Earlier this month, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered governments to stop automatically charging individuals, who have sponsored relatives to come to Canada as permanent residents, for social assistance debt sustained by those relatives.

Earlier this month, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Canada (CIMC) Minister Jason Kenney introduced Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, a new study guide for permanent residents applying for Canadian citizenship. The new guide is intended to give new Canadians a more comprehensive look at Canadian history and values than its predecessor.

Every fall, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism gives an annual report on immigration to the Canadian Parliament, detailing the state of immigration to Canada over the past year as well as the immigration plan for the coming year. In this year’s report, Minister Jason Kenney announced that Canada expects to maintain the number of permanent residents it welcomes in 2010, but highlighted that a greater proportion of Economic immigrants to Canada will be nominated or selected by the provinces and territories than before.

Newcomers to Canada have a large number of settlement services available to them once they arrive, most of which are provided to them at no cost. In recent years, the Canadian government has consistently increased funding to provinces and municipalities, to enable them to provide as well as improve settlement services for their immigrants. This month, we look at a few of the wealth of new initiatives that benefit new Canadians and ease their settlement process.

Depending on their nationality, Canadian landed immigrants receive different treatment when it comes to residency requirements.