Canada Immigration News: IEC pools for certain countries opening for 2021.
https://www.cicnews.com/2021/02/iec-pools-for-certain-countries-opening-for-2021-0217296.html
Musings, opinions and views on various topics, issues, news and sometimes taking the other side of the argument
Canada Immigration News: IEC pools for certain countries opening for 2021.
https://www.cicnews.com/2021/02/iec-pools-for-certain-countries-opening-for-2021-0217296.html
https://nationalpost.com/news/have-you-seen-her-majestys-head-bust-of-the-queen-desecrated-in-victoria-b-c
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/machin-out-at-cppib-after-overseas-covid-vaccine-controversy-1.1569216
The latest was not even a Canadian and the damage of suddenly shoving a new memeber into the most important financial institutions for Canadians is more concerning.
"...Of course, any effort to beef up immigration is a bet that the economy will return to full strength and require more workers. For now, the problem is not enough jobs.
Canada’s labor market is still reeling from the pandemic, after a second wave of lockdowns reversed some of the recovery made throughout the summer and fall. More than 850,000 jobs have been lost during the pandemic, pushing up the unemployment rate to 9 per cent. Even so, Mendicino says that the country has a large skills gap and that the new permanent residents are necessary to fill those holes...."
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/trudeau-s-immigration-pivot-spurs-jump-in-permanent-residents-1.1568701
The remaining 33 flights were international, with only two departing from the airport and 31 landing at Pearson from February 16 to 20.
insauga.com: Pearson Airport in Mississauga welcomes 45 new flights with COVID-19.
https://www.insauga.com/45-more-flights-with-covid-19-cases-at-pearson-airport-in-mississauga
The Globe and Mail: No indication federal security agencies were consulted before Beijing visa centre was approved.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-no-indication-federal-security-agencies-were-consulted-before-beijing/
Is all it takes...
"...IRCC will then invite you to apply for permanent residence, if you meet the basic eligibility criteria for the CEC.
Some of the key eligibility requirements include:
having 1,560 hours of paid Canadian work experience in a skilled occupation, which equates to about one year of full time work or two years of part time work;
having a minimum Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) of 7 for managerial or professional occupations (NOC 0 or A), or CLB 5 for technical jobs and skilled trades (NOC B)...."
https://www.cicnews.com/2021/02/canada-did-invite-every-single-cec-candidate-in-saturday-express-entry-draw-0217235.html#gs.uhynmn
Globalnews.ca: Permanent resident applicants still waiting for approvals | Watch News Videos Online.
https://globalnews.ca/video/7660897/permanent-resident-applicants-still-waiting-for-approvals
How can such an article be published without mentioning the glaring fact that not one Liberal MP showed their face on a zoom parliament call to avoid all voting with exception of Marc Garneau who showed his face on the call for a different purpose and too did not vote. Shocking reporting by BNN with Liberal bias.
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/genocide-vote-pressures-trudeau-to-take-harder-line-on-china-1.1567150
http://nationalpost.com/news/national/defence-watch/cost-of-canadian-navy-warship-program-jumps-to-77-billion-says-pbo/wcm/6214e7ce-ce62-41c7-aba5-b093323f06bc
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/some-travellers-walking-out-of-pearson-airport-or-take-a-fine-instead-of-paying-for-quarantine-hotel
"...Akhil Mooken, a spokesperson for Peel Regional Police, confirmed that officers are not stopping people who refuse to follow the measures that came into effect Monday.
“Unless there are some serious or aggravating circumstances where the public safety is at risk, we are not … detaining individuals who are not complying with the regulations under the Quarantine Act,” Mooken said.
Peel police officers are working with the Public Health Agency of Canada to monitor arrivals at Pearson in Mississauga, Ont., with the police holding the power to charge travellers at the airport.
...A source familiar with the situation at Pearson airport said police “do not have the manpower” to “stop all these people, issue them fines, do the followups, make sure they’re complying.”
The source said enforcement of the Quarantine Act is “all being done by the public health agency.”
The National Post contacted police departments in all four cities that have federally mandated quarantine hotel stays. A spokesperson for the Calgary Police Service said the department has not received any requests from PHAC to help enforce stays at the quarantine hotels. A Montreal police spokesperson did not answer questions about whether travellers are dodging quarantine hotels. RCMP in Richmond, B.C. did not respond in time for publication...."
"...“It is important to note that Line 5 helps meet more than half of Michigan’s propane needs,” the company said. “Without Line 5, the State would face an immediate daily shortage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of propane.”...
...Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 pipeline delivers about 65 per cent of the propane consumed in the state’s upper peninsula, and 55 per cent of Michigan’s total supply..."
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/longtime-enbridge-foe-whitmer-declares-michigan-energy-emergency-1.1566942
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/white-house-signals-hard-line-on-buy-american-as-ottawa-urged-to-push-for-exemption
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet — with one exception — did not “attend the vote.” Nor does it wrestle at all with the fact that only one cabinet minister, Foreign Affairs chief Marc Garneau, “showed up.” And he showed up only to abstain from the vote “on behalf of the government.”
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-the-liberals-tried-but-they-cant-have-it-both-ways-on-the-uyghur-genocide-question
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-robson-justin-trudeau-and-his-cabinet-show-cowardice-by-hiding-from-genocide-vote
"...with all but one skipping the vote that passed 266-0 Monday..."
https://globalnews.ca/news/7647920/the-tragically-hip-road-apples-anniversary/
Toronto Star: Canada's record-setting invitation to immigrants after COVID shortfall an 'absolute shock'.
@nkeung
Without alienating the West further, or mocking the Queen/Commonwealth further, or increasing economic recklessness further, or pissing off the US further
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/teachers-unions-throwing-up-every-obstacle-as-ontario-kids-return-to-class-ford-government
"...A joint statement from the four largest teachers’ unions in the province criticized the postponement, and laid the blame for concerns about COVID-19 and the variants on other provincial policy failures.
“These are unprecedented times, and this is a much-needed break for students, teachers, education workers, and families who have been under tremendous pressure throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement said. “The government’s decision to postpone March Break does not take into consideration the mental health and well-being of those involved.”
Here we go again, one bad apple, one negligent PM appointment and we have a monarchy debate on our hands (only 1,601 polled). Canadians should open up the history books (basic Canadian history, nothing too obscure) and understand why the border with the USA is there in the first place and how Canada came to be. The two countries simply did not just wake up over the last 400+ years as two independent, friendly first world countries with a long unguarded line between them from common Anglo roots (Franco-Anglo roots for Canada). Although opinions in this country differ of monarchy, bilingualism, military, unifying railroads, separation, Sir John A., health care, CFL, centuries old industries etc. it is very disappointing that Canada no longer seems basically respectful nor proud to uphold its significant, defining and historical institutions it has in this more globalized, dare to say Americanized, world and 21st century. Can we improve things - absolutely. We regard, respect even defend all cultures and institutions...yet tear down our own.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/support-for-monarchy-role-of-governor-general-falling-among-canadians-poll-finds
"...Earlier this week, some researchers and industry experts criticized the secretive nature of deliberations. The task force meets privately and has not released agendas or meeting minutes and has said little about what options it rejected..."
Well isn't that convenient,
"...Roger Scott-Douglas, the task force’s corporate secretary and a former president of the National Research Council, told MPs that companies demanded the secrecy..."
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/federal-covid-vaccine-task-force-defends-secrecy-as-necessary-to-do-its-work
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-ottawa-bringing-racial-issues-into-covid-vaccine-rollout-isnt-helping-anyone
"...To be fair to NACI, it’s not actually proposing what the headlines suggest. The priority group it added to Phase 2 of the rollout is “adults in racialized and marginalized communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19” — i.e., not all racialized or marginalized communities. But it would make far more sense if they just deleted the words “racialized and marginalized.” Any community disproportionately affected by COVID-19 is equally worth prioritizing. The determining factor should be (and almost certainly will be) postal code, not skin colour..."
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-report-cards-scold-federal-government-over-unchecked-spending
The group remains unconvinced a large stimulus package is appropriate at this time,” it said. On-going unfunded spending will see federal/provincial net debt surpass 100 per cent of GDP within a decade, potentially limiting the appetite of lenders for Canadian government debt, it added.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terry-glavin-of-course-trudeau-refused-to-say-genocide-he-has-zero-credibility-on-china
Trudeau versus "...more than 180 human rights organizations, the Biden administration, several Canadian Chinese diaspora groups, Tibetan exiles and Hongkonger solidarity activists, the Conservative Party, the New Democratic Party, the Green Party, most of the Bloc Quebecois and several prominent Liberals, including several MPs, and the entirety of the International Human Rights Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development..."
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/02/11/york-region-school-board-to-revisit-school-renaming-policy.html
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-when-it-comes-to-china-and-genocide-trudeaus-a-panda-in-the-headlights
https://nationalpost.com/news/lets-go-learn-not-for-canada-to-tell-china-its-wrong-n-s-premier-stephen-mcneil-says
“The government of China … is pursuing a strategy for geopolitical advantage on all fronts — economic, technological, political and military — and using all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty,”
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/kelly-mcparland-what-will-it-take-for-the-liberals-to-admit-that-china-is-dangerous
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/drunk-driving-is-canadas-deadliest-crime-and-one-of-our-most-lightly-punished
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-daunting-math-of-trudeaus-goal-to-have-all-willing-canadians-get-covid-vaccine-by-september
https://www.cicnews.com/2021/02/express-entry-lowest-crs-requirement-ever-in-new-cec-draw-0217045.html#gs.sx0zqj
After serious setbacks in a vaccination procurement program for the current population, all kinds of travel deterrents and charges, unemployment at 9.4% and 213,000 jobs lost in January 2021 (after 53,000 lost jobs in Decenber 2020), this can only mean one thing for this minority government...cue up the election campaign.
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/why-canada-is-at-the-mercy-of-vaccine-nationalism-during-the-covid-pandemic
Trudeau likes to throw out big mupti million vaccine numbers and huge expectations. The fact is, very little of these are in Canadians' arms.
As quoted by Patricia Lovett-Reid, some are even forgoing an RRSP or TFSA top up to do what?... Pay down their mortgage(s)!?!?!? Utter personal finance nonsense!
Canadians would rather use after tax dollars to pay down a sub-2.0% debt obligation rather than using those same funds to earn 5.0%, 8%, 12% (think a boring dividend paying stock such as BCE up to something more risky as a juicy dividend paying established pipeline)....TAX FREE!!!
Why is this even a decision?
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/former-liberal-mps-gambling-addiction-in-remission-as-he-waits-for-fraud-trial-law-society-hearing-told
Sounds like fraud to me
"...The society alleges he used false pretences to obtain or borrow money from six people and a company from June 2016 to December 2017 in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 each.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/matt-gurney-canadas-embarrassing-vaccine-performance-should-motivate-us-to-do-better-but-it-likely-wont
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/exemptions-allowed-74-of-international-travellers-to-skip-covid-quarantine-under-old-rules-nothing-has-changed
"...But there were still 8.6 million arrivals total (land and air) between then and the end of January 2021, and 74 per cent of them — about 6.2 million — were exempt from the previous requirement to isolate at home for 14 days, according to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) statistics.
...The National Post first asked the Public Health Agency on Feb. 1 for data on the number of coronavirus cases identified among international travellers exempted from quarantine versus the minority actually required to isolate. The agency had yet to provide that information by deadline Tuesday.
Dr. Jeff Kwong, a University of Toronto public health professor, said he simply doesn’t know how much of a problem the exempted travellers pose.
But even if it’s impractical to force them to quarantine, it would likely make sense to use some of the 38 million rapid COVID tests obtained by the federal government to screen truck drivers and others, he said.
“Why aren’t we doing testing of them every time they cross into Canada?” asked Kwong. “Every time they cross into (Canada), maybe they could get a rapid test. Then they’d know if they are safe to go home to their families.”
CTV News Vancouver: Licences of two immigration consultants suspended as they face criminal charges.
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/licences-of-two-immigration-consultants-suspended-as-they-face-criminal-charges-1.5299393
The Globe and Mail: Canada's visa application centre in Beijing run by Chinese police.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-canadas-visa-application-centre-in-beijing-run-by-chinese-police/
"...Chinese police own a company that collects details of people applying for visas to Canada and numerous other countries, giving Beijing security services a direct stake in the processing of private information provided by people planning travel outside China.
Beijing Shuangxiong Foreign Service Company, which operates the Canadian visa-application centre in the Chinese capital, is owned by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, a Globe and Mail investigation has found. And at least some of the people working inside the centre are members of the Communist Party, recruited from a school that trains the next generation of party elite.
Some classic zingers in here by Rex
"...As some droll Twitter feed offered, it’s as if the many-mansioned denizens of Toronto’s Forest Hill were making raids on the food banks, and soaking up all the Canadian Tire money.
"...No “minority” government has ever operated with the smug insouciance and patented, virtue-perfumed arrogance towards the Commons as the Trudeau government.
"...What other government has parted ways with a governor general, and to top it off, a governor general brought in by the world’s No. 1 “male feminist” as a role model for young women and girls? The same male-feminist who conveniently loses all his top-performing female ministers. Someone should do a “gender analytics” study on Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.
"...Meantime Seamus O’Regan, the Trudeau cabinet’s favourite nomad — he takes up and puts down portfolios with the “greatest of ease,” leaving no impression behind as he goes — burbles on, during a pandemic, about planting two billion trees. Imagine, two billion. We only have about 300 billion already!
"...We have had no budget in two years. We have spent more than any other government, by far, in our history. We have no idea where all the money has gone. The auditor general has been denied the resources to even keep track of a portion of it. There is no coherence, or trust, between the majority of the premiers and the prime minister. We have been offered occasional delights, like the celebrated comic opera of the WE brothers and the (temporary) $43-million gift to them to administer half a billion dollars of your money.
"...The country is in an economic coma. The House of Commons is a movie set. We are shamed in the international community. Contracts on COVID are all Top Secret. There is zero reliability on any projection made by a minister or the prime minister on where we are on vaccines and distribution. Rideau Hall is shortly to be listed on Airbnb. Farmers have been hit by fuel and carbon taxes. Newfoundland teeters on bankruptcy. The West has never felt so far out of things. I could go on..."
"...Immigrant advocates said as well as the expulsion of Haitians on Wednesday they had seen more South American and Caribbean migrants being returned to Mexico amid a rise in returns under Title 42 in some regions since Biden took office..."
The Globe and Mail: U.S. expels dozens of Haitian asylum seekers to Mexico.
I
Global News: Prime Minister Trudeau rejects plea from premiers to release details of vaccine contracts.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7621318/trudeau-rejects-plea-premiers-vaccine-contract-details/
"...Government data don’t accurately measure the number of residents whose visas have expired but who legally remain in the country. On top of that, they believe the number of returning Canadian citizens in 2020 was 60,000 more than suggested by official estimates.
...The government is planning to bring in 401,000 new permanent residents this year, partly by opening pathways for temporary residents such as students and foreign workers to stay permanently.
The government’s desire to make up lost ground on immigration “means that population growth and demand for housing, particularly in urban centres, is coming back,” Tal and Mendes said."
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/cibc-sees-canada-s-suburban-flight-subsiding-when-pandemic-ends-1.1558931
The Liberals' use of large numbers seems comforting but the problem is the same - all Canadians will not be vaccinated in 2021.
Add the permanent residents (that don't have to be permanent), seasonal temporary workers, visa holders, illegal entrants, and the newly increased 400,000 to Canada annually who are expected to be equally treated as Canadians who have paid to the healthcare systesm all their live - it does not mean much to be Canadian when it comes to vaccination.
"...The call for domestic manufacturing comes as imports of vaccines to Canada have dwindled considerably. Canada is expecting just 70,000 doses of COVID vaccine next week from Pfizer, before the company has promised a ramp up to more than 300,000 doses per week in the last half of the month.
Moderna, the other approved vaccine, sent a reduced shipment to Canada this week and is expected to do so again at the end of the month. The company ships to Canada every three weeks and was expected to deliver 249,000 doses the week of Feb. 22..."
When it comes to the hallowed halls of "progressive" universities and their definition of what is right and wrong in this politically correct world whereby diversity and inclusion reign supreme from their ivory towers, you bet!
Sprinkle in a heightened sense of fear of being offensive from a previous episode of exposing al the bad things about a university's name sake and you have a fool proof case.
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/miscounted-population-part-of-the-puzzle-for-high-housing-demand-cibc-s-tal-1.1557390
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/miscounted-population-part-of-the-puzzle-for-high-housing-demand-cibc-s-tal-1.1557390
Canada contributed $440 million to COVAX in September, half of which secured doses for Canada directly from about nine vaccines that are participating in the program, and the rest donated to supply poorer countries.
https://www.cicnews.com/2021/02/up-to-52000-people-eligible-for-new-18-month-canadian-work-permit-0217022.html#gs.rv1t0g
It has been revealed that StatsCan does not distinguish beteween "tourist" and "Canadian" for entering leaving or returning to Canada. (In fact, Economist Benjamin Tal earlier on BNN estimated the only way to do it is by counting the tax returns that have been filed, and even that is backward looking by years, to have any remote guess).
Also, it has been said there are 300,000 ex-pat Canadians in Hong Kong. Which, the way China is throwing its influence around and may eliminate dual citizenships, will result in many returing to Canada (if not already returned - no one knows).
The problem is, this widely agreed 300,000 number is from...2006. Today, it is 2021. As CIBC economist Benjamin Tal estimates, this could be as high as 400,000 or the equivalent of an entire year's worth of the Liberals' expanded future immigration goals that could be returning (or have returned already, again no one can verify). In addition to the high 300,000 estimated to arrive this year (+700,000).
In addition, non-permanent residents who are no longer allowed to be in Canada yet still are not counted and could amount to 60,000 as referenced by Tal.
Doesn't sound like much versus a population of nearly 37 million Canadians - if you believe that number. The impact? Housing (and many other policies such as healthcare, border security, roads, policing, etc.). With such a sudden shock of additionally hundreds of thousands of people, Canadians, immigrants, permanent residents (not to mention visa holders, express entry workers, students, parent and grandparent reunifications), could result in, say, an entire year's worth of real estate transactions dumped on to the city of Toronto all of a sudden, for context! On top of the crazy volume and activity we are already seeing.
Wonder why the real estate market is so high right now? StatsCan doesn't know, that's for sure.
How long will it be before this "climate change" devoted government hypocritically bails out the Canadian airlines? Airlines that pollute inside and outside of Canada - it's essential! Build more polluting cars in Ontario - funded! Oil and gas in Alberta - can't do.