Canada announces new funding to help newcomers settle in Ontario and improve language skills

To help newcomers settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in partnership with provinces, territories and settlement providers, has been delivering programs and services to migrants of more than 40 nationalities for over 16 years, and providing stakeholders necessary funding to support these initiatives.

For this purpose, a new settlement funding of over $10 million has been announced to help six partner agencies delivering settlement and integration services to new immigrants in the city of Ottawa, Ontario. This funding, which is provided under the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA), will cover the period of next two years through to 2010, and expected to help more than 1,300 migrants who have settled in the capital city of Canada. The services will include helping migrants find jobs (such as job-search workshops) and assisting them in getting general orientation, translation and interpretation services. The funding will also help migrants with referrals to community resources and counseling services.

The six partner agencies in the city of Ottawa, who will receive a portion of $10 million, include Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization ($3,880,570), Catholic Immigration Center ($2,219,030), Ottawa Catholic School Board ($74,315), LASI World Skills Inc. ($1,652,218), Ottawa YM/YWCA ($2,187,496) and Ottawa Public Library ($464,202).

Similarly, a new settlement funding of over $13.3 million has been announced for seven partner agencies in the Windsor and surrounding area to deliver settlement services, including language training and employment-related support, to new immigrants. This funding will cover the period of next two years, and expected to help an estimated 7,500 migrants who have settled in the Windsor area. These seven agencies include the following: Adult Language and Learning ($391,070), College Boreal ($354,474), Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County ($1,668,263), New Canadians’ Center of Excellence Inc. ($7,704,816), South Essex Community Council ($368,995), Women’s Enterprise Skills Training ($469,135) and YMCA of Windsor and Essex County ($13,367,936).

Another funding, totaling $4,169,211, has been announced for the Afghan Association of Ontario and the Afghan Women’s Counseling and Integration Community Support Organization to assist in delivering settlement and integration services to newcomers in Greater Toronto Area. This funding is expected to serve an estimated 5,500 people with settlement services such as language training (including a child-minding services for participating parents) and employment-related support.

Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area will also receive a funding of $3.2 million, which will go towards developing and delivering brand new English-language training services to meet the increasingly diverse needs of newcomers. The funding is being provided under the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program, and expected to serve more than 250 newcomers in this area.

These funding for settlement and language training to Ontario are provided under the $920 million COIA over five years and are part of $1.4 billion package over five years to provinces and territories other than Quebec, which was committed by the Canadian federal government in budget 2006.

Canada admits highest number of temporary and permanent residents in its history of immigration

According to the preliminary year-end figures for 2007 by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Canada accepted the highest number of temporary and permanent residents in 2007 during its entire history of immigration.

A total of 429,649 permanent residents, temporary foreign workers and foreign students entered in Canada in 2007, a fourteen per cent increase over the previous four years.

Over 251,000 people immigrated to Canada on permanent basis in 2007. This number was within the planning target range of 240,000 to 265,000 new immigrants. By year’s end, more than 94 per cent visa holders had arrived in Canada.

A 12 per cent increase in the number of temporary foreign workers accounts for much of the increase in the overall number of temporary and permanent residents admitted in 2007. This sharp increase in labor demand could be translated into a fast growing economy, which will continue to grow in the next few years. The most recent Census indicates that in the past five years, Canada’s population grew by 1.6 million—with 1.1 million being the result of immigration. By 2012, immigration is expected to account for all net growth in country’s labor force.

With strong job growth and low unemployment, Canadian businesses are increasingly focusing on foreign workers to help fill regional labor shortages. Canadian employers added 43,300 net new employees to their work forces in the month of February, just under the 46,400 that were added in January and well above last year’s monthly average of 31,000. February job creation overwhelmed economist expectations of only 3,000 net new jobs in the month. This strong jobs performance brought Canada’s employment rate to a record high of 63.9 per cent and maintained the country’s 33-year low unemployment rate of 5.9 per cent.

A 4.6 percent increase in the number of foreign students admitted in 2007 was also seen. A number of factors account for the continued strength of foreign registrations. These include strong economic growth in leading Asian countries, such as China; new university marketing strategies to counter competition from institutions in other countries; changes in immigration policies; and provincial agreements with other countries to attract foreign students.

Canada plans to introduce new legislation for tackling the massive backlog of migrants

To improve the responsiveness of Canada’s immigration system and better align it with the immediate and longer-term needs of labor market, Canadian government is planning to introduce an amendment to country’s existing immigration laws in few days.

The new legislation will limit the number of applications accepted and processed annually.

As outlined in the budget for financial year 2008-09, this dramatic change in policy was expected. The backlog of nearly 900,000 immigration applications around the world has increased the application wait times more than 20 per cent since 2004. Consequently, this delay in application process is taking approximately four to six years for a new case to be finalized. This situation was demanding an overhaul for many years. In this year’s budget, government has pledged $22 million investment over two years, growing to $37 million per year, to modernize the existing immigration system.

The budget implementation bill will include a legislative change that gives the immigration minister the authority to manage the size of the backlog and set limits.

By limiting the number of new applications accepted and processed annually, this new legislation will help to speed up the processing of permanent resident applications, ensuring shorter wait times and making Canada’s immigration system more competitive by improving Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). The proposed changes are designed to establish a "just-in-time" immigration system, where the wait time is reduced to an average of a year.

However, this policy change could shut out a large number of prospective immigrants, especially low skilled, from Canadian immigration. It is widely being claimed by the government's political opponents, however, that this proposal will be used to fast-track few targeted categories of economic migrants but deter family reunifications, or cases where immigrants are admitted on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

The legislative change is among a host of other recent reforms designed to reduce wait times. One is creating SWAT teams who can be transferred to process files from countries or immigration categories where the wait is longest. Another is allowing Canadian officials stationed abroad in quieter posts to process paperwork filed in immigration hot spots.

The government is also creating a new category of immigrant - the Canadian Experience Class. Under that category, temporary residents such as highly skilled workers and foreign students would be allowed to remain in Canada post-graduation while they apply for permanent residence.

Canada announces new funding to strengthen support for women and the economy

To help immigrant women settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society, the Canadian government, in partnership with settlement agencies, has been delivering customized and culturally sensitive support in their process of settlement and integration in Canada, and providing stakeholders necessary funding to support these initiatives.

For this purpose, a new funding of over $3.4 million has been announced to help 4 partner agencies delivering settlement and integration services to new immigrant women in Ontario and Alberta. The services will include helping migrant women find jobs and assisting them in getting general orientation, referrals to community resources and counseling services. The funding will also help migrant women acquire training for non-traditional careers.

In Toronto, YMCA Korean Community Services and the Korean Canadian Women’s Association (KCWA) Family and Social Services will receive $684,000 jointly. The funding will be used to deliver settlement assistance to approximately 1,600 newcomer women, including help in finding a job, language training and counseling.

This settlement funding to a Toronto-based organization is being provided under the $920 million Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA), which was committed by the Canadian federal government in budget 2006.

As part of $1.4 billion ‘additional settlement funding package’ to provinces and territories other than Quebec, the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association in Calgary will receive a total of $1,460,142 to assist in delivering settlement services to immigrant women, including orientation, referrals to community resources, general information and employment-related assistance. This funding will specifically be used to provide newcomer women with one-on-one counseling services to help them as they transition to their new lives.The funding is expected to serve more than 1,000 newcomer women.

For 2008–2009, Alberta will be receiving more than $47 million in basic settlement funding.

Women Building Futures (WBF) Training Center of Alberta will also receive an additional investment of more than $1.3 million, which will go towards extending the pre-apprenticeship training facility to more low-income women. This 16 week training program help women reach their full potential in non-traditional careers and supply apprenticeship-ready women worker for Alberta’s construction industry. This investment will further assist the conversion of a 45,000 square-foot warehouse into a teaching center to support the WBF training program and accept more trainees.

So far, WBF has graduated more than 250 low-income women. After the extension in training facility, which is scheduled to open in April 2008, WBF can increase its capacity to help 400 women per year become qualified apprentices and skilled workers, which will strengthen Alberta's labor force. WBF is recognized by industry as a supplier of quality, apprenticeship-ready tradespeople. The new funding of more than $1.3 million will bring total federal funding to $2,493,977.

Canada stacks up favorably against other industrialized countries in terms of university and college education combined

In its latest report from 2006 census, Statistics Canada has revealed that country had the most degrees, diplomas and certificates, in terms of university and college education combined, among all OECD countries. Released on March 4, 2008, this report actually sixth in series and focuses on labor, occupation, workplace, mode of transportation, language of work and education.

Here in this part, few interesting figures of this report are being presented to help you know the Educational Portrait of Canada:

• The number of Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64 who chose to get a university degree has risen by 24 per cent since 2001. The biggest increase was in the number of adults who had a master’s degree.
• Among 17,382,100 Canadian in the age group of 25 to 64, some 33 per cent of women held a university degree compared to 25 per cent of men in 2006, although that number just about evens out in the 35- to 44-year old age group.
• Overall 26 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 64 who lived in an urban setting in 2006 had a university degree, compared to 11 per cent of university graduates living in rural communities.
• Rural communities, on the other hand, had a larger proportion of their population educated in trades. About 17 per cent of rural residents had a trade certificate, compared to 11 per cent of urban Canadians.
• Majority of the university graduates are concentrated in Canada’s 16 out of 33 Census Metropolitan Area (CMAs), where this figure has surpassed the national average of 23 per cent. Ottawa-Gatineau topped the list with 35 per cent of its population are university graduates. The nation's capital region was followed closely by Toronto, where university graduates represented 34 per cent of the population and then Calgary and Vancouver, both at 31 per cent.
• The most popular field of study for male and female post-secondary students was business, management and marketing with one out of every five students choosing to study these areas. Approximately 1,357,200 women graduated in these fields compared to just over 801,600 men.
• The smallest increase was in the number of people choosing to get a degree in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or optometry.
• 51 per cent or 349,800 of “recent immigrants” (arrived between 2001 and 2006) to Canada hold a significantly higher number of university degrees than the Canadian-born population that is just 20 per cent in comparison. Among immigrants who settled in Canada prior to 2001, 28 per cent had a university degree.
• Of recent immigrants, 25 per cent hold a degree in engineering, 19 per cent in business, management, marketing and related support services, and 6 per cent in computer and information sciences.
• Almost 40 per cent of these recent immigrants hold a master’s degree while 49 per cent were PhDs qualified.
• 16 per cent of doctorate or master’s degree holders earned their degrees in Canada, while around 14 per cent got it in the United States. Another 14 per cent studied in India and 10 per cent earned their doctorate or master’s degree in China.
• An increasing trend of inter-provisional migration in university degree holders showed that about 33 per cent of the highly educated adults were moved to another province or territory between 2001 and 2006.
• Alberta benefited the most from this inter-provincial migration with the largest inflow, approximately 28,000, of post-secondary graduates, while Ontario suffered the biggest outflow of this educated workforce.
• In New Brunswick, just 53 per cent of the adult population aged 25 to 64 were post-secondary graduates in 2006 that is the lowest number of all the provinces.
• Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest number of adults in that age category with a university degree and the highest proportion of adults who did not have a high school diploma.
• Nova Scotia had the highest proportion of adults, about 20 per cent, aged 25 to 64 with a university degree.
• Prince Edward Island had the most college diplomas, at 24 per cent.
• In Quebec, about 18 per cent of the adult population had a trades certificate, the largest proportion of all provinces and territories.
• Ontario had the highest proportion (26 per cent of the adult population) of university graduates among the provinces, partly because of the high number of immigrants who settle in that province.
• Of all the provinces, British Columbia had the highest proportion that studied outside of Canada.

Canada grants visa-free status to four more new member states of EU

With immediate effect, Canada has lifted visa requirements for the citizens of Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary to visit Canada.

The decision is part of a continuing negotiations between Canada and the European Commission over removing visa requirements for the nine out of twelve most recent European Union (EU) members. Canada and the EU had a reciprocal visa-free status for visitors until 2004, when Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Poland joined the EU, following Romania and Bulgaria in 2007.

After extension in the EU in 2004, Canada did not remove the visa requirements for new member states due to a possible influx of illegal workers or refugee claimants. In past, Canada was granted visa-free status to the Czech Republic and Hungary but Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) was inundated with refugee claims from these two countries. This visa-free status was reinstated for the Czech Republic and Hungary in 1997 and 2001 respectively. Canada continued this practice for two more member states joined the EU in the beginning of 2007.

However, due to a growing demand from the European Commission for tangible progress towards reciprocity, Canada outlined nine criteria last year that will have to be met before the affected countries are exempted from visa requirements. This allows Canada to consider each country's recent history in terms of visa refusal rate, immigration violation rates, and number of refugee claims while these countries share information with Canada and must demonstrate that their passport systems are up to international standards. CIC representatives made technical visits to the affected countries in November 2006 and February 2007 to explain the nine criteria to government representatives.

As a result, visa requirements were dropped for the citizens of Estonia in 2006 and the Czech Republic and Latvia in 2007. After dropping the visa requirements for Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary, Canada now has a reciprocal visa-free status for 25 out of 27 EU member countries. CIC will continue to work in cooperation with the two remaining countries, Bulgaria and Romania, with the goal of having visa-free travel for all EU citizens.

In 2006, there were 33,363 temporary resident visas issued for citizens of Poland, 3,780 for citizens of Slovakia, 989 for citizens of Lithuania and 6,385 for citizens of Hungary.

To guard against abuse of older passports, by January 2009, travelers from Poland and Lithuania will be required to carry a more secure e-passport for visa-free travel.

Canadian government pledges to improve the responsiveness of immigration system

In its budget for financial year 2008-09, the Canadian government has pledged $22 million investment over two years, growing to $37 million per year, to modernize the existing immigration system.

Canada’s immigration system has been in need of repair for many years. Due to the growing backlog of 850,000 applications, the immigration wait times has been surged more than 20 per cent since 2004. It is expected that the new funding will not only improve the responsiveness of Canada’s immigration system but also better align it with the immediate and longer-term needs of labor market.

This funding will be used to support immigration initiatives such as legislation to speed up the processing of permanent resident applications, ensuring shorter wait times and making Canada’s immigration system more competitive by improving Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

To improve the Canada’s competitive position, as outlined in Advantage Canada, budget 2008-09 will (a) support Canadian students with a $350 million investment in 2009–10, rising to $430 million by 2012–13, in a new, consolidated Canada Student Grant Program that will reach 245,000 college and undergraduate students per year when it takes effect in the fall of 2009; (b) commit $123 million over four years starting in 2009–10 to “streamline and modernize” the Canada Student Loans Program; (c) enhance the flexibility of Registered Education Savings Plans by increasing the time they may remain open to 35 years from 25 years, and by extending the maximum contribution period by 10 years; (d) provide $25 million over two years to establish a new Canada Graduate Scholarship award for top Canadian and international doctoral students; (e) provide $3 million over two years to establish a new international study stipend for Canada Graduate Scholarship recipients who wish to study at international institutions; and (f) strengthen the ability of Canadian universities to attract and retain top science leaders with $21 million over two years to establish up to 20 Canada Global Excellence Research Chairs.

A Tax-Free Savings Account will also be introduced, that allows Canadians to contribute up to $5,000 a year to the account. Investment income and capital gains will not be taxed and withdrawals will be tax-free. Budget 2008-09 will also expand the list of eligible expenses under the Medical Expense Tax Credit.

A higher-security electronic passport by 2011 with a validity period of 10 years is also announced. Budget 2008-09 is also committing $6 million to support plans to introduce enhanced driver’s license and $26 million to introduce the use of biometric data into visas issued to foreign national entering Canada.