If you have been nominated by Ontario’s Provincial Nominee Program, Opportunities Ontario, be it under the General Category or the International Student Category, you must be wondering what would be your next step after receiving the nomination to be in Ontario. Let’s discuss a few things you should know after being nominated by the provincial nominee program.

Once you are a successful nominee of the Opportunities Ontario, you can file your application with the Citizenship and Immigration Canada to be a permanent resident in the country. However, you are eligible to apply for the same within six months of being nominated by the provincial program. You should know that the fact that being nominated by Opportunities Ontario you do not have legal status in Canada. Until you obtain the permanent resident status in the country, you must obtain authorization to stay and work in Canada.

While your application for PR is being processed by the CIC officials, you can apply for a temporary work permit. In this case as well, you would be required to approach the Citizenship and Immigration Canada, since the government agency is responsible for the issuance of the permit to stay in Canada and work for a temporary period of time. When you are issued with a temporary work permit you would be able to travel to Ontario to start working for your sponsor in the province.

For your information, individuals nominated by the Ontario Provincial nominee Program are not accountable for the Labor Market Opinion process. To know more about the whole process, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

According to a latest release by the Labour Force Survey, the rate of employment has increased by about 93,000 in June. This led to a fall in the unemployment rate by 0.2% landing at 7.9%. Since January 2009, this has been the first time since the rate for unemployment has been below 8%.

It has been noticed that since July 2009, the rate of employment has been on a rise at +2.4% which means an increase by 403,000. This increase has literally overcome the losses which were encountered during the global downturn in 2008. The unemployment rate in the month of June was well above the rate in October 2008 (6.2%). The main reason behind this has been the rise in the number of people in the labor force.

This rise in employment in June was equally distributed between part time and full time employment opportunities. With this, most of the gains from employment from July 2009 have been from full-time jobs. The increase was about 355,000 which is equivalent to 2.6%. At the same time, an increase of 1.5% was seen for the part-time jobs.

The main increases in the employment was seen in various industries such as those of service, retail and wholesale trade, building and other support services, business, health care and social assistance. Apart from these, other services include personal care as well as automotive repair services.

It was also seen that in June, there has been a constant gain in the number of private sector employees. With this, the self-employed workers also increased with not much change when it came to the public sector employees.

When it comes to individual provinces, Ontario and Quebec saw the highest gains. There was an increase of about 60,000 employees in Ontario where as about 30,000 in Quebec. However, there was a reduction in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. When it comes to other provinces, there was not much of change.

The Opportunities Ontario program enables the Ontario government to choose specific foreign skilled migrants who could cater to the needs of the businesses in the province. Since it is an investment program where in the companies are invited to invest in Ontario, one element of this program involves firms recruiting or deploying employees in Ontario to ensure appropriate functioning of the organization.

In other words, the Opportunities Ontario General Category along with employers allows investors or businesses to recruit overseas workers. Or, through the General Category, companies which are making big investments in the Canadian province of Ontario can hire their key professionals to work for them in the province. To be eligible to recruit foreign workers, companies making investments in Ontario must make a minimum investment of 3 million dollars or more in the province. Besides, they must generate minimum five permanent full-time job positions within the province.

Apart from companies, individual investors can also reap the advantage of the Opportunities Ontario nominee program. As far as individual investors’ eligibility criteria are concerned, they are required to fulfill the following:

• Either an individual should invest a minimum of 1 million dollar in the business, or he/she must have a 33.3 percent control of the business.
• The individual must have an active role in the business’ daily management.
• The investor must have generated minimum five new positions for which Canadian permanent residents or citizens have been recruited.

For more information on the procedure of recruiting foreign workers by investors through Ontario Provincial Nominee Program, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

Under the General Category of the Ontario Provincial Nominee Program, employers can hire skilled international workers for a job position. The nominated employees can be the ones who live outside Canada, as well as who reside in Canada lawfully. The latter can be the ones who hold temporary work visas, or visitor visas.

Employers when applying for the nominations, they must mention whether they are applying nominations for foreign workers from foreign land or workers who reside in Canada with legal status. As for the prospective nominees who are in Canada already as temporary workers or visitors, they must demonstrate through their respective credentials that they are lawfully residing in the country.

Let us have a look at the process followed under the General Category:

The process involved is a two-step application process. At the first stage, the participating employers are required to submit a pre-screen application to the Opportunities Ontario. With this application, the employers request positions for which they require international workers. It is noteworthy that those pre-screen applications are processed first which arrive first. Those employers’ applications are likely to get processed on priority basis if it is found that the employers have looked for Canadian citizens/ permanent residents of Ontario in order to fill those positions before applying to the Opportunities Ontario.

At the second stage, the individuals who have got the clearance or recruited by some employers are required to submit a nominee application to the Opportunities Ontario. Here as well, the processing service is provided to those that arrive first.

According to reports, April has been the month, when Canada generated the highest number of monthly jobs since the monthly gain of August in the year 2002. Reports say almost all provinces in the country saw growth in employment last month. Out of all provinces, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba experienced the largest increase in jobs.

Economists forecasted a total increase of 25,000 jobs for the fourth month of 2010, but the actual job gain in Canada beat the number. The country created 108,700 positions last month, thereby helping its unemployment rate to drop down. The country’s unemployment rate last month was 8.1 percent.

In Alberta, one of the provinces that saw the biggest gains, jobs grew by 10,000 and according to the reports of the Conference Board of Canada the province will see the economic recovery solidify next year as the province is expected to create 72,000 new jobs.

Of the total job gains, half percent was seen among young men, while there was no significant change in the employment pattern for women. The growth was seen in both full-time and part-time employment, with 44,000 and 65,000 jobs respectively. Private sector, especially wholesale and retail trade; building and other support services; business; and construction industries led April’s employment growth in Canada.

The Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement has obtained an extension for a period of one year. This agreement was formed in 2005 within the governments of two states. It was meant to exist for the period of five years. $920 million were granted for new programs pertaining to immigration during this period. The aim of these programs was to develop integration and supporting immigration to reach and realize their true potential. This money funds all the language training services, settlement services, partnerships with municipalities, temporary foreign worker programs as well the Immigration website of Ontario. This website caters to all the information pertaining to the public as well as the new migrants.

The various accomplishments of the program involve language training for immigrants, strategic plan for settlement, making employers and organizations aware about the rights and responsibilities pertaining to temporary foreign workers.

This agreement was signed by the Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister for Canada, Jason Kenney, and by the Minister for Citizenship and Immigration for Ontario, Dr. Eric Hoskins.

According to Kenney, the extension of this agreement clearly indicates the dedication towards constant association which could better attract as well as retain the immigrants in the nation. More so, it would also help for the better integration of these migrants into the local Ontario communities. Also, it would help find new ways to lead to better outcomes.

With the extension in place, another $320 million dollars have been given to Ontario for the next year. Apart from this, a grant of $108 million as funding for annual settlement has also been provided. These funds would be used as assistance for creating more programs and offering services to immigrants and at the same time, attract more foreigners to Ontario.

According to the Immigration Minister of Canada Jason Kenney, easing out the asylum laws of the nation would further help fighting false applicants who are trying to nail the loopholes. The minister had recently introduced the package for refugee reform which would aid to the faster processing of the refugee system in Canada. As per him, this would cater to catching hold of false applicants for whom the asylum as a shortcut to enter Canada.

This package would also help clean up the backlog of 61,000 refugees that are still residing in Canada. As per the new law, all these people would be permitted a hearing within sixty days before an Immigration and Refugee Board. As of now, it takes around 19 months.

All the claimants who have not been successful would obtain another level of appeal. However, those belonging to the nations being termed as the Safe Country of Origin would be permitted to apply to the Federal Court of Canada only. Despite the ways above, the law would ensure the rejected refugees to be departed to their country within a year.

Usually, the timelines for a case pertains to about five years or more as the claimants would have to go through various procedural channels and appeals. In the process, they tend to depend on the social assistance as well. There are a few such people who desert their appeals and tend to collect money in the meantime.

The cost for supporting each refugee goes up to $50,000. Thus, deportation of such people could lead to a gain of $1.8 million in the next five years. This would be at the provincial level. Ontario itself would save around $1.1 million as 60% of the asylum seekers are in this province itself.

Ottawa has been declared the best city to live in Canada by a magazine. MoneySense magazine released its annual ranking of Canadian cities recently, which considered various factors like housing prices, weather and crime rates as the basis for the findings. They considered a total of 179 cities and towns in Canada that have more than 50,000 inhabitants.

Earlier, Ottawa was placed at the top slot in 2007 and 2008, however, in 2009 Victoria displace the city. As Victoria’s cost of living is growing for the average Canadian, Ottawa has restored the top rank once again, thanks its economy, job opportunities, low crime rate and stable population growth.

According to Duncan Hood, the magazine’s editor, Ottawa has many reasons to be in the first spot on the list of cities and towns. Foremost, the city happened to be the most recession-proof city among all Canadian cities, followed by adequate job opportunities. Ottawa has the most public service workers and these workers did not lose their employment, neither they had cuts in their salary. Thus, while most Canadian cities had to experience the reverse results of the aforementioned, Ottawa remained firm during the recession.

Below are the top ten cities to live in Canada according to MoneySense’s study:

1. Ottawa-Gatineau
2. Kingston, Ontario
3. Burlington, Ontario
4. Fredericton, New Brunswick
5. Moncton, New Brunswick
6. Repentigny, Quebec.
7. Brandon, Manitoba
8. Victoria, British Columbia
9. Winnipeg, Manitoba
10. Levis, Quebec

The full list of best places to live in Canada will be released on May 3, 2010.

According to a recent report, the need for skilled immigrants in Ontario will go on a massive high in the upcoming years to come! The same report by Seneca College depicted that Ontario would face a major skills shortage, leaving plenty of unfulfilled positions in the lime light! The matter can only be solved by taking eligible skilled workers to Ontario!

It is good news for all those job seekers planning to make Ontario as their next employment destination. Rick Miner, former president of the college holds this belief that Ontario’s economy in future would be dominated by skill based employments! But the current education scenario, the condition of labor pool and their training makes it difficult for the province to fulfill its needs.

In addition, the aging population of Ontario’s skilled workers is making the whole condition even worse! The scenario would surely affect the companies who need skilled workers to fulfill their positions on an urgent basis!

But what will happen to those workers who lack knowledge and ample skills to fit in a particular job? The economy would be deeply affected by this factor too!

Cabinet Minister Murray Elston said that this situation would not only affect Ontario’s economy but other provinces in Canada too! Canada’s labor market would face plenty of similar challenges in the upcoming future.

Therefore, it becomes mandatory to welcome more and more skilled workers and overcome this scenario as soon as possible.

A Niagara-on-the-Lake-based culinary school was closed down over illegal operation allegation. As a matter of fact, the institute has mostly Indian students. The college was being raided after some students have made complaints about its illegal operation, including bogus certification and halting their work permits and visas. There is another allegation that students are used as ‘cheap labor’ in luxury restaurants under the school internship program!

The government law enforcement agency raided the college once they came to know about the complaints lodged by the students. Geoffrey Bray-Cotton operates this very college. Janice Bartley accompanies him in the operation, who is basically an immigration expert. She acts as the registrar and imparts classes in the college as well.

In response to the government’s action, Mr. Bray-Cotton says that he would appeal to the suspension soon. According to him, the institute has been in operation for near about one decade and during this long period it has not faced any such situation so far. Moreover, he assured that his license is being renewed every year by the ministry.

Now, forty-seven students of the institute, mostly from India are in a dilemma and hoping to come into a decision this week whether they will be studying at same college or getting a refund. Reportedly, Niagara-on-the-Lake Culinary School does not have a campus and uses some other restaurant for training purposes. After the training they are being sent to different restaurants across Ontario and Banff, Alta for six-month internship.