Reisch drove to Vermont to visit friends for the holidays and realized as he approached the border that he forgot his passport. He had a scan of it saved on his iPad and showed it to the border officer.

“There was a slight hesitation, he didn’t really seem like he was impressed,” Reisch said, but after a few minutes’ wait, he was allowed through the border checkpoint.

The anecdote is troubling because a scanned copy of a passport “is not a secure document,” said MP Brian Masse.

“That could be altered, and could also lead to some precedents that would jeopardize [border] security,” said Masse, NDP critic for US-Canada border relations.

However, Masse added, electronic passports could be implemented in future with safety features.

In the meantime, Reisch said, he hopes his iPad scan or a similar facsimile becomes as common as using a smartphone for airplane tickets.

“I’m a huge believer in technology,” he said.

In a statement sent to CBC, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it does allow several pieces of identification at the Canadian border. The list does not include a passport scan.

Weather network meteorologist Chris Scott said the month of December has seen unusual conditions prevail from coast to coast. Temperatures have hovered around average levels for coastal B.C., but the area hasn’t seen the usual precipitation that falls at this time of year, he said.

“Once you head east of the Rockies, pretty much every Canadian city has been well above normal by some five or six degrees,” Scott said in a telephone interview. “That’s significant. When we end up being five or six degrees above normal for a month, everyone notices it.”

The network is predicting December’s trends will last right through Christmas, and is calling for little to no snow across the country. Scott said residents in the St. Lawrence Valley may see a hint of white on Christmas morning after receiving a few flurries over the weekend.

Environment Canada’s prognosis for a white Christmas is somewhat more positive for some areas, notably the Atlantic provinces.

The national weather agency is calling for either flurries or light snow in parts of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

The Weather Network’s forecasts, however, fit into a larger pattern that Environment Canada noted earlier this month. Snowfall data between 1964 and 2009 suggest the odds of experiencing a white Christmas decreased markedly in recent decades.

In Edmonton, Saskatoon and Quebec City, where a white Christmas was all but a certainty between 1964 and 1982, the probability of a snowbound holiday has fallen sharply between 1991 and 2009.

Quebec City’s chances have slipped to 95 per cent, Saskatoon’s to 89 per cent and Edmonton to 79 per cent. The steepest drop, however, was in Sarnia, Ont., where the odds of a white Christmas, once three in four, are now less than one in three.

Senior climatologist David Phillips previously attributed the changes to global warming, which he said has made itself felt in even the coldest regions of the country.

“The one season that truly is not what it used to be is winter,” he said. “I had this argument with old-timers years ago. They’d say, ‘We don’t think the winters are what they used to be,” and I’d say, ‘Nonsense.’ But they’ve been right.”

Canadians disappointed by the lack of snow on Christmas Day may find their wishes granted early in the new year instead, Scott said, adding the network is calling for conditions to shift in January.

“Generally speaking you can’t hold a given weather pattern for more than about a month. Things will somewhat reset,” he said. “We’ve been in this mild weather pattern, . . .but there will be a point at which that will break.”

Muchmor Canada would like to wish all our readers and visitors

“A Very Happy Christmas and Happy New Year”

That’s the lowest price rise this year. From February through July, CREA’s monthly reports showed housing prices rising more than eight per cent over 2010.

The hottest provincial market in November was Newfoundland and Labrador, where prices were up 12 per cent from the same month in 2010. At the back of the pack was Prince Edward Island, where the average resale home price dropped 11.1 per cent.

At the municipal level, prices jumped more than 10 per cent year-over-year in the Ontario communities of Thunder Bay, Hamilton/Burlington and St. Catharines, in Quebec’s Saguenay region and in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa.

“While certainly not gangbuster numbers, these are respectable turnouts given the volatile economic backdrop that has characterized the global economy this year,” Francis Fong of TD Economics said in a note.

Fong said that when the final numbers come in for all of 2011, he expects housing prices will show a seven to eight per cent rise for the year. Next year, though, he’s forecasting a one to two per cent drop amid a deceleration in income and job growth.

A recent report in the Economist magazine suggests Canadian homes are 29 per cent overvalued, rising at one of the fastest paces among the 20 countries surveyed. Since 2007, prices are up 22 per cent, it determined.

Vancouver is most expensive by far

Once again, the country’s most expensive homes by far were in Vancouver, where the average non-seasonally-adjusted sale price in November was more than $728,000. That beat Victoria at $499,676, B.C.’s Fraser Valley at $478,968 and Toronto at $480,421. The cheapest homes were in Trois-Rivières, Que., at $147,046.

Sales volumes nationally were up five per cent over last year, while the number of new listings increased 2.7 per cent. Compared with the month before, however, November saw a slowdown in new listings by a seasonally adjusted 3.4 per cent.

CREA’s figures are based on properties sold through the Multiple Listing Service.

The Bank of Montreal says the two western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan will lead the rest of Canada in economic growth this year and next by a wide margin.

The BMO report predicts the two provinces will both record three per cent or more economic growth this year — about one point higher than the national average — and again in 2012.

The report says Ontario and Quebec and the four Atlantic provinces will likely struggle with sub-two per cent growth next year as government austerity and export challenges due to the high dollar weigh on their economies.

On average, Canada’s economy is expected to continue with moderate growth of two per cent in 2012 — not strong but not a disaster given the weak U.S. economy, Europe’s debt crisis and the slowdown in emerging markets.

The western provinces’ benefits are natural resources, which are still much in demand across the world.

If there was something new in the one-page statement issued by the bank alongside its early morning policy announcement Tuesday, it is that bank governor Mark Carney thinks the risks from around the world may be intensifying.

The bank said it now expects the recession in Europe “to be more pronounced,” a downgrade from October when it said the continent would go through a brief slump.

While economic activity in the U.S. has been more robust than anticipated, the spillover effects of Europe and the country’s own internal problems will weigh on growth going forward. As for China and emerging nations that have been the mainstays of the global economy over the past few years, all signs point to the pace of expansion “moderating.”

“The weaker external outlook is expected to dampen GDP (gross domestic product) in Canada through financial, confidence and trade channels,” the bank said.

“The economy also continues to face competitiveness challenges, including persistent strength of the Canadian dollar…. Reflecting all of these factors, the bank has decided to maintain the target for the overnight rate at one per cent.”

The bank views its current policy setting as helping stimulate economic growth in Canada by keeping the cost of borrowing for both businesses and households low, thus encouraging investments and spending.

Some economists have called on the bank to lean on the rate further, to as low as 0.25 per cent, but there were no signals in the statement that Carney is thinking along those lines.

The bank said it is not worried about inflation at the moment. While at 2.9 per cent it is higher than the two per cent target the bank strives for, it expects weaker economic activity and moderating energy and food prices will bring overall inflation in line.

But Carney has often expressed concerns that his low interest rate policy, in place for about three years, is encouraging irresponsible behaviour among households, particularly overspending in the housing market.

As the bank noted in October, the Canadian economy is doing slightly better during the current second half of 2011 than was previously anticipated. GDP in the third quarter was one point higher than the bank’s two per cent call, and analysts believe the same adjustment will be made to the bank’s 0.8 per cent growth prediction for the fourth quarter.

The better performance, the bank said, has been due to stronger than expected household spending and continued healthy business investment. But exports have also so far defied the worsening global trends, recording solid gains in the third quarter.

The stronger second half will likely result in 2011 overall growth higher than the predicted 2.1 per cent, but the bank gave no guidance on its milder 1.9 forecast for 2012.

The agency says the 2009 study produced results similar to those of the last survey done in 2004, before the Conservatives took power and began their tough-on-crime campaign. Crime rates overall have been falling for a decade.

Youth crime is one of the few areas that has risen, yet the study says slightly more younger Canadians were satisfied with their personal safety from crime than older Canadians — 94 per cent of those ages 15-24 compared to 90 per cent aged 65 years and older.

About 83 per cent of respondents said they were not at all worried when home alone in the evening, while 90 per cent who walked alone in their neighbourhoods at night said they felt safe doing so.

The Conservative government of Stephen Harper has made controversial anti-crime legislation a central tenet of its mandate, claiming Canadians want Ottawa to get tough on crime. Critics complain the Tory legislation boosting sentences for some crimes, imposing mandatory minimums and stripping two-for-one credit for time served is based more on ideology than evidence.

Opposition MPs and some provinces — which stand to bear the brunt of costs to keep more people in jail and for longer periods — have complained the Conservatives ignored the advice of experts and did not provide cost estimates for their sweeping changes.

The study indicates those living in Eastern Canada, where crime rates are generally lower, were more satisfied with their personal safety than Westerners, who form the base of Tory support. But not by much.

Residents of Prince Edward Island were among those with the highest levels of satisfaction, at 97 per cent, while residents in British Columbia were among those with the lowest, at 89 per cent. Among cities, levels of satisfaction with personal safety were highest in Moncton, N.B. and Kingston, Guelph and Oshawa, Ont. They were lowest in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

The government earmarked $583 million for settlement services across Canada for 2011-12, down from $622 million the year before. That amount will drop another $6 million for 2012-13 to a total of $577 million across Canada.

For the current year, Citizenship and Immigration Canada budgeted $346.5 million for Ontario, a decrease from $390 million the previous year. For 2012-13, it’ll drop again to $314.9 million. A loss of $31.5 million. The federal government argues it’s adjusting its funding to fit changing migration patterns.

Senior government sources say they’re simply adapting the funding to the fact that fewer immigrants are going to Ontario as a proportion of the national total. Immigration experts argue that the Ontario government is partly to blame, because it hasn’t worked hard enough to bring in newcomers. The experts are quoted as saying:

“Ontario has failed to select the number of immigrants provincially, relative to the size of the population of the province. How is it that smaller provinces than Ontario can select more immigrants provincially than Ontario?”

Many immigrants going west

British Columbia is getting $109.8 million, a slight increase over $105.6 million for 2011-12.

Thomas Tam, head of a B.C. organization that helps immigrants integrate, says the federal government is making the right move by boosting funding to B.C. and other western provinces. Tam says migration patterns are changing dramatically.

“That’s a very important additional resources for us. In the last couple of years, we’ve been seeing more and more immigrants into the province, particularly from Asia. There’s a great demand for language training and labour market integration programs.”

In fact, not only are immigrants increasingly going west, they’re also going to smaller towns and cities. For example, Tam’s organization is now expanding its services to the northern B.C. town of Fort St. John. The funding is justified, as immigrants head to smaller communities in the west and the east, where settlement services are sparse.

“It’s very good news for the recipients of settlement funding in Canada’s hinterland, in western Canada, and of course the Maritimes, to include the idea of retaining immigration. The more settlement funding you can toss into the Maritimes the better chance you have of retaining immigrants in that region,” he said.

“I was very concerned after a court decision in 2008 found that a Canadian citizen, who was convicted in India of killing his sister-in-law after setting her on fire, could sponsor his new wife,” said Minister Kenney. “The regulatory changes now in force aim to prevent a similar situation from happening again.”

Previously, a sponsorship application would not have been approved if the sponsor had been convicted of a crime resulting in bodily harm against a list of family members or relatives. This list has now been expanded to ensure that prospective sponsors convicted of such crimes against an expanded list of individuals, or particularly violent offences against any person, are generally not allowed to sponsor family to come to Canada for five years following the completion of their sentence.

The proposed regulatory changes were pre-published in the Canada Gazette on April 2, 2011, followed by a 30-day public comment period. The changes came into force on Friday, November 18th, are posted on Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s website and will be published in Part II of the Canada Gazette on December 7, 2011.

“Family violence is not tolerated in Canada,” added the Minister. “Someone who commits a serious crime should not benefit from the privilege of sponsorship.”

These regulatory changes reinforce the integrity of Canada’s family class sponsorship program, assist in the protection of sponsored individuals from family violence and protect the health and safety of Canadians.

The mortality rate for newcomers continued to be lower than for Canadian-born residents, even after immigrants have lived here more than 20 years, the new study suggested. The study does not examine the reasons immigrants tend to have better health, but those are likely to include the screening that selects an inherently healthier group of people who arrive in Canada, and also those who have a healthier diet and are more physically active in their native countries.

The longer the immigrants live in Canada, the more closely they adopt the patterns and behaviours common here.

The relationship between immigration and health has become more difficult to determine, however, as the origins and demographics of immigrants to Canada have changed. Statistics Canada’s current analysis relies on the 1991-2001 Canadian mortality followup study, which examined 2.7 million people, of which 552,300, or 20 per cent, were immigrants. Immigrants had significantly lower mortality rates than Canadian-born people: 1,006 versus 1,305 for men, and 610 versus 731 for women.

In 2006, immigrants made up 19.8 per cent of Canada’s population, a proportion that is expected to increase to at least 25 per cent by 2031, Statistics Canada says. Mortality rates differ according to the origins of immigrants, and the study suggests there is a need for more in-depth analysis of health by country of origin.

Highlights:

• Sales activity rose in October, marking the highest level since January.
• Actual (not seasonally adjusted) national sales activity in October stayed in line with the 10-year average for the month, as it has most months this year.
• Year-to-date sales are also even with the 10-year average.
• The number of newly listed homes remained little changed from levels in the previous three months.
• While the combination of stronger sales and stable new listings resulted in a slightly tighter balance of supply and demand, the national housing market remains firmly rooted in balanced territory.
• The national average price posted a 5.5 per cent year-over-year gain in October, the smallest increase since January.

Homes sold through MLS® Systems of real estate Boards and Associations in Canada rose 1.2 per cent in October 2011 from the previous month. While national sales activity levels are still best described as average, the monthly rise in October sales built on the 2.5 per cent gain in September, and lifted activity to the highest level since January.

Just over half of all local markets posted monthly sales increases, led by gains in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

“There was no shortage of headline news in October about global financial market volatility and economic uncertainty, but it doesn’t appear to have dampened homebuyers’ spirits,” said Gary Morse, CREA’s President. “Interest rates are at low levels and are likely to stay that way for some time to come. Homebuyers clearly see the opportunities that the current interest rate environment presents. That said, all real estate is local, so buyers and sellers should consult their local REALTOR® for an understanding of opportunities in their housing market.”

As has been the case in most months this year, actual (not seasonally adjusted) national home sales in October stayed in line with the 10-year average for the month. Although up 8.5 per cent from levels one year ago, the gain in large part reflects last year’s nascent pick-up in activity following a mid-year lull.

A total of 397,561 homes have traded hands via Canadian MLS® Systems so far this year. This represents an increase of 1.8 per cent from levels in the first 10 months of 2010, but is directly in line with the 10-year average for the year-to-date figure.

The number of newly listed homes remained little changed in October compared with levels recorded in each of the previous three months.

“The prevailing economic outlook for Canada is one of slower but still positive economic growth, with heightened caution about investment and hiring decisions,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “Consumer confidence and the housing sector are being supported by low interest rates and high employment levels, but their prospects depend on how Canada’s economic outlook evolves in response to global economic risks and outcomes in the months ahead.

Home sales activity over the past couple of months suggests buyers are confident that the Canadian economy will remain relatively unscathed by global economic risks, since every home purchase is a homebuyer’s vote of confidence in the future. That confidence is no doubt rooted in the success of coordinated fiscal and monetary policy responses that helped quickly pull Canada out of the last recession, and a stated willingness and ability to carry out further policy actions if need be.”

While the combination of stable new listings and stronger sales made for a slightly tighter balance between supply and demand in October, the national housing market remains firmly rooted in balanced territory. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance, stood at 53.4 per cent in October, up from 52.8 per cent in September.

Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio from 40 to 60 percent, about 60 per cent of local markets in Canada were in balanced market territory in October. Of the remaining markets, there was a handful more seller’s markets than buyers’ markets.

The number of months of inventory stood at six months at the end of October on a national basis, little changed from the end of September (6.1 months). It has remained stable at about six months since April. The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and is another measure of the balance between housing supply and demand.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in October 2011 stood at $362,899. This is up 5.5 per cent from October 2010, making it the smallest increase since January.

“Everyone wants a house or condo that will be perfect the minute they move in so they only have to do the minimum amount of work to it,” says Barbara Sukkau, president of OREA. “But with the price of houses continuing to rise, and some buyers desperately looking for a family home in a seller’s market, it may not be an option for all buyers. Buying a property that needs work can be a way to save on the overall cost even when you factor in the cost of an extensive renovation,” says Sukkau.

OREA recommends potential homebuyers work with their Realtor to identify properties that will build equity after improvements are made but still remain in budget. Together with their Realtor, homebuyers should research what the top homes in the neighbourhood sell for before buying a fixer-upper.

“It doesn’t make sense to invest $100,000 worth of renovations in a property if the other homes only sell for fifty thousand more than what you bought the house for,” says Sukkau. “Buying a house that needs renovation should grow equity — not become a property that’s too expensive for the neighbourhood when you want to sell.”

Sukkau says there are other benefits to buying a property that needs renovation, such as the fact that HST does not apply to the price of a resale home, unlike newly built homes, which can save a homebuyer thousands of dollars. Also, the federal government currently offers grants up to $5,000 to owners who want to make their home more energy efficient. If an older home needs new windows or a new furnace, then homeowners can apply for the grant for this cost. And finally, renovating a home lets the homebuyer add their own personality to the space and determine what’s most important to them. Newly built homes, while beautiful, can have a cookie-cutter feel and look very similar to the other homes in the neighbourhood.

No matter if a homebuyer decides on a fixer-upper or a property that needs no improvements, according to Sukkau the most important thing is for potential homebuyers to know their budget and stick to it. “Before looking at any home, discuss with your Realtor what your budget is for both the property and any possible renovation. Even though it is difficult, remain emotionally detached when looking at homes, and if a property is beyond your means, then move on to the next one,” says Sukkau.

A video about how to calculate home affordability is available here. More information on buying a property can also be found at howrealtorshelp.ca.

Provincially, the resource-based economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador outpaced the gains in the rest of the country. Those three resource-based economies have increased relative to the rest of the country over the last decade.

In 2000, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador combined accounted for 18 per cent of domestic incomes, while Ontario and Quebec combined accounted for 62 per cent. By 2010, the resource-based economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador had increased their share to 22 per cent, while Ontario and Quebec’s combined share had fallen to 57 per cent.

Output rose by 6.1 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador, the best showing of any province. That strong showing came on the heels of a nine per cent loss the previous year. Among the territories, Nunavut led the way with an 11 per cent gain. Exports there increased sharply, as a result of a new mine that began production in 2010. Investment increased in all three of the fixed capital categories that the agency tracks: residential structures, non-residential structures as well as machinery and equipment.

Corporate profits rose 21 per cent as commodity prices and overall demand increased.

The Canadian economy generated 17,000 new jobs a month on average during the third quarter of 2011, down from 29,000 new jobs a month in the second quarter and 33,000 in the first quarter. The CIBC Employment Quality Index (EQI) fell by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter and is down by 1.5 per cent over the past seven months.

“The decline in our quality index over the past seven months is not so obvious when one glances at the headline statistics,” says Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist and author of CIBC’s Employment Quality Index. “During this period, paid employment rose faster than self-employment and full-time job creation outpaced growth in part-time jobs. The reason for the index’s decline, despite these positive indicators, is the fact that all the fulltime jobs created during this period were in low-paying sectors.

“Looking ahead, the likelihood is that employment quality in the coming year or so will soften. Key here will be softer public sector hiring in general, and public sector construction activity in particular — a factor that will limit growth in high quality construction jobs in the coming twelve months.”

The recent decline in the EQI followed a strong rebound in job quality that began in early 2010. At its current reading, the index is roughly where it was at the eve of the recession.

However, job quality is not uniform across the country. While Ontario, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada weighed down the national number with declines in overall employment quality, Alberta, Québec and Manitoba/Saskatchewan saw improvements over the last seven months.

Full-Time vs. Part-Time Jobs: Full-time employment rose by 1.2 per cent during the past seven months accounting for all of the increase in employment during the period. This factor acted as a positive for the index.

Self-Employment vs. Paid Employment: Paid employment rose by 1.2 per cent vs. only a 0.1 per cent increase in the number of self-employed. This was also a positive contributor to the index over the past seven months.

Compensation: During the past seven months, the number of full-time jobs in high-paying industries fell by 0.1 per cent while the number of jobs in low-paying industries rose by 2.3 per cent. This diverging performance is the sole reason for the recent decline in CIBC’s EQI index. The most notable weakness was in high job quality sectors such as the federal government, heavy and civil engineering construction, telecommunications and computer and related manufacturing. Strong job growth in sectors such as machinery manufacturing and professional scientific and technical services helped to limit the damage.

Percentage Change in EQI by Province 
Q1-2011 vs. Q3-2011

The CIBC Canadian Employment Quality Index (EQI), combines information on:

• the distribution of part-time vs. full-time jobs;
• self-employment vs. paid employment;
• and the compensation ranking of full-time paid employment jobs in more than 100 industry groups

The complete CIBC World Markets report is available at: http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/eqi-cda-20111102.pdf.

Search for jobs across Canada

While it noted that the economy created an impressive 61,000 jobs during the month, bringing the total to over 250,000 for the year, conditions appear to be weakening going forward. The survey conducted early in September found job prospects falling in 17 of 26 metropolitan areas it surveys, including nine out of 10 in Ontario. Only three urban areas — St. John’s, Saint John, NB, and St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. posted positive results.

Economist Alan Arcand of the Conference Board said the results suggest job growth will be soft in the next two months.

“The Canadian labour market has been pretty strong this year, but given the international context of a weak recovery in the U.S. and issues in Europe, and given that Canada’s economy relies on exports, it’s not a surprise that we will feel the effects of that,” he said.

Most economists are expecting the economy to brake sharply in the final three months of the year in reaction to the market turmoil that began in August and the subsequent hit to business and consumer confidence.

Earlier this week, the Bank of Canada predicted the fourth quarter would see only a 0.8 per cent advance, from two per cent annual growth in the just concluded third quarter. Because economic reports tend to lag by a month or more in Canada, the first real indicator whether the bleak forecasts are coming to fruition will come Friday when Statistics Canada releases the jobs report for the month of October.

Analysts expect a return to minimal employment growth on the heels of September’s outsized number, some of which was based on back-to-school hiring. The unknown is whether this week’s agreement in Europe to backstop sovereign debt and banks with an expanded trillion euro emergency fund based on leverage — no new money has been added — will prove the beginning to a lasting solution to the crisis or more empty promises.

Unbridled investor enthusiasm for the deal lasted only one day. On Friday, North American markets moved mostly sideways.

The Bank of Montreal Benjamin Reitzes said markets are right to be skeptical, but that the deal at least had the effect of putting off the reckoning for possibly a few months. ”This package should at best mark the beginning of the end of the crisis,” he said. “At worst, it will buy Europe more time to implement economic reforms and strengthen the monetary union before another inevitable crisis flares up.”

The Bank of Canada’s latest outlook took for granted that the eurozone would not unravel, but still held that Canada’s economy would only squeeze out a 1.9 per cent advance next year, followed by more normal 2.9 per cent growth in 2013. A consensus of private sector economists surveyed by the Finance Department was only moderately less gloomy.

Both are still far too rosy for David Madani, the chief Canadian economist at Capital Economists. His forecast is for Canada’s economy to stay weak for the next two years with growth of 1.5 per cent in 2012 and 1.0 in 2013, barely above recessionary levels.

“History shows that financial crises are typically followed by seven lean years of below-average economic growth and persistent high unemployment,” he pointed out. Canada has been able to outperform most advanced economies so far because of a booming housing market, which has kept construction jobs at elevated levels, he added. The boom can’t keep up, Madani said, and could in fact in fact turn into a bust. The relative optimists among economists find comfort in the fact businesses in North America have built up a large store of cash since the recession that they say will be invested, boosting employment and demand, once confidence is restored.

Search for Canadian Jobs here

Back then, a 50-year-old employed person could expect to work another 12.5 years before retiring from the daily grind. Today, that same 50-year-old worker could expect another 16 years of employment. There has been a corresponding increase in the employment rate of Canadians aged 55 and older during this time period. StatsCan says that 34 per cent of Canadians aged 55 and older were employed in 2010, compared to just 22 per cent in 1996.

Self-employed Toronto businesswoman Adina Lebo is one of the many people in this age group who still embrace going into work every day. Lebo, 62, actually retired this past spring, but reversed course when she realized she wasn’t ready to leave the office for good.

“Sixty is the new 40,” Lebo said.

“And I have so much energy. I love working, I love contributing to society and it’s not time to slow down.”

There could also be economic factors driving older Canadians to keep working longer than they did in the past. A new Royal Bank of Canada survey says that 57 per cent of Canadians do not set aside money for emergencies, suggesting that many future retirees end up facing unforeseen expenses that delay their long-term plans.

While it might be expected that a longer working life would imply a shorter retirement, StatsCan says that men and women leaving the work force today are spending as much time in their post-career life as many of their predecessors did. For example, in 1977, a 50-year-old man could expect to spend 45 per cent of his remaining years on Earth in retirement. Today, that same person would expect to be retired for 48 per cent the years ahead of him.

For women, the proportional length of retirement has stood basically unchanged. In 2008, a 50-year-old woman would expect to spend 55 per cent of her remaining life in retirement, which StatsCan says was almost the same 1977.

Lebo said she has many friends who have sought out new opportunities and experiences since they entered retirement.

“It’s just a time to expand and go somewhere new and do something different,” Lebo said.

Statistics Canada says all eight major components it tracks from housing to clothing to recreation costs were higher last month on an annual basis. As has been the case so often before, the major drivers of the rising inflation rate last month were gasoline and food. The cost of gas was up 22.7 per cent over last year, while prices for fuel oil rose 27.4 per cent and prices for natural gas fell 4.7 per cent. Prices for food were 4.3 per cent from a year ago, overall. Consumers paid more for meat, with prices up 6.1 per cent; bakery products, which rose 7.2 per cent; and fresh vegetables, which soared 13.0 per cent.

Statistics Canada notes that the country’s underlying core inflation increased to its highest level in almost three years in September. The core inflation rate excludes volatile items, such as gasoline, and is considered a more accurate reflection of inflation trends.

The annual core rate rose two-tenths of a point to 2.2 per cent the largest year-over-year gain since December 2008. It’s the first time it’s been above the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target since February 2010.

Commenting on the numbers, David Madani of the research firm Capital Economic predicted in a note to clients that the consumer price index will continue to rise “somewhat above” the Bank of Canada’s expectations, and that inflation on food prices will reach at least six per cent by next year.

Still, while the jump in core inflation will likely raise some eyebrows at the central bank, few expect bank governor Mark Carney to raise interest rates next week.

“We still believe the Bank will refrain from removing any further monetary stimulus for the foreseeable future,” wrote Madani.

Some even expect Carney to cut rates. But in a note to his clients, Bank of Montreal’s Doug Porter says the “stickiness” of inflation makes this unlikely.

“While this result doesn’t completely rule out rate cuts, it relegates them to only the most extreme circumstance,” he said in the note.

“Moreover, if core stays close to this level let alone rises further the Bank of Canada may return to the tightening wheel sooner than most now expect, especially if financial markets stabilize.”

The central bank has held its policy rate at one per cent for over a year and Carney has made it clear he is remaining vigilant for signs of weakness of the economy, as well as keeping an eye on the European debt crisis and the potential for another global recession.

Over the past 20 years, Canada has accepted about 250,000 “permanent immigrants” annually, author Jeffrey Reitz, an immigration and ethnic studies professor at the University of Toronto. In 2010, the country posted its highest figures in 50 years: more than 280,000 people.

“This support has been consistently high over the past 15 to 20 years when immigration levels have also been high,” states a release issued by the IRPP. “It is particularly strong among more educated Canadians, the young, the fully employed and men.”

About 58 per cent of people in the country support current levels of immigration, stated the report, titled “Pro-immigration Canada: Social and Economic Roots of Popular Views.”

Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the Prairies outshone the rest of Canada, with more than 62 per cent support. Both Ontario and British Columbia showed lower than average levels of support, but people in those provinces’ most immigrant-rich cities, Toronto and Vancouver, showed enthusiasm for immigration that was above average.

“Where there are more immigrants, people are a bit cool to the idea of adding even more immigrants,” Reitz explained. “The question asked wasn’t ‘Do we like immigration?’ It was ‘How do you feel about changing the levels of immigration?’ If you’re in an area where there’s a lot of immigration, your view to adding more might be a bit restrained.”

Between one third and one half of the country’s newcomers settle in Toronto.

The study looked at trends in public attitudes and data from an Environics survey conducted last November, which asked Canadians questions how much immigration they are comfortable with, and to explain the conditions under which immigrants are most likely to succeed.

It found Canadians see newcomers as both an economic benefit and a cultural one, noting multiculturalism remains one of the country’s main sources of national pride.

“Few see immigration as one of Canada’s most significant problems,” states the study. “The survey data show that support for multiculturalism is rooted in a broader, socially progressive agenda that includes issues such as gay rights and gun control, which themselves reinforce pro-immigration attitudes. Nevertheless, many Canadians would like immigrants to blend into society rather than form separate communities.”

The study found Canadians see acceptance of immigrants as distinct from our neighbours to the south, providing a national identity in a country often looking to set itself apart. Indeed, when compared to the United States, where there is a fence along large parts of the southern border and a proposal for one on its north, the lack of debate on the merits of immigration in Canada speaks volumes.

“In the party leaders’ debate preceding the May 2011 election, a voter posed a question on immigration and multiculturalism. Each of the four prime ministerial candidates attempted to adopt the most pro-immigration position,” states the report.

“All Canadian political parties espouse pro-immigration policies, and the public rarely asks them to defend these policies.

“Canada is an exception to the negative attitude toward immigration that prevails in most other industrialized countries, an attitude that has received much attention, particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France.”

“Canadians were more likely to see immigration as an opportunity than as a problem.”

National sales activity rose 2.7 per cent in September when compared to August, and follows three months of stable activity. September’s increase reflects strengthened activity in a number of major markets, led by Toronto. The monthly increase pushed national sales to its highest level since recently tightened mortgage regulations dampened sales earlier this year.

Highlights:

• Sales activity rose 2.7 per cent in September from the previous month.
• Holding in line with the ten-year average, activity during the first nine months of this year pulled ahead of sales over the same period last year.
• The number of newly listed homes held steady when compared to the previous month.
• The national housing market tightened in September from the month before, but remains firmly entrenched in balanced territory.
• The national average price posted the smallest year-over-year increase since January.

A notice says the proposed change would not increase the language level required for citizenship but would provide officials and judges with “objective evidence of an applicant’s language ability.”

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney is proposing changes to the way the government assesses the language abilities of prospective new citizens.

Under the proposal, published today in the Canada Gazette for public input, adult citizenship applicants would be required to provide objective evidence of language ability with their citizenship applications.

“The ability to communicate effectively in either French or English is key to the success of new citizens in Canada,” said Minister Kenney.  “This change will encourage applicants to ensure that they can speak English or French when they apply for citizenship, thereby improving the integrity and effectiveness of the citizenship program for Canada and for new Canadians alike.”

The Citizenship Act already requires that applicants be able to communicate in one of Canada’s official languages.  This proposed change would not increase the language level required, but would change the way that citizenship applicants aged 18-54 prove their language ability.

Under the new system, applicants would have to provide objective evidence that they meet the language requirement when they file their application.  Applicants would be able to demonstrate language ability by submitting a variety of evidence, including:

• the results of a third party test;
• evidence of completion of secondary or post-secondary education in English or French; or
• evidence of achieving CLB/NCLC4 in certain government funded language training programs.

CIC currently uses the citizenship knowledge test as well as the applicant’s interaction with CIC staff to assess language ability.  If it appears an applicant does not meet language requirements, they are invited for an interview with a citizenship judge.  There can be a significant time delay between the submission of the application and the subsequent hearing for language.

The proposed new rule that applicants must provide objective evidence that they meet the language requirement when they file their application would give citizenship judges better evidence on which to base their decision.  CIC would also be able to return applications of those who do not provide evidence they meet the requirements more quickly, thus improving application processing.

CIC is also proposing to clarify that the language skills to be assessed would be speaking and listening, and the criteria would clearly align with Canadian Language Benchmark/Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens  CLB/NCLC4, which represents basic fluent proficiency.  This would allow applicants to understand the requirements they need to meet and to provide evidence that is correlated to CLB/NCLC4.

The Notice of Intent, requesting comments from the public on the proposed change, will be posted for 30 days.

With much of the country’s infrastructure seriously underfunded, and governments running deficits, policy-makers are being increasingly tempted by tolls as a way to pay for roads and bridges. The federal government recently announced plans to replace Montreal’s Champlain Bridge over the next decade, with the $5-billion project using a toll system.

Nearly one in three respondents to the survey said they’d read or heard something about the Montreal bridge announcement last week. Of those who do support tolls, eight per cent said they “strongly support” them. That was compared to 15 per cent who said they “strongly oppose” them.

But for most people, opinions on tolls are less extreme. Nearly three-quarters of respondents either opposed or supported tolls, without taking a strong stand either way. That could make for unpredictable debates.

“The strength of the opinion for most people is not strong opinion it’s a weaker opinion,” said Doug Anderson, senior vice-president of Harris Decima.

“I’d say a lengthy public debate would see opinions firm up and that could go either way.”

The poll suggested older Canadians and those with higher household incomes would be most likely to support tolls. Meanwhile, those under age 35 and from a lower-income bracket would be most opposed to tolls as would a majority of NDP supporters.

With regard to the new Quebec bridge project, the NDP has expressed some concern that a privately controlled bridge, combined with user fees, could wind up gouging commuters.

West of Quebec, support for tolls ranged from a low of 42 per cent in Ontario to 51 per cent in British Columbia. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, support stood at 49 per cent, while Alberta came in at 45 per cent.

TD Bank economist Francis Fong said the housing start numbers suggests the housing market remains “extremely healthy as the three-month moving average increases to its highest level since November 2008.”

“Employment and income growth remains sufficiently healthy and economic fundamentals, though having slowed recently, remain stable.” Fong said in a note to clients.

“In addition, recent financial turmoil emanating from Europe has hit Canadian markets hard and has led to a renewed flight towards the safety of government bonds. This has helped to keep mortgage rates at their record low levels, meaning affordability is still supportive of housing demand.”

In the CMHC report, the agency said starts in urban areas rose by eight per cent to 185,900 units.

Multiple-unit urban starts increased 14.2 per cent to 118,000 units, while urban single starts decreased by 1.5 per cent to 67,900 units.

Quebec was the big winner in the September numbers, with a 14,000 increase in starts to 57,800 — a 13.9 per cent jump and the highest level of starts since February 2008.

“Multiple housing starts are expected to move back towards levels consistent with demographic fundamentals in the near term,” said Mathieu Laberge, CMHC’s deputy chief economist.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 20,000 units in September, up from 18,900 units in August.

The average minimum wait is currently 19 months, up from 15 months in May. CIC says it plans to continue using temporary workers to clear the backlog, if it can find the money.

But the union says it is clear there is a need for more permanent workers at the office. Union spokeswoman Theresa MacInnis said, this is the third temporary contract some of these workers have been on since being laid off from permanent work a year and a half ago.

“To me it looks like there is a need for additional workers in the workplace,” said MacInnis.

“Stabilizing a workforce is always a benefit for continuing work flows and processing.”

MacInnis said the uncertainty has some workers looking for other jobs. She isn’t sure what the turnover has been, but she said any training of new employees or people new to this processing wastes time and resources. The latest contract for the 86 additional staff will expire at the end of March.

CIC expects workers will have processed at least 5,000 citizenship applications by that time. It’s not known how much of a dent in the backlog that will make.

“The strength in Canada’s national housing market conceals signs of predictable softening in some regions,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Royal LePage Real Estate Services. “The third quarter saw a return to a normal seasonal business cycle as price appreciation slowed in many areas – with some average values even falling slightly – after the busy spring trading season. A broader slowdown is expected in the months ahead but fears of a US-style correction are completely unfounded.”

In the third quarter of 2011, the national average price of a detached bungalow rose 7.8 per cent year-over-year to $349,974, while standard two-storey homes rose 7.7 per cent to $388,218 and standard condominiums rose 5.7 per cent to$239,300.

“To best provide Canadians with an accurate look at the housing market, Royal LePage uses year-over-year comparisons as the housing market follows a seasonal pattern. It is important to note that our 2011 third quarter results benefit greatly by going head-to-head with what was by far the previous year’s weakest period,” continued Soper.

Sustained demand from foreign buyers helped drive prices up in the country’s largest markets as Vancouver’s standard two-storey homes rose 16.9 per cent year-over-year to $1,142,500 while detached bungalows in Toronto climbed 9.4 per cent to $518,433.

Conversely, while the volume of homes trading hands has increased in Alberta, house prices in the province remained soft with detached bungalows in Calgaryfalling 1.0 per cent in the third quarter. Similarly, detached bungalows and standard two-storey homes in Victoria fell 2.0 and 1.1 per cent respectively.

“Canadian home owners have turned a deaf ear to the negative economic situation shaking housing markets in Europe and the United States,” added Soper. “A resilient domestic economy coupled with the stimulative effect of ultra low interest rates has extended the post-recession bounce in house prices, but there is evidence of over-shooting in some markets. Although some commentators are predicting that the sky will fall on the Canadian housing market in a US-style implosion, we lack the structural conditions that precipitated the housing crash in the United States six years ago.”

Regional Market Summaries

In Atlantic Canada, while other major markets remained relatively flat year-over-year, Halifax posted healthy gains in all three housing types surveyed with standard condominiums increasing 10.4 per cent. Similarly, standard condominiums in Saint John also witnessed an increase of 10.4 per cent. This is attributable to sales of higher-end waterfront listings.

Continued confidence in Montreal‘s residential real estate market remained strong as year-over-year prices for standard two-storey homes rose 4.4 per cent to $367,500 while standard condominiums rose 7.6 per cent to $236,333.

Healthy price appreciation was witnessed in all three housing types surveyed inOttawa, as standard two-storey homes rose on average 8.4 per cent. Standard condominiums and detached bungalows increased 7.9 per cent and 7.0 per cent respectively.

Toronto witnessed impressive price gains across all three housing types surveyed due to a lack of supply. Standard two-storey homes increased 7.6 per cent year-over-year and detached bungalows 9.4 per cent over the same period. Standard condominiums increased a healthy but more modest 6.0 per cent as demand was more easily met with a higher level of inventory.

Population growth is fueling Winnipeg‘s healthy price appreciation as standard condominiums increased 6.4 per cent, detached bungalows increased 5.1 per cent and standard two-storey homes increased 4.4 per cent.

Both Calgary and Edmonton remained relatively flat year-over-year except for standard condominiums, which increased 3.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively. Two storey-homes in Edmonton also posted a gain of 3.8 per cent.

Vancouver‘s traditional housing types performed exceptionally well as detached bungalows rose 17.0 per cent year-over-year and standard two-storey homes rose 16.9 per cent. Condominiums in the city increased a more modest, but healthy, 5.1 per cent due to higher inventory.

Royal LePage’s quarterly House Price Survey shows the annual change of prices for key housing segments in select national markets.

Despite economic uncertainty, Canada’s new car dealers said sales are growing at a “healthy pace” and driving retail sector activity. As the most important retail indicator, this is good news for the economy at large, the association said.

Affordability is driving a post-recession recovery in auto sales, chief economist Michael Hatch said, adding that very few if any other sectors can make such a claim.

Though not back to pre-recession levels of 1.65 million units, new cars sales have rebounded well since the end of the economic recession. They have grown by about two per cent so far in 2011, despite a 3.5 per cent drop in July and forecasted declines in August.

Hatch said sales are not far off the levels of 2007 because of the strength of the Canadian market and the impact of low interest rates. The situation is much better than the U.S., where sales are nowhere near pre-recession levels and Hatch claims may never get there.

Automotive sales are a key component of Canada’s economic activity, which is exposed to flagging consumer confidence as debt problems mount in the United States and Europe. Some economists have speculated that the global economy could be headed back into a recession. Canada weathered the first recession better than many countries, thanks in part to the relative strength of its banking system and prudent fiscal management, but the economic picture is still mixed.

Overall retail sales fell 0.6 per cent to $37.5 billion in July after three straight monthly increases, marking the first decline since January. Nevertheless, Statistics Canada reported Friday that the economy grew by 0.3 per cent in July after a 0.2 per cent increase in June. Manufacturing and, to a lesser extent, wholesale trade and transportation services the main sources of growth.

“It is important that Canadians are aware of one of our most expensive spending patterns—paying top-dollar on temporary fixes for the problems that grow out of poverty,” said Dr. John Rook, Chair of the Council.  “The good news is even more vital.  A better pattern is already partially in place, in policies and programs that enable people to get out of poverty, not just cope with it, and to be well and to thrive.  Now, we need to get the whole job done.”

The report draws on a wide range of local, national and international research from economics to epidemiology to illustrate how reducing poverty benefits everyone, no matter where we sit on the income ladder.

The report’s findings include: 

• In 2007, the amount it would have taken for every Canadian to have an income over the poverty line was $12.6 billion. The consequences of poverty that year added up to almost double that amount.  Despite this spending, by 2009, 3.2 million Canadians (9.6%) were still living in poverty.

• Indirect costs drive up the cost of poverty.  Stable housing costs less than shelter, ambulance, police, hospital and other bills resulting from homelessness. Similarly, basic medicine costs far less than emergency wards, where people end up when they can’t afford medicine.  This pattern can be found in the justice system, education, employment, business and other areas.

• Societal costs reflect the wasted potential—and tax dollars—of people who could be contributing more to the economy if they did not go hungry, or continued to be poorly paid, ill-housed, stigmatized or ignored.

• Solving poverty is about more than money because humans are social beings. The daily wear-and-tear of stress, including discrimination and lack of respect, can physically damage brains and bodies.  The lower you are on the income ladder, the more stressors you are likely to face, with the fewest resources to cope.  There is a direct relationship between poverty and poor health.

• The benefits of programs are often underreported. Child and seniors’ benefits, for example, provide secure, non-stigmatizing incomes broadly in society, and they have benefits well beyond individual recipients.  The improved wellbeing of today’s seniors compared to the past enables them to remain active in their communities or to help care for grandchildren.

The Council’s recommendations in the report focus on: a Canada-wide strategy to ensure everything works together; a sustained investment plan; a design framework centred on wellbeing; and a forum that brings people and ideas together to get the best results.

Rook emphasized Canada has more options than some other countries struggling with poverty and spending pressures, including wealth, experience, public support for mutual responsibility and social innovation.  “The way forward is practical and within our grasp, building on what we have and know already,” he said.

The full report, an ‘in-brief’ version and additional documentation are available at www.ncw.gc.ca.

World oil prices are set in U.S. dollars, so a rising loonie against the greenback offsets some of the impact of higher crude prices. Now that the loonie has slid below parity, consumers are getting a raw deal even though oil prices are 20 per cent lower than they were in July.

The loonie lost about five cents against the U.S. dollar last week, but rose 0.11 of a cent to 97.25 US on Monday (sept 26 2011).

Fear that another recession could be triggered by government debt problems in Europe and the United States has oil traders betting global energy demand will fall — pushing the price down from around US$100 per barrel in July to around US$80 on Monday.

Since crude is used to make gasoline, the price-drop should filter through to the gas pump, but the weaker loonie is offsetting the drop in Canada, McKnight said.

The Canadian average for regular unleaded gasoline Monday was just under $1.22 per litre, according to the price-tracking website Gasbuddy.com. That compared with about $1.25 a litre a month ago and $1.01 a litre a year ago when crude was at about US$77 per share.

McKnight, whose firm helps transportation sector clients manage their fuel costs, sees gasoline prices falling by about five cents over the next few months as demand weakens in the winter. While lower fuel prices are certainly a welcome silver lining for consumers, they are also symptomatic of wider economic challenges, said TD Bank economist Derek Burleton.

“In this kind of environment, oil prices are a bellwether of general global sentiment. It’s more symbolic of bigger challenges globally,” Burleton said.

“Unfortunately nobody wins in Canada’s economy when that happens, even if gasoline prices fall back a bit.”

Canada’s economy is highly reliant on exports of resources and manufactured goods. So if crude prices are falling because key trading partners are ailing, particularly the United States, it’s bad news for Canada. While falling crude prices will benefit gasoline consumers, it could also harm some Alberta oilsands producers, which need enormous amounts of capital to build and operate their projects.

“If oil settles below US$80, one tends to start getting a little concerned about near-term outlook for energy-producing provinces like Alberta,” said Burleton. ”I think US$80 is a little bit of a psychological threshold there.”

In July, the province’s Office of Immigration said a tentative settlement offered each immigrant up to $75,000.

A proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in December 2009 on behalf of Peter King, who moved to Halifax from the United Kingdom in April 2006 and paid more than $100,000 to participate in the program.

Immigrants like King were supposed to get on-the-job training with an approved mentor company, but a statement of claim alleges that King applied unsuccessfully for a number of jobs before he moved to British Columbia.

The provincial government has already paid out about $38 million in refunds to immigrants, but a clause in the settlement says that if more than 50 people opt out, the government won’t proceed.

A range of consumer goods, including passenger vehicles, electricity, jewelry, telephone services and homeowners’ home and mortgage insurance all saw significant price increases largely accounting for the 4-point rise compared to the rate a year earlier. Among the most aggressive climbers, energy prices rose 13.4 per cent in the year leading up to August and gasoline prices went up 22.8 per cent. Food prices were up 4.4 per cent in August. The core inflation rate was at 1.9 per cent, just under the Bank of Canada’s target of 2 per cent.

The unexpectedly strong increases in consumer goods run contrary to a recent trend that saw inflation moderating — falling from 3.7 per cent in May to 2.7 per cent in July.

Core or underlying inflation, which excludes volatile items such as energy and some foods, increased to 1.9 from 1.6 per cent, pushing close to the central bank’s 2 per cent target.

On Tuesday, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said he was not concerned about inflation and would not raise interest rates to deal with the issue. The bank’s mandate is to keep consumer prices within a range of one and three per cent, and as close to two as possible.

Here’s what happened to the inflation rate in each of the provinces and territories. (Previous month in brackets):

• Newfoundland and Labrador 3.6 (3.4)
• Prince Edward Island 3.5 (3.2)
• Nova Scotia 3.8 (3.5)
• New Brunswick 4.1 (3.8)
• Quebec 3.4 (3.3)
• Ontario 3.1 (3.0)
• Manitoba 3.0 (3.1)
• Saskatchewan 2.8 (2.8)
• Alberta 2.9 (1.9)
• British Columbia 2.1 (1.7)
• Whitehorse, Yukon 3.0 (3.1)
• Yellowknife, N.W.T., 3.4 (3.4)
• Iqaluit, Nunavut 1.2 (1.1)

The agency also released rates for major cities, but cautioned that figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples (Previous month in brackets):

• St. John’s, N.L., 3.4 (3.2)
• Charlottetown-Summerside, 3.2 (2.8)
• Halifax, 3.5 (3.2)
• Saint John, N.B., 4.0 (3.8)
• Quebec, 3.4 (3.2)
• Montreal, 3.2 (3.1)
• Ottawa, 2.9 (2.7)
• Toronto, 2.9 (2.8)
• Thunder Bay, Ont., 3.1 (2.9)
• Winnipeg, 3.0 (3.0)
• Regina, 2.9 (2.9)
• Saskatoon, 2.4 (2.4)
• Edmonton, 3.0 (1.9)
• Calgary, 2.6 (1.8)
• Vancouver, 1.7 (1.6)
• Victoria, 1.9 (1.6)

The secure document has a computer chip that stores key personal data, including an image of the bearer, that can be accessed with a scanner. Passport Canada, which is required to run a break-even operation, has not yet announced what Canadians will pay for the more complex, high-tech document.

But an expense claim filed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicates the cost of the diplomatic version is far more than the $87 that adult Canadians pay now. Harper purchased four diplomatic ePassports for himself, his wife and two children late last year, at $225 each, for a total bill of $900.

The cost was picked up by taxpayers through his department, the Privy Council Office, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. Diplomatic ePassports are valid for five years, just like the current standard versions, and are routinely issued to immediate family members as well if they reside with the senior official and sometimes travel with that person. Like current diplomatic passports, they feature a distinctive red cover rather than the standard blue.

But the $225 cost does not include the standard $25 consular fee built into the price of general passports, because government officials are exempt from paying a share of the cost of providing embassy services to Canadians abroad.

Excluding the $25 consular fee, which Passport Canada does not retain but turns over to general revenues, the current general passport is priced at $62. That means the $225 diplomatic ePassport currently costs more than three times as much.

“No decisions have yet been made on the price of the new electronic passport,” said Beatrice Fenelon, a Passport Canada spokeswoman. “We are still in the process of consulting Canadians.”

Another agency official, Monique Boivin, said last week a new fee schedule will be published this fall for review by Parliament and Canadians.

The cash-strapped agency said that in 2009-2010, it lost an average of $3.14 for every passport issued because of production, distribution, security and staff costs. And it notes that over the last decade, the basic charge for a passport has increased only once, in 2004 by $2, to reflect higher shipping charges.

Passport Canada, like all federal departments and agencies, is required under the User Fees Act to consult Canadians on proposed price changes, and to justify any move to increase them. The government has said it wants to introduce a 10-year ePassport, rather than the current five-year version, which could help to mitigate any price increase. The agency conducted extensive consultations last year, including an online survey that attracted 7,000 responses. In a report, Passport Canada noted many Canadians are concerned about any price increase.

“Discussion also focused on the importance of ensuring the passport remains affordable,” says the document. “It was proposed that one option could be a progressive tax system, since the passport, like health care, is a common good.

“It was suggested that Passport Canada could receive part of its funding through legislative appropriations, given the emphasis on ensuring that the passport is a secure travel document.”

Many Canadians who were consulted said people who lose their passports should pay more to have them replaced. There was also a wide consensus that the lower fees for children’s passports should remain, even though it costs Passport Canada more than an adult passport to produce them.

An electronic passport has been under development in Canada since 2004, and was to have been launched by this year. Passport Canada attributes the delay partly to the rush of business after the United States began to require most Canadian visitors to produce a passport. Canada is a global laggard, with about 100 countries having already adopted their own electronic versions.

The federal government routinely authorizes diplomatic passports for senior officials and politicians, including the prime minister, cabinet ministers, justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Opposition leader and the Speaker, as well as for their immediate family members.

Highlights:

• Sales activity was stable from July to August, but posted another big year-over-year gain reflecting weakened demand last summer.
• Year-to-date sales pulled ahead of 2010 levels for the first time this year, and remain in line with the ten-year average.
• The number of newly listed homes was also little changed from July to August.
• The national housing market stayed firmly entrenched in balanced territory.
• There were more balanced local markets in August than at any other time on record.
• The national average price posted another year-over-year gain in August, but has moderated from elevated levels earlier this year.
• Upward skewing of the national average price is diminishing due to fewer expensive sales and a declining share of national activity in Vancouver andToronto.

For a second consecutive month, national home sales activity held steady in August 2011 when compared to the previous month. Among major urban centres, Toronto and Ottawa posted a monthly increase in activity while Calgary, Montreal and Vancouver saw activity decline slightly.

“The housing market in Canada remained on a firm footing in August when compared to volatile financial markets,” said Gary Morse, CREA President. “Through their actions, homebuyers are showing that they remain confident about the stability of the Canadian housing market, and recognize that the continuation of low interest rates represents an excellent opportunity to buy their first home or trade up.”

Actual (not seasonally adjusted) sales activity came in 15.8 per cent above national levels reported one year earlier. This was the largest year-over-year increase since last April, but largely reflects weakened activity one year ago.

A total of 324,030 homes have traded hands via Canadian MLS® Systems so far this year. While this stands only marginally above levels in the first eight months of last year, it nevertheless marks the first time this year that year-to-date activity has pulled ahead of 2010 levels.

As has been the case for much of this year, the year-to-date sales figure continues to run in line with the ten-year average.

The number of newly listed homes nationally was also little changed from July to August. This kept the national housing market firmly planted in balanced territory. The national sales-to-new listings ratio, a measure of market balance, stood at 51.6 per cent in August, unchanged compared to July.

Based on a sales-to-new listings ratio of between 40 to 60 per cent, 70 per cent of all local markets in Canada were in balanced market territory in August – a greater percentage than at any other time on record. There were just 12 buyers’ markets in August, which was the lowest figure so far this year.

The number of months of inventory stood at 6.2 months at the end of August on a national basis, which is little changed from the end of July (6.1 months). The national months of inventory figure has been stable at about six months since April. The number of months of inventory represents the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity, and is another measure of the balance between housing supply and demand.

The actual (not seasonally adjusted) national average price for homes sold in August 2011 stood at $349,916. This is 7.7 per cent above its year-ago level, which marked the low point for 2010.

The national average price has moderated compared to earlier this year, with sales activity in Vancouver, and more recently in Toronto, exerting less of an effect on the national average. Their share of provincial and national sales activity reached unusually elevated levels earlier this year, but has since receded in line with normal seasonal variations.

“Once again, economic and financial market headwinds outside Canada are keeping interest rates lower for longer,” said Gregory Klump, CREA’s Chief Economist. “Those headwinds will likely persist until, and indeed after, fiscal quagmires in the U.S. and Europe are resolved. In the meantime, the Bank ofCanada will have ample reason to delay raising interest rates further, which is supportive for the Canadian housing market.”

The 12-percentage-point gap was smaller than the average across the 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, where the proportions stood at 81-61.

StatsCan also says the proportion of adults aged 25 to 64 with a college diploma or a university degree rose to 50 per cent from 39 per cent between 1999 and 2009, outpacing the average OECD increase.

Canada’s employment rate for adults aged 25 to 64 who had not completed secondary education was 55 per cent in 2009, while the rate for graduates of college and university programs was 82 per cent.

Canada devoted six per cent of its gross domestic product to educational institutions in 2007, about the same share as the OECD average.

About 42 per cent of that share of GDP went to college and university programs, the highest among the OECD countries.

“Canadian citizenship is not for sale. I encourage anyone who has information regarding citizenship fraud to call our tip line,” said Minister Kenney. “My department will ensure that all tips are investigated and that appropriate action is taken.”

Cases involving false representation, fraud or knowingly concealing material circumstances in the citizenship process – for example, pretending to be present in Canada to meet the residence requirements for obtaining citizenship – should be referred to the citizenship fraud tip line at CIC’s Call Centre at 1-888-242-2100 (in Canada only, 7:00 am to 7:00 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday). Those overseas can contact the nearest Canadian visa office. Tips may also be reported by e-mail at Citizenship-fraud-tips@cic.gc.ca.

All other types of fraud tips related to immigration should be reported to the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) Border Watch Tip Line at 1-888-502-9060. The CBSA is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

To date, CIC has identified approximately 2,000 people from over 100 countries who may have obtained Canadian citizenship fraudulently, many by using the services of crooked consultants to misrepresent their residence in Canada. CIC is taking steps to revoke citizenship from those who obtained it fraudulently, where allowed by the evidence.

The others were open to cutting corners, usually by paying cash for goods and services. However, almost all are reluctant to fudge on their actual tax returns, preferring under-the-table deals to dodge taxes.

The survey didn’t say how much is lost to tax cheats, but in July, Statistics Canada estimated that the underground economy in Canada was worth as much as $36 billion in 2008, a 90-per-cent increase over 1992.

At the time of the StatsCan release, the revenue agency said it used “a mix of outreach, education, and communications, as well as enforcement and audit actions to combat” the underground economy.

“The CRA plans on continuing its efforts to combat the underground economy. It continues to be a high priority, and the CRA will use the study’s findings to further improve its tools and activities.”

The newly released poll by Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. was conducted Jan. 29-Feb. 28 this year. The survey sample of 3,884 people gives it a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The report divided respondents into six categories, according to their attitudes.

The 31 per cent called “law abiders” and 18 per cent dubbed “altruistic compliers” are low risks to fudge on taxes. The former are likely to be women, over 65, less educated and retired. The latter tend to be age 45-64, married, working full time, university-educated and with household incomes of $100,000 plus.

The other four groups, of about 12-15 per cent each, were more open to cheating.

One group rationalizes cheating. They feel the tax system is unfair. Another group doesn’t think tax dodging is risky. A third think they already pay too much in taxes and look for a chance to pay cash and dodge the tax collector.

The last group, about 13 per cent of respondents, are called “outlaws.” They’re willing to cheat, don’t think it’s a big deal and tend to believe that most people feel the same way. This group tends to be male, under 30 and self-employed.

“The outlaws are the least likely to articulate traditional values and among the most likely to feel that control over their lives lies elsewhere,” the study said.

The $140,000 report offered few prescriptions to remedy the situation. For example, it said focusing on penalties is most likely to be ineffective against those most likely to cheat.

It also conceded that since the survey relied on people to admit to wrongdoing, the likelihood of tax cheating may actually be higher than the results indicated.

Catherine Swift, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, scoffed at the study.

“I just don’t know why they waste our money in this way,” she said.

“There’s no surprising revelations here. There have been other studies done on underground economy activity, tax cheats or whatever you want to call it. Big deal.”

Swift said there are many reasons people cheat. They see taxes as too high, they see government wasting tax money and in hard times, they may simply be trying to make ends meet.

Even the study’s “outlaws” are hardly a surprise, she added.

“They’re young guys who are probably a little marginal, at least at the moment, and they’re not seeing taxes as a high priority in their lives. It’s all common sense.

“I have no idea what the utility is of piddling away $140,000 on this study. I really don’t. Big waste of money.”

A spokesman for the Canada Revenue Agency was not immediately available for comment.

That means the bank’s policy rate will remain at one per cent until at least the end of October — and likely well into next year — ensuring low borrowing costs for Canadians.

The bank says in its latest statement that both the world and Canadian economies are weaker than expected, and risks have risen dramatically in the past month.

Financial conditions in Canada have tightened in the face of the global turmoil, it adds.

As a result, it says the need to withdraw stimulus in the form of super-low interest rates has diminished.

The bank says it is not worried that low interest rates will trigger inflation, noting diminished global demand and continuing low wage growth in Canada.

The vast majority of economists now are convinced Carney will keep the short-term rate at one per cent for another year.

Analysts say that if there is any change to the policy, it may be to lower the rate rather than raise it by the year’s end, say analysts.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve Board has said it will keep rates at current low levels for at least another two years to try and stimulate the sagging economy.

On Wednesday, the markets are eagerly awaiting the governor’s views about the near future prospects and whether he will signal a possible rate decrease.

In July, the last time Carney pronounced on interest rates, the bank’s statement began with the often-voiced mantra that “the global economic expansion is proceeding broadly as projected.”

That won’t do anymore, says Bank of Montreal economist Douglas Porter.

At the time, Carney had expected the second quarter to show a 1.5 per cent growth rate — anemic perhaps, but far better than the minus 0.4 per cent the economy actually got.

Now the prospect of a second recession, particularly in the U.S., has gained currency, which will have stark implications for Canada in terms of jobs and government budgets.

Scotiabank economist Derek Holt says he doesn’t believe there is sufficient urgency to cut interest rates now, but he says the governor must become more realistic about the economic landscape.

The Come to Canada Wizard, which helps people determine if they are eligible to come to Canada, has recorded over 100,000 visits in its first three weeks of operation. The majority of the people using it – approximately 80% – are doing so from outside Canada.

“This tool makes it easier for potential immigrants and visitors to understand the immigration process,” said Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney. “At this rate, we can expect more than a million users to benefit from the website by this time next year.”

The Come to Canada tool presents users with a series of questions and, based on their answers, matches them with the federal immigration option that best suits their specific circumstances. It then leads them to a page that breaks down the application steps and provides instructions and forms.

Come to Canada is proving to be both popular and user friendly. A majority of people using it completed all the steps to find the immigration option that suited them best. This success is reflected by the comments CIC has received from users of the tool.

“Excellent tool, very user friendly and straightforward,” wrote one user.

“This is the best way to get everyone to answer whether they are eligible or not,” noted another. “The most important thing is that people will stop going to fraudulent consultants and they can save their money and their parents’ money. Thanks to Canada for launching this.”

To view the Come to Canada Wizard, go to www.cic.gc.ca/cometocanada.

Immigration has been a sustaining feature of Canada’s history and continues to play an important role in building our country. Canada has one of the highest per capita rates of permanent immigration in the world—roughly 0.8% in recent years—and has welcomed 3.5 million immigrants in the last 15 years.

“The online consultation provides an important opportunity to gather input from stakeholders and the public on key questions facing CIC “ said Minister Kenney. “This is also a chance to highlight some of the considerations and difficult choices involved in managing a global immigration system.”

In planning for the total number of people to admit as permanent residents, CIC not only balances immigration objectives but also considers several other factors, including broader government commitments, input from provinces and territories, and current and future economic conditions. The Department must also consider its ability to process applications in a timely manner, as well as the capacity of communities to welcome newcomers.

The questionnaire is a key component of the cross-country consultations Minister Kenney and his parliamentary secretaries are currently leading on immigration levels and mix. In July, the Minister consulted with stakeholders in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. This month, parliamentary secretaries Rick Dykstra and Chungsen Leung held round tables in Mississauga, Scarborough and London. Additional sessions may be planned in the coming weeks and months.

Thus far, the majority of stakeholders present at the consultation sessions expressed a fairly positive view of the current immigration system. They have identified immigration as a critical way to meet labour market needs, citing economic factors as among the most important considerations when establishing immigration levels, followed by integration concerns. Participants have also highlighted the importance of family reunification and the need to address wait times in the parent and grandparent stream.

More than 1,600 people have already signed up to complete the questionnaire. It is available at the following link: www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/consultations/index.asp.

A report on the consultations, including the online questionnaire, will be available on the CIC website in the fall of 2011 or winter 2012.

“We spend a lot of time and money getting to and from work each day – not to mention the environmental strain and stress that comes with commuting,” saidKelly Dixon, President of Workopolis.  “Today, working from home is a viable option for many. We need to continue to promote the benefits of telecommuting and encourage more flexible working arrangements for Canadian workers.”

Just Getting to Work Can be Hard Work
Part of getting back into the daily routine of commuting can mean expecting public transit delays, busier stations and, of course, more traffic jams – all contributors of stress to the Canadian worker.

More common modes of commuting include:

• Two-thirds (69%) of workers commute by car on their own;
• One-in-five (19%) take public transit;
• One-in-ten (10%) carpool;
• 12% walk ; and
• 4% ride a bicycle

Commuting: By the Numbers
The latest Statistics Canada Census from 2006 reveals there are over 18 million people (over the age of 15) who are currently employed in Canada. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of Canadians polled said they commute by car on their own. That would equate to a savings of nearly $120 million for Canadian workers and more than 60 Kg of CO₂ emissions if these workers were given the option to work from home for just one day a year.

Not surprising, the longest average commuters reside in provinces with Canada’s most urban cities. Those in British Columbia and Ontario lead the way with an average commute time of 48 minutes each, while Atlantic Canadians and Quebecers spend the least amount of time commuting (31 and 34 minutes respectively).

Today, only four in ten (38 per cent) of Canadian workers work from home a few days per month even though many companies have the capability through emerging and secure technologies and practices to offer this as an option to their employees. Offering the option of working from home can also help to position a company as an employer of choice.  In fact, seven in ten (68 per cent) of respondents indicated they have turned down a job prospect just to avoid a long commute.

“Grappling with gridlock is a terrible way to begin or wrap up any work day,” said Dixon.  “Offering Canadian workers the option to work from their own homes, even if it’s just one day a year, would do wonders for our collective rush hour mentality.”

“Found” Time
By working from home, Canadians are able to spend the time they would normally be commuting on doing the things they want such as spending time with family and friends.

The top five ways Canadians would prefer to spend their extra time are:

• Completing chores or housework – 83% (even higher for women at 86%)
• Spending time with family or friends – 79%
• Engaging in other recreational, hobby or leisure activities – 76%
• Preparing more nutritious meals – 74%
• Get more sleep – 71%

Interestingly, six in ten (58 per cent) said they would spend the extra time working more hours.  This number is even higher for those Canadians who are already working from home some of the time (73 per cent).

The New Democratic Party issued a statement Monday on behalf of Layton’s wife Olivia Chow, and his children Sarah and Michael Layton.

“We deeply regret to inform you that The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 a.m. today, Monday, Aug. 22,” the statement said.

“He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones.”

Layton’s death is not only heartbreaking in how quickly it came after he announced his illness on July 25, but that it came so soon after what is considered Layton’s greatest political achievement.

After an entire life spent in politics — first as an academic, then as a city councillor, then in federal politics – Layton had been riding a wave of popularity ahead of his death. It was his personal popularity that many credit for the NDP’s “orange crush” in the 2011 federal election. Buoyed by his party’s success, Layton had even put the prime minister’s office in his sights for the next election.

Now, with his death, those dreams come to an end and put the very future of his party into doubt.

While not everyone agreed with Layton’s socialist views, there were few who didn’t respect the man’s passion and work ethic.

The politician who had once been a scrappy city councillor with a brash, sometimes strident style, matured into a federal party leader renowned for his dedication.

Layton’s colleagues say he was a master politician who knew how to both work a crowd and work out compromise within his team. All the while, he seemed to never abandon the causes he held most dear: poverty, the environment, public transit, workers’ rights.

The Foreign Credentials Referral Office’s (FCRO) annual report, released today, highlights the important achievements made by Citizenship and Immigration (CIC), Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Health Canada, who work in partnership with provinces and territories and other key stakeholders to help foreign trained workers with the foreign credential recognition processes.

“We want newcomers to be able to use their skills as soon as possible in Canada and work to their full potential,” said Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. “It’s good for them and good for the Canadian economy.”

The Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Credentials met its commitment in 2010 to let foreign skilled workers in eight targeted occupations know within a year of applying whether their credentials are recognized or what additional courses they would need to take to have their credentials recognized. The Framework, led by HRSDC, is a Government of Canada project in partnership with the provinces and territories.

“Foreign-trained workers make an important contribution to Canada’s labour market and economy. That’s why Canada’s Economic Action Plan invested $50 million to work with partners to improve foreign credential recognition,” said Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. “Our government is helping newcomers find meaningful work that contributes to Canada’s overall prosperity.”

In 2010, the Government of Canada, with the Association of Community Colleges, expanded the Canadian Immigrant Integration Program (CIIP) to serve not only Federal Skilled Workers but also Provincial Nominees, and their spouses and working-age dependents with two-day orientation sessions on Canadian culture, the labour market and foreign credential recognition processes. The overseas courses better prepare skilled immigrants to integrate more quickly into the Canadian labour market and society.

The program is showing success. By September 2010, nearly 13,000 applicants had registered for CIIP services and over 9,100 had completed the two-day course. Among the CIIP graduates who had arrived in Canada, 70 per cent said they found employment despite the economic downturn.

Other key developments this past year included:

• The Federal Internship for Newcomers program gave 65 interns, more than double the number in 2009, key Canadian work experience in 11 government departments.
• In B.C. the Physician Integration Project, funded, in part, through Health Canada’s Internationally Educated Health Professionals Initiative, was revised to better support international medical graduates as they integrate into the B.C. workforce.
• The Working in Canada website (www.workingincanada.gc.ca) was upgraded to provide information on licensing and certification requirements for various professions, which are steps applicants can begin while still overseas.
• The Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO) provides information, path-finding and referral services to internationally trained workers both in Canada and overseas and collaborates with federal partners and other stakeholders to improve foreign credential recognition processes.

To read the Government of Canada 2010 Progress Report on Foreign Credential Recognition, go to: www.credentials.gc.ca

The announcement was made by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney and British Columbia Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Pat Bell.

“Since I became Minister, I have heard from workers, employers, labour advocates and others who have asked me to make Canada more welcoming for working families coming to Canada as temporary residents,” said Minister Kenney. “With this pilot project, we will examine the benefits of allowing family members of temporary foreign workers to work while they are here with a principal applicant who has been hired because of his or her skills.”

In general, temporary foreign workers come to Canada to meet the needs of a specific employer who has been unable to find citizens or permanent residents for the available jobs. An open work permit, however, allows the holder to accept any job with any employer.

Previously, only spouses and common-law partners of temporary foreign workers employed in a managerial, professional or skilled trades job have been eligible to obtain an open work permit in British Columbia. Starting August 15,spouses, common-law partners and working-age dependants of most temporary foreign workers will be eligible, including many workers in occupations that require lower levels of formal training.

“More than a million jobs will open up in B.C. by 2020, and we will need foreign workers to help meet the skills shortages our businesses are already beginning to face,” said Minister Bell. “Giving more spouses and working-aged children of temporary foreign workers the chance to take jobs will support local businesses, while contributing to local, regional and provincial economic growth.”

Up to 1,800 open work permits will be available under the pilot project, which will end on February 15, 2013.

“Nearly 32,000 temporary foreign workers made the transition to permanent status in 2010, and of those, almost 2,300 chose to immigrate permanently to BC,” Minister Kenney noted. “We understand the important role that foreign workers have in every region of the country and we will continue to look at ways to attract workers who have the skills we need now and into the future.”

British Columbia’s shared role in immigration was cemented in April 2010 with the signing of the Canada-British Columbia Immigration Agreement.

Connect with the Province of B.C. at www.gov.bc.ca/connect.

Currently, about 30% of Canadian immigrants are economic migrants selected on the basis of their necessary skills or an arranged employment offer. Kenney recently confirmed that while immigration levels won’t jump drastically, immigration had a role to play in off-setting the country’s ageing population and skills shortages. Today, about 70% of Canada’s 34.1 million population is of working age – a figure expected drop to 60% within 25 years.

Kenney said federal government would continue to recognise the importance of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) to help provinces and territories obtain the skilled migrants they need to fill labour shortages. Under the scheme, provinces can choose to sponsor migrants whose skills, education and work experience will have an immediate economic impact.

The top three provincial nominees are the booming oil and gas provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Last year, Canada accepted 38,428 provincial/territory nominees, including more than 8,600 temporary foreign workers who later became permanent residents.

Canada will accept a record of 40,000 provincial nominee immigrants in 2011 – five times more than Canada’s PNP intake for 2005. The Citizenship and Immigration Department is currently conducting a series of nation-wide consulations about immigration levels and the type of migrants it should accept into the country.

The bank found that of those debt-holders, four in 10 say their current debt level is an obstacle to reaching future financial goals.

Broken down by age, the survey found that 35- to 44-year-old Canadians are most likely to hold various forms of debt, with 89 per cent of that group saying they hold at least one form of debt.

Those aged both 18 to 24, and 65 or older, were least likely to have debt. By region, the survey found that more Albertans are carrying debt, with 77 per cent of respondents in the province having at least some.

British Columbia has the lowest levels of debt in all of the provinces.

“Not exactly what the doctor ordered, but not bad,” BMO Capital Markets deputy chief economist Doug Porter wrote in a note to investors.

“The Canadian jobs report sets a reasonably good table. The headline jobs tally was a touch light, but the details of the report are unambiguously healthier — the strong gain in full-time jobs, the pop in private sector employment, and the fact that the overall number was skewed lower by yet another July drop in education employment.”

While the number of net jobs created was lower than predicted, the unemployment rate came it pretty much as economists had forecast.

“Markets had been expecting an unchanged position,” Peter Buchanan, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, wrote in an investors’ note.

“A fairly mixed report overall, with the details somewhat better than the headline.”

Increases in the private sector were offset by losses in the public sector and fewer people who were self employed.

The gains were led by the construction sector, which saw an increase of 31,000 jobs. Employment in the transportation and warehousing sector was up 28,000 jobs, and there were also 28,000 more people working in retail and wholesale trade in July. There were 39,000 fewer jobs in health-care and social assistance, 30,000 fewer jobs in elementary and secondary schools, 14,000 fewer jobs in business, building and other support services, 11,000 fewer jobs in natural resources and 9,000 fewer jobs in agriculture.

Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador posted job gains in July, while Ontario saw losses.

Employment was down 22,400 jobs in Ontario following a slight increase in June. Despite the drop, employment growth over the last year stands at 1.6 per cent, which is similar to the national growth rate.

The rest of the provinces were largely unchanged. Quebec’s jobless rate fell slightly, mostly because of fewer people entering the workforce.

Search for Canadian Jobs

But some doctors say the colleges who are responsible for approving licences aren’t respecting the provincial agreement. “This is something that was agreed amongst the politicians but it was not agreed amongst the physicians,” said Dr. Rubens Barbosa, a Brazilian-trained anaesthesiologist working in Edmundston, N.B., who recently had an application to transfer his licence to Ontario rejected.

The responsibility for who does and doesn’t become licensed is left up to bodies that are run by physicians in each province.

The problem is that these colleges “are reluctant to accept a law that was proposed by the politicians and they’re doing whatever they can to prevent this from happening,” said Barbosa.

Provincial governments were hoping the changes would help fill in holes in the skilled workforce. Many provinces — including Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — are currently facing a shortage of doctors as many residents are unable to find a family physician.

About four million Canadians, or about four per cent of the population, don’t have a family doctor, a 2009 poll conducted for the College of Family Physicians of Canada suggested.

A spokeswoman for the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, the organization that rejected Barbosa’s application, denied the charge that it doesn’t respect the mobility law.

“The CPSO respects labour mobility,” Kathryn Clarke wrote in an email.

But the body that represents colleges across the country said they are aware that those working to transfer special licences across provincial boundaries are still facing challenges.

Differing standards

The issue is that restrictions on special licences, which can include requiring the holders to be supervised by more experienced physicians and only allowing them to operate if the province has a shortage of the physicians’ specialty, are not equivalent across provinces.

“We are working on how we could facilitate for them a mobility from one jurisdiction to another taking into account the fact that they don’t have a full licensure,” said Dr. Yves Robert, the president of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada.

Robert said he expected a new agreement that would bring in a common set of standards for specially licensed physicians between provinces would be approved within a year.

The majority of physicians who practise with special licences in Canada are internationally trained, said Dr. William Lowe, a past president of the MRAC.

They usually use these as a stepping stone to becoming fully accredited and eventually helping to address the country’s doctor shortages.

Barbosa said he has consulted with the Canadian Medical Protective Association, an organization that provides doctors with legal advice, and it is currently looking into the issue on his behalf.

Luce Lavoie, the director of communications for CMPA, did not confirm or deny that was the case. She also declined to comment on the overall issue of labour mobility for doctors because the organization has yet to issue a policy position on it.

Few approvals despite law

Numbers maintained by the colleges suggest the changes to the Agreement on Internal Trade, which was updated in April 2009 with the new labour mobility provisions, have done little to change the number of physicians moving from one province to another.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia has granted licences to about 250 applicants since April 2009, six of those under the labour mobility provisions.

“The numbers have not changed dramatically at all,” said Bruce Thorne, manager of policy and communications for the college, referring to the approvals they’ve given since the new provisions were introduced.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta has approved five applicants under the new labour mobility provisions out of a total of about a thousand approved in 2009 and 2010, said spokeswoman Kelly Eby.

They have another 22 who are currently in the application process.

The Ontario college rejected 26 applicants who had applied under the labour mobility provisions between January 2010 and April 2011, said Clarke. Most of these people had restricted licences.

Many other licensing bodies don’t maintain numbers showing how many applicants who applied under the labour mobility provisions have been approved or rejected.

Barbosa had applied under the inter-provincial mobility rules the provinces had promised would bring an end to the restrictions for physicians.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario rejected his application in December 2010.

Colleges are only required to accept an application under the labour mobility provisions if they have a similar category in their licensing process.

The Ontario college did not grant Barbosa a licence because they said there was no equivalent category in Ontario, a copy of the decision reached by the province’s Health Professionals Appeals and Review Board reads.

But Barbosa disputed that claim, saying he already had a full licence he has been operating under for five years.

Andrew Calvert, an earth sciences professor at Simon Fraser University, says he may be able to help solve a little piece of that puzzle, following the publication of a recent article in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Calvert and a team of researchers concluded a section of a fault line in the Pacific Northwest — the area where two of the earth’s tectonic plates meet — is seven kilometres deeper than previously thought.

The study found the section in question is actually 27 to 42 kilometres deep, not 25 to 35 kilometres, and is under Washington state.

Calvert said that’s important. While the new information won’t help determine when or where the Big One will come — nothing yet can do that — it will help scientists refine their calculations on any ground shaking that will take place during an earthquake.

“Essentially, what we saw in Japan is what will happen in the Pacific Northwest sooner or later,” said Calvert, noting a major earthquake hits B.C. every 500 years. The last quake was in 1700.

“We’re building up to a greater likelihood of a very large earthquake that will have minutes of ground shaking and a large tsunami coming in along the coast line.”

Calvert said an earthquake in the Pacific Northwest could occur along the fault line and cover an area 100 to 150 kilometres east to west and an area of 500 to 800 kilometres north to south.

Calvert said he’s prepared to speculate that the earthquake could even strike south of Vancouver Island, deep underneath Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula.

He said the shaking in Vancouver should be less than the shaking in Victoria, but to get an idea of the resulting damage, people need only look at what happened in Japan on March 11.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami hammered the country’s northeastern coast. More than 26,000 people were killed or reported missing. The government was forced to pass a $48-billion recovery budget.

Calvert said his team used data that focused on a 200-kilometre-long stretch of fault line between Victoria and southern Washington state.

According to Natural Resources Canada, more than 1,000 earthquakes occur in Western Canada annually.

During the past 70 years, more than 100 magnitude-5 earthquakes have occurred off Vancouver Island. Earthquakes of that magnitude are large enough to cause damage if they are close to land.

APTN National News is reporting that Ottawa is leaving Indian bands with a take-it-or-leave-it option on the government’s final offer.

“We need immediate clarification on this. Is this actually going to be the case?” said Don Kelly, spokesman for the AFN.

He said that if the news reports are accurate, many First Nations will be beside themselves with anger, since the move would violate the spirit of previous arrangements. Duncan, however, says recent media reports “have included inaccuracies,” though he doesn’t say what they are.

“First Nations raised concerns in the past about the slow pace of progress in resolving outstanding claims. To address their concerns, we have adopted a new approach to speed up claims resolution. This includes three-year time frames for negotiating settlements that were set out in the jointly developed Specific Claims Tribunal Act,” he said in a statement.

“First Nations can now opt to refer their claims to the Tribunal for a binding decision if three years of negotiations do not result in a final settlement.” APTN quotes negotiators for First Nations, who did not want to speak on record, as saying they have been informed of the move by negotiators for the federal government.

One lawyer working for a firm representing several Indian bands told APTN that the Oct. 16 anniversary of the Specific Claims Tribunal Act has been set as the deadline.

The report says that if a First Nation rejects the government’s final offer, the only recourse will be to take the claim before the Specific Claims Tribunal — a body that has a $250 million cap each year for settling claims.

Aboriginal leaders have suspected for some time that the federal government was about to impose an ultimatum on some of the ongoing claims.

Resolution passed

At their annual general meeting in Moncton this month, First Nations passed a resolution saying Ottawa should “reverse its decision to arbitrarily cut off negotiations using the time frames provided for in the Special Claims Tribunal Act.”

They added that “a decision to terminate negotiations ought to be based on the principles of good faith, respect and mutuality, rather than arbitrariness and unilateralism.”

They also asked Ottawa to stop using partial acceptance of a negotiated settlement as an excuse to completely reject a deal.

AFN figures say there are almost 600 claims up for negotiation right now. The chiefs say about 65 active negotiations would be affected by the Ottawa ultimatum.

Calls to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development were not immediately returned.

Sense of despair

But there is a growing sense of despair within the government that the land claims negotiations often drag on with no end in sight, costing the federal government millions in legal costs.

Plus, the federal government fears that the outstanding claims against it are a black mark on its credit rating and international reputation.

The Special Claims Tribunal Act was passed in 2008 mainly as an incentive to Ottawa and First Nations to negotiate land claims settlements, rather than litigate. First Nations can choose to take their claims to the tribunal for a binding ruling, after three years of trying to negotiate with Ottawa.

The chiefs say Ottawa’s ultimatum would turn the intent of that legislation on its head.

“The arbitrary decision by [Aboriginal Affairs] to cut off specific claims negotiations will cause further hardship to claimants who have been waiting for years to negotiate their claims,” they said in their Moncton resolution.

“It is in bad faith and not conducive to the settlement of claims and is inconsistent with the principles of the “Justice At Last” initiative which was the basis for the SCTA.”

Police reported nearly 2.1 million Criminal Code incidents last year, down about 77,000 from 2009. There were declines in a variety of crimes, including homicide, attempted murder, serious assaults and robbery and other property crimes. But there were increases in some areas, including sexual assault, firearms crimes, criminal harassment, child pornography and drug offences.

The Crime Severity Index reached its lowest point (82.7) since 1998, the first year for which Index data are available. The decline in crime severity in 2010 was seen virtually across the country. The only exceptions were increases in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Violent crime

Police reported just over 437,000 violent incidents in 2010, about 7,200 fewer than in the previous year. Violent crimes accounted for just over 1 in 5 offences.

The violent Crime Severity Index declined 6% in 2010 to 88.9, the fourth consecutive annual decrease. Decreases were reported in every province except Newfoundland and Labrador, where police reported a 13% increase.

There were 554 homicides, 56 fewer than in 2009. The national rate of 1.62 homicides per 100,000 population in 2010 was the lowest since 1966. The 10% decline in the homicide rate from 2009 to 2010 followed a decade of relative stability.

The national decline in the homicide rate was driven primarily by a large decrease in British Columbia, where the rate (1.83) was at an all-time low. However, the rate in this province was still slightly higher than the national average.

The number of attempted murders also declined, from 801 in 2009 to 693 in 2010. This resulted in the lowest rate for this offence in over 30 years.

Police reported more than 22,000 sexual assaults in 2010. This represented an increase of 5% in the rate since 2009, the first increase in sexual assault since 2005.

Non-violent crime

Similar to previous years, most crimes (79%) reported by police in 2010 were non-violent. Theft under $5,000, mischief and break-ins accounted for close to two-thirds of the almost 1.7 million non-violent offences.

The non-violent Crime Severity Index fell 6% in 2010 to 80.3, the seventh consecutive decline.

Police reported nearly 200,000 break-ins last year. The rate of break-ins fell 6% in 2010, continuing a steady decline since peaking in the early 1990s.

Nearly 93,000 motor vehicles were reported stolen in 2010. This represented a 15% drop in the rate since 2009 and a continuation of the downward trend seen since the mid-1990s.

Saskatchewan reported the highest rate of motor vehicle theft in 2010. This is a change from a decade-long trend which saw Manitoba reporting the highest rate among the provinces.

The national rate of impaired driving fell 6% from 2009, following three consecutive years of increase. However, the rate of impaired driving has generally been declining since peaking in 1981.

In 2010, police reported over 108,000 drug offences, about half of which were for possession of cannabis. The rate of drug offences increased 10% from 2009, continuing a general upward trend that began in the early 1990s.

Provinces and territories

Among the provinces, Alberta and British Columbia reported the largest declines in crime in 2010. The crime rate fell by 6% in both provinces, while the Crime Severity Index decreased by 8% in Alberta and 7% in British Columbia.

As in previous years, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories continued to report the highest Crime Severity Index values. Among the provinces, Saskatchewan reported the highest Crime Severity Index, followed by Manitoba and British Columbia. The lowest Crime Severity Index values were seen in Ontario, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

Metropolitan areas

The volume and severity of crime fell or remained stable across virtually all census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in 2010, including Canada’s 10 largest cities.

In 2010, three CMAs reported an increase in crime severity. St. John’s had the largest increase, up 12%, followed by Greater Sudbury (+4%) and Peterborough (+3%).

As has been the case since 1998, Regina reported the highest Crime Severity Index, followed by Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Calgary was the only western CMA to have a Crime Severity Index below the national average.

Guelph reported the lowest Crime Severity Index for the fourth year in a row, followed by Québec, Toronto and Ottawa.

Youth crime

Police reported that nearly 153,000 youth aged 12 to 17 were accused of a crime in 2010, almost 15,000 fewer than the previous year. The youth crime rate, which measures the overall volume of crime committed by youth, declined by 7%.

Youth crime rates declined for most offences in 2010, including homicide, serious assaults, motor vehicle thefts and break-ins. However, robbery was one of the few offences to show an increase for youth in 2010, up 2%.

The youth Crime Severity Index has also declined over the past 10 years, including a 6% drop in 2010. However, the severity of violent crime committed by youth has not seen the same decrease. Despite a 4% drop between 2009 and 2010, the youth violent Crime Severity Index was 5% higher than in 2000.

Photo: Genevieve Parise

The “Park Dreams Contest” asks people to share in 50 words or less a dream experience they’ve already had or wish for in any one of Canada’s 42 national parks. The topic is wide, and CPAWS is looking for dreams ranging from the wildest excursion to the most stunning view. There will be a two-week voting period after the closing date to help determine which 100 dreams will make it onto Canada’s first national parks bucket list.

The top-voted dream will win the grand prize trip for two to the Nahanni and the two runners up will receive great prize packages including a Mountain Equipment Co-Op shopping spree, Parks Canada Family Discovery Passes, great gear by CPAWS and a year’s subscription to Explore Magazine. All participants will also be eligible for great weekly prizes! Watch out for the 24 hours “takeover”-24 additional prizes to win!

“This is an opportunity for Canadians to share their dream experiences in our national parks.  We encourage everyone who has ever been to a national park, or dreams of getting to one, to share their ideas. We have amazing natural treasures in our parks and this is a year to celebrate them,” says CPAWS National Executive Director, Éric Hébert-Daly.

Watch out for the 24hours Takeover July 22^nd! Win a customized overnight getaway with six of your friends in your favorite national park! Enter your park dream on July 22nd and qualify for the 24Hours Takeover prize pack (valued at over $1000)! Experience your park like never before with custom activities, a tour by Parks Canada staff and much more!

In a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, discussed the rapid growth in provincial nominee programs in recent years.

“Our government recognizes the importance of nominee programs in spreading out the benefits of immigration around the country,” said Minister Kenney. “That is why we plan to admit about 40,000 immigrants in the provincial nominee category in 2011, five times more than the 8,000 welcomed in 2005.  The previous high was 36,428 provincial nominees in 2010.”

Traditionally, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have attracted a disproportionate share of skilled immigrants coming to Canada. However, the top three provinces for provincial nominees are Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Thanks in large part to the provincial/territorial nominee programs, 26% of economic immigrants accepted as permanent residents of Canada are now destined for provinces or territories other than Ontario, British Columbia or Quebec, compared to just 11% in 1997.

“We understand the desire of provinces and territories to identify their own economic immigrants and that is why we have continued to increase our projected admissions for nominees each year,” noted Minister Kenney. “At the same time, we are committed to working with our provincial and territorial counterparts to continue to improve the program design, integrity, selection standards and management of the nominee programs.”

The provincial nominee program is also a good way to get workers in quickly. Applications are processed within 12 months on average, as are federal skilled worker applications under recent ministerial instructions.

Provincial nominee programs are being discussed as part of this month’s cross-Canada consultations on immigration levels and mix. In addition, a comprehensive evaluation of the provincial nominee programs is underway. With the knowledge gained through each of these processes, CIC will be able to work with provincial and territorial partners on a longer-term approach to levels planning.

Numerous surveys and ongoing research by the Insurance Corporation of B.C. agrees driver courtesy is gradually eroding, said ICBC psychologist John Vavrik.

“People generally feel there’s a lack of courtesy, there’s a lot of anger out there and people are concerned about running into aggressive drivers,” Vavrik said.

Topping the list of bad manners for those polled in the CAA survey are road rage and being cut off in traffic, with 86 per cent of respondents citing those behaviours. Texting or talking on the phone, tailgating, failing to use signals and tossing trash out the window also rank high on the list of irritations.

All behaviours that can be corrected, said Ian Jack, a spokesman for the automobile association.

“They’re all the sorts of things that we were told when we took driving lessons, or did our driving test and first got our license, that we really shouldn’t do,” he said.

The problem has become so pronounced in B.C. that the Crown insurance provider launched an advertising campaign reminding people to indicate they’re thankful for a traffic kindness.

“We’re tying to resurrect the wave,” Vavrik said of the simple tip of the hand that has become increasingly rare on Canadian roadways.

There’s a general tendency to think that everyone in traffic is wound up and lacks courtesy, he said, so ICBC is trying to change that perception.

Jack said the first step to fixing the problem is recognizing that all drivers could be a bit better — even yourself.

“The odds are that if we’re civil to other people, most — not all — but most, will be civil back,” Jack said.

One sticky issue may be getting drivers to admit they, too, could be a better driver.

A recent ICBC survey showed drivers gave their performance on the road a B+ while they graded other drivers around them a C+.

“People have a hard time looking in the mirror and recognizing that they’re part of the problem,” Vavrik said.

It’s not just an issue of bad manners either. Vavrik said hot headed drivers are impaired because they don’t recognize hazards and make poor judgments.

It’s a problem that could lead to injury or even death, Jack said.

“These habits that seem a little bit uncivil are the same ones that could lead you or your loved ones to be killed one day,” he said. “This isn’t a matter of wearing white gloves and extending your pinky as you turn left and turn right, it’s a matter of literally life and death for hundreds of Canadians every year.”

The cost of vehicle accidents to the Canadian economy is in the billions every year, said Michel Bedard, the director of the Centre for Research on Safe Driving at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont.

“If we all kind of relax a bit more, slow down a bit more, I think it would change the whole road environment,” Bedard said. “Our philosophy is: most crashes are preventable.”

Peter Christianson, president of Young Drivers of Canada, said his driving school teaches students the courtesy of space, leaving enough space ahead of their vehicle to allow someone in and making sure the driver beside you has space to move over if necessary.

“It’s just thinking about everybody else on the road,” he said. “When you do that, traffic just works naturally and in fact you don’t have to wave because its just the way everybody drives.”

“The job growth trend in Canada remains solid, as employers expect to continue to add more positions in the second half of this year,” a spokesman from from CareerBuilder said.

Forty-three per cent of respondents said they would be hiring full-time staff in the last half of the year, 26 per cent said they’d hire part-time workers, and 27 per cent said they would be looking for temporary or contract workers. Last year’s corresponding results were 41 per cent for full time, 16 per cent for part time and 24 per cent for temp or contract.

“Our survey and listings on CareerBuilder.ca point to the resilience of the Canadian labour market as economies around the globe work to rebuild after the recession.” they went on to say.

• Many of the positions that will hired for in the coming months, the survey indicated, were either innovation-based or centred around frontline staff. This included jobs in information technology, business development, marketing, customer service and administration.
• More than half the respondents said they were concerned about losing key talent as the economy improves, while 30 per cent said they had already lost some of their top workers in recent months.
• Forty per cent said they have open positions for which they can’t find qualified workers, while about 60 per cent said there is a shortage of skills in their organization. Know-how in IT, communications and customer service were the most common skills lacking.

The results were based on online surveys of 231 non-government hiring managers taken between May 19 and June 8. CareerBuilder said a random sample of this size would yield a margin of error of 6.45 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Incomes of the poor increased marginally in the period, it said, but the gap between rich and poor widened.

The average income of the poorest Canadians rose from $12,400 in 1976 to $14,500 in 2009.

However, the gap between the real average income of the richest 20 per cent of Canadians and the poorest 20 per cent widened from $92,300 in 1976 to $117,500 in 2009.

“While the poor are minimally better off in an absolute sense, they are significantly worse off in a relative sense,” said board CEO Anne Golden in a release.

“High inequality raises two questions. First, what is the impact on the economic well-being of a country? The answer is that high inequality can diminish economic growth if it means that the country is not fully using the skills and capabilities of all its citizens or if it undermines social cohesion, leading to increased social tensions.”

“Second, high inequality raises a moral question about fairness and social justice.”

The analysis found that Canadians in general are better off than they were a generation ago.

The average income in 1976 was $51,100. By 2009, it had increased by 17 per cent to $59,700, even after adjusting for inflation.

But using the measure of median income, which divides the sample into two equal parts and better reflects how the majority of people are doing, the growth was only 5.5 per cent.

Another measure, the Gini index, suggests how the income gap has grown from 1993 to 2008.

The index number corresponds to the percentage share of total income that would need to be redistributed to achieve exact income equality, from 0 to one. (Zero means everyone has the same income and one means one person has all the earnings.)

Canada’s 2009 Gini index of 0.32 meant that 32 per cent of the country’s national income would need to be redistributed in order to have complete equality of income.

The pattern of inequality growth throughout the past three decades has been uneven, the board said.

Poverty among elderly rises

The income gap narrowed in the 1980s, with the Gini index reaching a low of 0.28 in 1989, but remained around 0.32 in the 2000s.

The study found inequality is rising worldwide, but that two countries most similar with Canada in terms of per capita income had narrower gaps. Austria’s was 0.265 and Denmark’s was 0.232.

The board found that every province except Ontario reduced its share of the population living in low income in the period.

“Recent data, however, indicates that income inequality rose during and after the recession,” it said.

“Between 2007 and 2009, seven out of ten provinces experienced a rise in their low-income rates — Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick were the exceptions. The largest jump occurred in Alberta, where the low-income rate rose from 6.6 per cent to 9.9 per cent.”

The study concluded poverty among the elderly, especially women, has risen since the mid-1990s, following a dramatic drop over 20 years.

Between 2006 and 2009, the number of low-income seniors rose by almost nearly 128,000, with 70 per cent of those being women.

Click here for more information and to read the report in more detail

The Minister is meeting with stakeholders and the public to discuss the important issue of immigration levels and mix. Following the Calgary session today, the Minister will meet with stakeholders in Vancouver on July 18, Toronto on July 20 and then Montreal on July 22. Online consultations will take place later this summer and will be open to the public.

The purpose of the consultations is to seek feedback on immigration levels, including the appropriate level of immigration for Canada, and the most suitable mix between economic, family class and protected persons. Discussions on system management to provide improved services, such as reasonable processing times, and addressing issues such as fraud, will also be included.

In planning for the total number of people to admit as permanent residents, CIC not only balances immigration objectives but also considers several other factors, including broader government commitments, input from provinces and territories, and current and future economic conditions. The Department must also consider its operational ability to process applications in a timely manner, as well as the capacity of communities to welcome all newcomers.

In addition to presenting an opportunity to gather input from stakeholders and the public on key questions facing CIC, the consultations also allow the Department to share with stakeholders and the public some of the considerations and difficult choices involved in managing a global immigration system.

The consultations present an important opportunity to generate greater understanding of the trade-offs involved in setting immigration levels. There are competing visions and diverging goals for the future of the immigration program, and there is no single right answer on what the focus should be. Engaging stakeholders and the broader public in that conversation is a key part of developing a plan that will work for Canada going forward.

Invited stakeholders represent a variety of perspectives, including those of employers, labour, academia, learning institutions, professional organizations, business organizations, regulatory bodies, municipalities, settlement provider organizations and ethnocultural organizations.

A report on the consultations will be available on the CIC website once stakeholder and public consultations have been completed.

Led by a team of creative and media experts and introduced through a multifaceted advertising campaign, People for Good is a coalition formed to promote the generosity of spirit among Canadians. People for Good believe everyday good deeds like giving up your seat on the subway or buying a coffee for a co-worker will not only make you happier, but will also make for a better Canada.

This social movement, launched on June 29 across Canada, was co-founded by Mark Sherman, Executive Chair of Media Experts, a media strategy and negotiation company with offices in Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver, and Zak Mroueh, President & Creative Director of Zulu Alpha Kilo, a Toronto-based advertising agency specializing in rebranding. Mr. Mroueh and Mr. Sherman saw the campaign as an opportunity to use their collective talents to harness the power of creativity and the media for the collective good.

“Caught up in our hectic lives and routines, coupled with the stresses and distractions of modern living, many of us have stopped noticing those around us. We’ve stopped caring,” says Mark Sherman of Media Experts. “When something is not right, we tend to rely on someone else – our neighbour, our boss or our government – to fix it. But the truth is, anyone can help change the world. Companies can harness the power of their collective to heal and improve our society. We took stock of what we could do as two business owners. If every Canadian business did the same, the potential for change is limitless.”

“Each of us can do something to make Canada a better place with a simple donation of kindness, one good deed at a time,” says Zak Mroueh of Zulu Alpha Kilo. “Harnessing our creativity through the People for Good campaign, we harness the power of the collective by touching every Canadian with a simple message – care about people around you, be nice to each other, do good. Small good deeds – even as basic as genuinely saying ‘‘thank you’’ to someone who helped you, smiling at a stranger or helping out a co-worker – make a big difference in creating social capital, the glue that holds us together as a community.”

Mr. Mroueh and his team at Zulu Alpha Kilo brought the People for Good campaign to life by spearheading all aspects of its creative development. Mr. Sherman and Media Experts designed and executed a high-impact media strategy spanning traditional and new media.

This collaborative campaign was made possible with the support of an array of partners who donated their time and capabilities, including Martin Belanger working through Zulu Alpha Kilo on all the materials for the Quebec Market.  Other partners included Terry O’Reilly at Pirate Radio & TV, Radke Films, MAVERICK PR and TANK. Thinking Box helped produce the Mobile App. Countless media suppliers and vendors donated space for the initiative.

About the People for Good campaign 

The People for Good campaign was launched through a multifaceted, bold and creative advertising program. Kicking off on June 29 across major Canadian cities, including Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Montréal and Halifax, the program will run through to August 21. The creative, using a mix of humorous, engaging and highly interactive messages and images, challenges Canadians to be nice to each other and do good through simple acts of generosity, such as cutting the grass or shovelling snow for one’s neighbour.

“Advertising is often seen as an intrusion, asking us to buy something or buy into something,” says Mr. Mroueh. “The People for Good campaign is certainly intrusive, too, but we intrude with a different kind of message. Simply put, that message is – be aware of those around you, be nice to them. We place it where people can see it: on the subway, on a highway billboard, in the newspaper or online.”

The creative execution of the campaign includes outdoor, interactive, print, guerrilla and online advertising.

“Our partners – from production houses to printing companies to media advertisers – have joined hands with People for Good by donating their capabilities to a project that, we believe, will make a difference not only in the marketplace, but also in the hearts and minds of Canadians,” says Mr. Sherman of Media Experts.

People for Good  ten tips for good deeds

1. Smile at a stranger – or wave at your fellow subway passenger
2. Open and hold the door for someone
3. Give up your seat on the subway, bus or streetcar
4. Buy a coffee for your co-worker
5. Surprise your colleagues with freshly baked brownies
6. Cut grass or shovel snow for your neighbour
7. Help a stranger change a tire on the road – or put in a coin in expiring parking metre for someone you don’t know
8. Return a grocery cart after someone has used it or let a stranger ahead of you in a store line
9. While  on Facebook, just pick up the phone and give your friend a call
10. Simply say ‘‘Thank you’’ to someone who helped you – and really mean it

Go to peopleforgood.ca to join the movement.

From full-time employees to part-time and temporary workers, the number of companies hiring rose over last year:

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL INFOGRAPHIC

• Hiring full-time, permanent employees 43 per cent, up from 41 per cent in
• Hiring part-time employees 26 per cent, up from 16 per cent in 2010
• Hiring contract or temporary employees 27 per cent, up from 24 per cent in 2010

The top functional areas for which businesses plan to hire first are those on the front lines with customers and those driving innovation:

• Information Technology – 32 per cent
• Customer Service – 30 per cent
• Administrative – 23 per cent
• Business Development – 22 per cent
• Accounting/Finance – 20 per cent
• Marketing – 17 per cent 7. Sales – 13 per cent

“Over the last twelve months, Canada has added positions in a variety of industries and the trend is expected to continue at a healthy pace throughout the remainder of 2011,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America. “Our survey and listings on CareerBuilder.ca point to the resilience of the Canadian labour market as economies around the globe work to rebuild after the recession.”

Employee Turnover

The competition for specialized talent is expected to heat up as employers recruit and try to retain top performers for hard-to-fill positions. Half (51 per cent) of employers are concerned that key talent will leave their organizations as the economy improves, a trend that became increasingly evident over the last six months. 30 per cent of employers reported top workers left their organization in the second quarter.

Shortage of Skilled Workers

Six-in-ten hiring managers report a shortage of skills within their organization. The area which had the greatest shortage of skilled workers was within IT skills, second was communication skills and rounding out the top three was customer service.

Two-in-five (40 per cent) employers reported they have positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates.

For more information and help finding a job in Canada please click here

In a decade-long study, researchers tracked almost one million recent immigrants to Ontario and compared their involvement as drivers in serious road crashes compared to long-time residents of the province, matching each subject in the two groups by age, gender, living location and economic status.

More than 10,000 crashes occurred during the study period. After analyzing hospital and other records, the researchers determined that immigrant drivers — the highest proportions from China and India — were 40 to 50 per cent less likely than long-term residents to be driving a vehicle involved in a bad smash-up.

“These findings suggest that contrary to popular opinion, recent immigrants are less prone to be drivers in a serious crash,” said lead investigator Dr. Donald Redelmeier, an internal medicine specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre who is often on call in the Toronto trauma centre’s emergency department.

“And perhaps one-third of the total 5,000 hospital admissions for road trauma in Ontario each year might be prevented if long-term residents changed their behaviour to match recent immigrants.”

In fact, Redelmeier and colleagues calculated, if long-term residents had the same accident risk profile as recent immigrants, that would have meant about 49 lives saved, 1,000 fewer patients admitted to a critical care unit, a reduction of 2,000 surgeries and 30,000 fewer days in hospital.

“So we’re not looking at violations of (driving) etiquette,” he said Tuesday. “We’re looking at serious crashes that end you up in the emergency department and hospitalized.”

The study, published in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention, found immigrant drivers’ comparative risk of being in a nasty collision was lowest in the initial years following arrival, but still persisted beyond the fifth and sixth years of the eight years each person was tracked.

“But at no point did we find the opposite contrary pattern,” said Redelmeier. “At every year, recent immigrants appeared to be safer drivers.”

While other studies have shown that recent immigrants are less likely to own a car, have shorter daily commutes and tend to use more public transportation compared to long-term residents, those differences are not nearly large enough to account for a 40 to 50 per cent reduction in crashes, he noted.

There could be several factors that explain why new Canadians seem to be more solid drivers: they may travel shorter distances at slower speeds and with greater caution; bad drivers could be indirectly screened out by immigration policies that select for higher education and income levels; and lack of local driving experience might be accompanied by a sense of trepidation.

“If you’re a newcomer to the region, you’re alert and you’re not going to take unnecessary risks and you certainly do not want to get into trouble with the local enforcement agencies,” offered Redelmeier. Contrast that with many long-time residents, who may have a false sense of security and be somewhat slack about safety precautions after driving the same roads for many years.

But what about accidents involving pedestrians? That was one finding where new Canadians didn’t appear to have an edge, he said. ”When it comes to crossing the road by foot, they are no better or no worse than the rest of us.”

Read more from this survey here

The most common response for not having voted was that they were “not interested in voting” (28 per cent), which also includes feeling their vote would not have made a difference in the election results.

The 23 per cent who said they were “too busy,” includes having family obligations or having a schedule conflict at work or school. Another 10 per cent told StatsCan they were out of town or away, while eight per cent reported they did not like the candidates or campaign issues. Roughly four per cent said they forgot to vote, while just over one per cent said they did not vote because of religious beliefs.

About 29 per cent of male non-voters said they did not vote because they were not interested, compared with 26 per cent of women.

Men were also slightly more likely to report that they were too busy to vote. However, female non-voters were more likely than men to indicate they did not vote because of an illness or disability (11 per cent versus six).

Reasons for not voting differed across age groups.

The most common reason among young people aged 18 to 24 who did not vote was that they were not interested in voting — 30 per cent. Another 23 per cent reported they were too busy, while 11 per cent said they were out of town or away.

For adults aged 25 to 34 who did not vote, 31 per cent indicated they were not interested in voting, while 30 per cent said they were too busy.

Among seniors aged 65 to 74 who did not vote, the two most common reasons were their own illness or disability (22 per cent) and that they were not interested (21). The most common reason among individuals aged 75 and over was illness or disability (44 per cent).

The proportion of people who did not vote because they were not interested or they felt their vote would not have made a difference was above the national average in four provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Saskatchewan. The percentage was highest in Quebec (35 per cent).

According to the poll, a majority of newcomers (52 per cent), measure success based on their career, which includes having a good paying job in their field of expertise. Additionally, men (43 per cent) are much more likely than women (28 per cent) to believe that their current job is a step down from what they had, or would have had, in their home country.

“Once newcomers get past some of the career challenges they face when they move toCanada, they make a tremendous contribution to the country’s productivity and diversity,” said Camon Mak, director, Multicultural Markets, RBC. “Canada is built on immigration – new skills and resources continue to be key drivers of our country’s global success. It’s important that we help newcomers get settled quickly both into their new home and their new careers. RBC is here to provide them with relevant financial advice to help them succeed.”

Despite the importance of landing a dream job, only 42 per cent of immigrants indicated that they sought out information about career options in Canada before deciding to move. Twenty-nine per cent searched for information to determine whether there was a demand for their career experience; 24 per cent researched whether or not they would need to be recertified to meet Canadian standards. However, while they may not have their “dream job”, only 12 per cent feel locked in a job that may not lead to their desired occupation.

When polled, newcomers provided the following career advice:

• Be prepared to wait for your dream job
• Determine if you need to be retrained or meet certification requirements
• Find out if there is a demand for your skill set.

Newcomers to Canada - Fast Facts:

• Definitions of success – While the majority (52 per cent) of newcomers define success as being based on their career, as they become more established (six-to-ten years) family (47 per cent) and health (30 per cent) become more important as definitions of success.
• Employment - Less than a third (31 per cent) of respondents have a job in their chosen field and over one-third (36 per cent) have a current job that is at a lower level than what they previously had, or would have had, in their country of origin.
• Career - More than a third (39 per cent) say that lack of Canadian experience has impacted their career options in Canada, followed by lack of available jobs in their area of expertise (30 per cent) and language skill barriers (28 per cent). If they found they were unable to find a job in their career field, the vast majority would consider returning to school (82 per cent), followed by adjusting their goals (75 per cent) or starting a business (73 per cent).

Click here to find jobs and get career advice

“The backlog of federal skilled worker applications is now half of what it was when we announced the Action Plan for Faster Immigration in 2008,” said Minister Kenney. “These measures will help us to continue that progress.”

Canada receives many more immigration applications than can be accepted every year. As part of ongoing efforts to better align application intake with priorities for immigration, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is limiting the number of new applications it will consider in certain categories of the federal economic immigration stream.

Effective July 1, 2011, the changes will affect new applicants to the federal Skilled Worker, federal Immigrant Investor and federal Entrepreneur programs. The changes will not affect the number of permanent resident admissions in 2011 in these three categories.

“Canada continues to welcome historically high numbers of new immigrants each year, but the Government continues to receive applications that far exceed this number,” said Minister Kenney. “If we don’t keep putting reasonable limits on new applications, backlogs and wait times will grow.”

In November 2008, the government first took steps to identify for processing those federal skilled worker applications that responded to Canada’s labour needs, such as applicants with arranged employment offers from Canadian employers or with experience in an occupation in high demand. In June 2010, the government released an updated list of 29 priority occupations and introduced a global cap of 20,000 for federal skilled workers, as well as a sub-cap of 1,000 under each occupation. Over the past year, CIC has received approximately 13,800 federal skilled worker applications under the priority occupations list (figure accurate as of June 24, 2011).

Now, for applicants who do not have an offer of employment in Canada, the government will further limit the number of new federal skilled worker applications that are considered for processing to 10,000 a year, beginning July 1. This limit will help better align the number of applications with labour market demand. Within the 10,000 limit, a maximum of 500 new applications in each of the current 29 priority occupations will be considered.

In addition, the Minister is introducing a cap of 700 on new federal investor applications. Although last year, CIC made changes that raised the minimum net worth and investment requirements, it continues to receive applications in excess of what is required. An annual cap on new applications will allow for progress on backlog reduction while ensuring that the Department has a sufficient volume of new files to meet its commitments.

The Minister is also introducing a temporary moratorium on new federal entrepreneur applications. Wait times for this program currently stretch to eight years in some visa offices. By ceasing to accept new applications as of July 1, the government will prevent further processing delays. The federal Entrepreneur Program will undergo a review in the coming months to ensure that Canada is better able to attract and retain innovative entrepreneurs.

The authority for these changes, which are being introduced through ministerial instructions, comes from amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act approved by Parliament in 2008 as part of the Action Plan for Faster Immigration. The instructions are meant to be a flexible tool that allows the government to align the intake of immigration applications with priorities for immigration.

Since these changes were implemented in November 2008, the backlog of pre-2008 federal skilled worker applicants has decreased by 50 percent. As well, priority applications are being processed in a period of months rather than years, as was the case prior to the 2008 changes.

The CIC website will be updated on July 1, 2011, with details on application requirements and procedures for affected programs.