hit a wall in terms of growing the workforce, given that the current birthrate of 1.66 children per woman is far from the level of 2.1 that's considered enough to sustain a population.
The Conference Board report recommends: more weight be given to immigration applicants' skills in relation to Canada's needs: that immigration processes and policies be streamlined between different levels of governments; an expansion in the use of temporary foreign workers to fill short-term needs; involving employers more in the immigration decision-making process; making it easier for temporary foreign workers and foreign students to become permanent residents; and improved recognition of foreign professional credentials.
While promoting more consideration of economic elements in immigration, Hodgson doesn't recommend doing away with other factors such as family unification, humanitarian reasons and protecting refugees.
"An easy way to achieve the economic objective would be to maintain the number of annual immigrants meeting social objectives or criteria and steadily increase the number selected by economic factors," he said.
The Conference Board's report assumes the rate of immigration will grow to about 350,000 per year by 2030 from the government's current target of as much as 265,000.
Despite urging more co-ordinated immigration programs between different levels of government, the Conference Board is not recommending the federal government have a monopoly on this area of public policy.
"Since provincial governments tend to be closer to the ground in terms of their interface with business, their engagement is essential," the report said.
STRANGE STORY, BUT NOT UNCOMMON
This is a very strange and twisted story which appeared in the Times of India. As long as sponsorship applications for spouses continue to be a much faster route to Canada than Skilled Worker applications in many developing nations, stories like this will undoubtedly continue to be in the limelight.
For Canadian immigration, Punjab woman marries father, son - India - The Times of India
For Canadian immigration, Punjab woman marries father, son
IANS, Jul 7, 2010, 12.00pm IST
CHANDIGARH: This is one idea that may not have struck even story writers in Bollywood. In her desperate bid to get Canadian immigration, a woman from Punjab conned a millionaire father as well as his son into marrying her.
But her plans seem to have gone awry with not only the NRI father-son duo but also the Chandigarh Police now looking for her.
Cases against her include cheating two men in marriage, getting a fake passport made with forged documents and even involvement in a murder case in Uttar Pradesh. Chandigarh Police's operations cell officials do not rule out her links with terrorists either.
The 'mystery' of the woman, Priya Inder Kaur, has baffled the father-son duo and Chandigarh Police as not much is known about her. The woman is on the run after dumping them and eloping with yet another man.
Kaur married NRI Rajinder Singh Mann, aged around 60 years, in 2001 after staying in his house in Chandigarh's upscale Sector 11 as a tenant for a few months.
It all began after Mann, who had divorced his Canadian wife earlier, started living in Chandigarh in 2001. That's when he met Kaur who came to stay in his house as a tenant. Mann tried to get her antecedents verified but when he failed to do so, he turned her out of the house.
The woman approached him again a few months later and sought help with a job. Taking 'pity' on her, Mann employed her as a helper in his house. The two became close and married in September 2001.
"She thought that being an NRI, I would take her to Canada. But when I told her that I had no plans of going back to Canada soon, she started behaving weirdly and finally divorced me in February 2002," Mann said.
Mann did not hear from Kaur for over two years after that.
In 2004, she came to his house again. Since Mann was not at home, she met his son, Rajan Mann, born from the marriage to his Canadian wife. On learning that Rajan was a Canadian citizen, Kaur befriended him over the next few weeks.
"They went to Leh for a holiday and later got married. She did not let him (Rajan) know that she had earlier married and divorced me. She thought that Rajan would take her to Canada after the marriage. I was staying in my house in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) at that time," Mann said.
When Mann came to know of his son's marriage to Kaur and told his son about the earlier marriage, Rajan was shocked and divorced her.
Having lodged a complaint of cheating and forgery against Kaur, Mann and his son came to know that she had even approached the Canadian embassy in New Delhi to work out her immigration to Canada as Rajan's wife.
Operations cell investigating officer Malkit Singh told IANS: "We are investigating the matter. It is a serious matter. All her given addresses have not led us anywhere. Neither she nor her family members live there."
Police officials say that Kaur was also wanted for her involvement in a murder case in Uttar Pradesh.
For Canadian immigration, Punjab woman marries father, son - India - The Times of India
For Canadian immigration, Punjab woman marries father, son
IANS, Jul 7, 2010, 12.00pm IST
CHANDIGARH: This is one idea that may not have struck even story writers in Bollywood. In her desperate bid to get Canadian immigration, a woman from Punjab conned a millionaire father as well as his son into marrying her.
But her plans seem to have gone awry with not only the NRI father-son duo but also the Chandigarh Police now looking for her.
Cases against her include cheating two men in marriage, getting a fake passport made with forged documents and even involvement in a murder case in Uttar Pradesh. Chandigarh Police's operations cell officials do not rule out her links with terrorists either.
The 'mystery' of the woman, Priya Inder Kaur, has baffled the father-son duo and Chandigarh Police as not much is known about her. The woman is on the run after dumping them and eloping with yet another man.
Kaur married NRI Rajinder Singh Mann, aged around 60 years, in 2001 after staying in his house in Chandigarh's upscale Sector 11 as a tenant for a few months.
It all began after Mann, who had divorced his Canadian wife earlier, started living in Chandigarh in 2001. That's when he met Kaur who came to stay in his house as a tenant. Mann tried to get her antecedents verified but when he failed to do so, he turned her out of the house.
The woman approached him again a few months later and sought help with a job. Taking 'pity' on her, Mann employed her as a helper in his house. The two became close and married in September 2001.
"She thought that being an NRI, I would take her to Canada. But when I told her that I had no plans of going back to Canada soon, she started behaving weirdly and finally divorced me in February 2002," Mann said.
Mann did not hear from Kaur for over two years after that.
In 2004, she came to his house again. Since Mann was not at home, she met his son, Rajan Mann, born from the marriage to his Canadian wife. On learning that Rajan was a Canadian citizen, Kaur befriended him over the next few weeks.
"They went to Leh for a holiday and later got married. She did not let him (Rajan) know that she had earlier married and divorced me. She thought that Rajan would take her to Canada after the marriage. I was staying in my house in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) at that time," Mann said.
When Mann came to know of his son's marriage to Kaur and told his son about the earlier marriage, Rajan was shocked and divorced her.
Having lodged a complaint of cheating and forgery against Kaur, Mann and his son came to know that she had even approached the Canadian embassy in New Delhi to work out her immigration to Canada as Rajan's wife.
Operations cell investigating officer Malkit Singh told IANS: "We are investigating the matter. It is a serious matter. All her given addresses have not led us anywhere. Neither she nor her family members live there."
Police officials say that Kaur was also wanted for her involvement in a murder case in Uttar Pradesh.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
SAD SPONSORSHIP FRAUD CASES COMMON
Here is typical sponsorship fraud case. When sponsorships are a fast ticket to Canada and allow applcants much faster immigration than for Skilled Workers, Entrepreneurs and Investors, it is little wonder that they have become the target of choice for fraudsters who dupe sponsors acting in good faith with promises of "love" and a future together. Instead, sponsors often find heartbreak and financial ruin instead. If you aer a victim of sponsorship fraud, contact a good immigration lawyer and take steps to defend your legal rights and protect society from this scourge,. Do not remain silent.
The case of the vanishing groom - thestar.com
July 6, 2010
The case of the vanishing groom
By Raveena Aulakh Staff Reporter
Woman with polio fights for spouse, only to find she's been used
Ashpreet Badwal had played the reunion in her mind countless times: Her new husband, Manjit Shahi, would walk through customs at Pearson International Airport, see her waiting there and gather her up in his arms. Or, they would meet, embrace and cry their hearts out.
Instead, Shahi walked through customs at Pearson on June 28 and vanished. Badwal never even saw him - because he had fled.
"He phoned while I was still at the airport, and said that I'll never see him again," said Badwal, 35. "He said he didn't need me any more . . . this, after all I've done to bring him to Canada."
He also threatened to harm her if she complained to the police or immigration authorities, she said.
Fraudulent marriages are not a new phenomenon in the South Asian community; dozens of cases have been reported in past years where people get married so they can immigrate, and once here abandon their spouses.
But this case has hit a new low: Badwal, who was left in a wheelchair by polio, spent thousands of dollars successfully appealing an earlier decision by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to reject her application to sponsor Shahi.
Badwal met Shahi, 30, online in 2006. She lived in Brampton; he lived in a dusty village in Punjab, India. Soon, they exchanged photographs and were chatting on the phone. In November 2007, Badwal, who then worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, went to India and they got married.
"I totally believed he was the right person for me," said Badwal. "He was open-minded, nice, attentive ..."
She returned to Canada and, in March 2008, filed an application to sponsor him. In December, the application was rejected because of the age difference and compatibility issues, said Badwal.
She hired a Bay Street law firm, Green and Spiegel, to fight her case, and won on appeal.
On June 26, Shahi got his Canadian visa. Two days later, he was on a British Airways flight to Toronto. But Badwal, who had been dreaming of this day for years, never even caught a glimpse of him.
It had never crossed her mind that Shahi was marrying her as a way to get into Canada, Badwal said. "Of course, I know it happens but there was no indication that he was planning this . . . "
At first distraught, then angry, Badwal contacted police and CIC on Friday.
Peel Regional Police would not say whether they are investigating.
Doug Kellam, an immigration spokesperson, said he could not comment on a specific case because of privacy issues but said the Canada Border Services Agency can investigate such cases.
"A person in this sort of situation ... might very well be taken to inquiry and may be ordered removed," said Kellam. He couldn't provide statistics on how many complaints are lodged about fraudulent marriages.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is "looking at this program at a whole because it's very, very hard on people," said Kellam. "He is consulting with different groups and looking at possibilities of how the law might be structured to deal with this kind of a situation."
It's not only men who undertake fraudulent marriages. In 2009, a Brampton man launched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government for failing to investigate and deport foreigners who trick Canadians into marriages of convenience. Saranjeet Benet, a 38-year-old electrician, founded the non-profit group Canadians Against Immigration Fraud when his wife allegedly abandoned him a month after she arrived in Canada.
Fraudulent marriage or not, a Canadian sponsor remains obligated financially for a foreign spouse for up to three years, under the terms of sponsorship. If the spouse ends up on government assistance, the sponsor must repay the government and risks being denied future sponsorships.
That's a nuisance, Badwal acknowledged. But the reason she is coming forward about what happened to her is that "everyone should know how shameless some people are . . . and the depths to which they will fall," she said.
"I just hope he's kicked out of Canada soon."
The case of the vanishing groom - thestar.com
July 6, 2010
The case of the vanishing groom
By Raveena Aulakh Staff Reporter
Woman with polio fights for spouse, only to find she's been used
Ashpreet Badwal had played the reunion in her mind countless times: Her new husband, Manjit Shahi, would walk through customs at Pearson International Airport, see her waiting there and gather her up in his arms. Or, they would meet, embrace and cry their hearts out.
Instead, Shahi walked through customs at Pearson on June 28 and vanished. Badwal never even saw him - because he had fled.
"He phoned while I was still at the airport, and said that I'll never see him again," said Badwal, 35. "He said he didn't need me any more . . . this, after all I've done to bring him to Canada."
He also threatened to harm her if she complained to the police or immigration authorities, she said.
Fraudulent marriages are not a new phenomenon in the South Asian community; dozens of cases have been reported in past years where people get married so they can immigrate, and once here abandon their spouses.
But this case has hit a new low: Badwal, who was left in a wheelchair by polio, spent thousands of dollars successfully appealing an earlier decision by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to reject her application to sponsor Shahi.
Badwal met Shahi, 30, online in 2006. She lived in Brampton; he lived in a dusty village in Punjab, India. Soon, they exchanged photographs and were chatting on the phone. In November 2007, Badwal, who then worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, went to India and they got married.
"I totally believed he was the right person for me," said Badwal. "He was open-minded, nice, attentive ..."
She returned to Canada and, in March 2008, filed an application to sponsor him. In December, the application was rejected because of the age difference and compatibility issues, said Badwal.
She hired a Bay Street law firm, Green and Spiegel, to fight her case, and won on appeal.
On June 26, Shahi got his Canadian visa. Two days later, he was on a British Airways flight to Toronto. But Badwal, who had been dreaming of this day for years, never even caught a glimpse of him.
It had never crossed her mind that Shahi was marrying her as a way to get into Canada, Badwal said. "Of course, I know it happens but there was no indication that he was planning this . . . "
At first distraught, then angry, Badwal contacted police and CIC on Friday.
Peel Regional Police would not say whether they are investigating.
Doug Kellam, an immigration spokesperson, said he could not comment on a specific case because of privacy issues but said the Canada Border Services Agency can investigate such cases.
"A person in this sort of situation ... might very well be taken to inquiry and may be ordered removed," said Kellam. He couldn't provide statistics on how many complaints are lodged about fraudulent marriages.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is "looking at this program at a whole because it's very, very hard on people," said Kellam. "He is consulting with different groups and looking at possibilities of how the law might be structured to deal with this kind of a situation."
It's not only men who undertake fraudulent marriages. In 2009, a Brampton man launched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government for failing to investigate and deport foreigners who trick Canadians into marriages of convenience. Saranjeet Benet, a 38-year-old electrician, founded the non-profit group Canadians Against Immigration Fraud when his wife allegedly abandoned him a month after she arrived in Canada.
Fraudulent marriage or not, a Canadian sponsor remains obligated financially for a foreign spouse for up to three years, under the terms of sponsorship. If the spouse ends up on government assistance, the sponsor must repay the government and risks being denied future sponsorships.
That's a nuisance, Badwal acknowledged. But the reason she is coming forward about what happened to her is that "everyone should know how shameless some people are . . . and the depths to which they will fall," she said.
"I just hope he's kicked out of Canada soon."
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