Archives for June 2006

The lack of skilled construction workers threatens to bulldoze Alberta’s white-hot construction industry growth if the critical labour deficit is not adequately addressed. The Conference Board of Canada (CBC) estimates that approximately 332,000 workers will be needed by 2025.

The report should serve as a “wake-up call” says Heather Douglas, president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. Government and business need to move quickly to facilitate immigration and honour foreign credentials the CBC reports. The province has been working with labour, business, educators, Aboriginals and others in dealing with the problem. “Forty-three per cent of all job gains in Canada are coming in Alberta”, she explains.

Douglas affirms that 75% of her group’s membership claim they’re being affected by a workforce deficiency, adding that the C$130 billion in Alberta construction projects planned through 2007 led by the oilsands are further aggravating the issue. Labour shortages may lead to “spiraling” wages and make some projects too costly to launch she concludes.

Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University ( PAU ), India , prepares prospective immigrant Indian farmers in Canadian farm practices.

The Canadian farming industry is experiencing a serious shortage in agricultural workers. Canadian farmers are making their way to retirement in massive numbers and the Canadian government is sufficiently concerned that it has begun recruiting farmers from across the globe to migrate to Canada.

But Canada doesn’t simply want farmers; it wants farmers who have experience in the latest Canadian agricultural techniques. The PAU course offers training to Punjab farmers leading to legitimate credentials which facilitate immigration to Canada. The school offers classes in English and specific training in scientific methods of Canadian farming.

The program’s “Directorate of Extension Education”, is a one-month preparatory course in Canadian farming practices. It teaches prospective Indian immigrant the similarities and differences between Indian and Canadian farming, climatic conditions, and the latest agronomic practices for cultivating cereals, rye, oats, corn, canary seeds and sugar beet, vegetable and cut flower cultivation, management of pests, approaches to North American food marketing, practical training in farm machinery, and basic computer skills.

With towns and cities in Punjab growing rapidly, the price of farmland has skyrocketed there, and Indian farmers are selling high. With their abundance of newly acquired funds they begin to look west in search of bigger returns. Some farming families are even pooling their resources and jointly purchasing more Canadian land, making it a multi-family investment.

Baldev Singh of Akhara village in Jalandhar district is representative of the regional trend currently washing over the Indian sub-continental region. The 52-year-old farmer owns some 25 acres of Punjabi land, has already successfully completed the PAU course last year, and is seriously considering Canada as an option. “Farming is the only thing I know and I’ll migrate only if I can farm in Canada […] if I put in the same effort in Canada, I’m sure I’ll reap good dividends,” he says.

Rising cost of inputs, low returns, a falling water table and the consequent debt trap has made Canadian farming quite appealing to Indian farmers who have long since had agriculture in their blood. “No one wants to farm in Punjab. Given a chance, they’d all migrate,” he says. A strong sentiment perhaps, but a shared one among Punjab ‘s disillusioned farmers.

Farming is the only skill I have. I applied for migration to Canada with my family in 2002. I’m confident that I’ll be able to give them a better standard of living there. Here, I get less than a lakh (one-hundred thousand) per annum from my land as almost the entire labour force is hired”, Kanwaljit Singh, who owns 11 acres in Punjab, says.

Canada sees the success of new initiatives like Manitoba’s “Young Farmer Nominee Programme” (YFNP) aimed at attracting farmers below 40 to the province, as an effective means to draw new blood to the nation’s agricultural workforce. Under the YFNP, a farmer with a net worth of C$150,000 and proven experience in farm management could immigrate within as little as two years and have a chance to buy a farm in Manitoba. Prince Edward Island has also instituted a similar programme to attract immigrant farmers.

Farmers wanting to immigrate to Canada can do so under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Business Immigration Program under the Self-Employed category. This category is open only to individuals with prior self-employed experience as farmers, athletes (at an international level), or artisans.

To qualify under the Self-Employed category, an applicant must demonstrate an intention and ability to establish or purchase a business in Canada that will keep him or her employed and makes a “significant” contribution to the economy or the cultural or artistic life of Canada.

Applicants must demonstrate that the proposed business will generate sufficient revenues to support the applicant and his or her dependents. Farmers, artisans, sports personalities, actors, artists, etc. are examples of applicants who may qualify.

Assessment in this category is based upon:

• Business ability and experience (when applying under the economic contribution component of the Self-Employed description)
• Artistic qualifications (when applying under the artistic/cultural component of the Self-Employed description)
• Net worth (sufficient to establish/purchase the proposed business)

Backgrounder:

The stated goal of Canada’s Business Immigration Program is to promote economic development and employment by attracting people with venture capital, business acumen and entrepreneurial skills. The Canadian Business Immigration Program also seeks to develop new commercial opportunities and to improve access to growing foreign markets by welcoming people who are familiar with those markets and their special requirements and customs.

Toronto Pride Week’s theme “fearless in 2006”, serves as a reminder to some Canadian refugees that in many parts of the world, being gay means the difference between life and death.

Canada inarguably has one of the world’s most progressive positions on civil liberties and it, along with a handful of other nations (Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain), sets the “gold standard” for gay rights across the globe. known internationally for having one of the fairest refugee determination systems, Canada’s reputation on accepting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered asylum seekers is quite noteworthy.

In 1992, Canada was one of the first countries to expand its definition of the United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees to include sexual orientation as a recognized form of state-sanctioned oppression. In fact, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, which tracks intolerance around the world, says that sex between women is illegal in 51 nations, while sex between men is illegal in 76.

To win a positive determination on a refugee case, a Canadian immigration lawyer is charged with establishing two core facts: their client’s sexual orientation and that there is a risk of persecution in their client’s country of origin. However, proving homosexuality can be difficult and it so often comes down to the refugee determination officer’s intuition. Some gay refugees even come here by way of the United States. In the US, unlike Canada, one cannot sponsor one’s same-sex partner for immigration, and it is much harder to prove a refugee case based on sexual orientation.

Many countries around the world continue to condemn homosexuals. “Gay men are tortured routinely,” says Arsham Parsi, who fled to Canada to escape his government’s persecution. Parsi sought refugee status in Canada when he learned, through friends, that government officials back home were actively seeking him out. In his native country, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death he remarks. “The judge has four choices […] “You can be hanged, stoned to death, beheaded or pushed from a precipice.

New fairness commissioner would make regulatory bodies accountable for how they treat immigrants
New legislation would have Ontario’s 34 regulated professions face scrutiny by a new ‘fairness commissioner’, ensuring their admission procedures are clear, open and fair to all.

Edmonton wants federal government to streamline immigration
A survey by Manpower Inc. found that Edmonton’s net employment is anticipated to grow by 48 per cent, compared to the national net employment outlook of 29 per cent. The red-hot job market across the nation leaves Edmonton, Alberta clamoring to find the right people.

British Columbia construction industry fast-tracks skilled trades workers from Europe
European employees are hired in association with the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), which effectively speeds up an immigrant’s work permit and landed immigrant application processing.

Former Immigration and Refugee Board appeals division judge Yves Bourbonnais pleaded guilty yesterday to multiple counts of obstruction of justice stemming from his leading role in a bribery scheme that targeted cases he was scheduled to hear. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

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In a recent speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the need to keep Canadian borders open against calls that immigration was breeding terrorism in Canada.

As if we have a choice.

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Apparently “respect your elders” is a proverb that officials at Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) have never heard.

While Canadian citizens and permanent residents have little problem gaining status for their spouses and children, there is an increasing backlog of parents and grandparents hoping to reunite with their family members. A 2005 promise by the Liberals to triple the number of parental and grandparent sponsorships from 6,000 to 18, 000 a year hides the fact that this number is in fact lower than pre-2002 levels. This is simply not high enough, as years of limiting sponsorships to 6,000 a year has contributed to a crippling 100,000 person waitlist.

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