Ontario

Province Dept: The reasons are simple. Beginning in 2003, the Canadian dollar began a strong ascent that lifted it from the persistent lows of the previous decade around 70 US cents to the recent highs around parity with the U.S. dollar during the past four years, with only a brief dip in late 2008 and early 2009. This surge in the currency made Ontario s exports more expensive for foreigners to buy and rendered the province s exporters less competitive, while also making imports cheaper, according to The Star. Ontario s overall GDP per head relative to the rest of the country reflects the turnaround in trade. In 1998 2002, Ontario s GDP per person was 14.1 per cent higher than the average for the other nine provinces and three territories; in the first three quarters of 2011, it was 6.5 per cent lower. Since 2006, Ontario s GDP per person has been below the average for the rest of Canada and the roots of Ontario s current fix lie in both the economy and in the province s record of failing to keep growth in government spending in line with revenue growth. Ontarians have long been accustomed to their economy growing faster than the rest of the country. This was once true: in 15 of the 21 years from 1982 to 2002, Ontario grew faster than the national economy. But changing economic conditions have hit Ontario harder than other provinces over the past decade; in all nine years from 2003 to 2011, Ontario s real economic growth was below that of the rest of the country. The impact on Ontario s nominal GDP was huge. The contribution of trade to the economy is measured by net exports, the difference between what the province sells outside its boundaries and what it buys from other countries and provinces. Ontario s net exports to other provinces, where there was no currency effect, remained relatively stable. But the contribution to GDP of net exports to other countries first vanished entirely and then began to detract from Ontario s growth. The financial crisis and resulting U.S. recession, during which auto sales fell by about one-third, aggravated this trend. The province s international trade surplus, which accounted for 4.3 per cent of GDP in the 1998 2002 period, disappeared by the middle of 2006 and was replaced by a trade deficit, which in the first three quarters of 2011 diminished nominal GDP by 7.5 per cent. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Liberal Dept: Who s winning the Ontario Liberal fundraising race? Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty speaks during the Ontario Municipal Water Association's 2012 Drinking Water Leadership Summit in Toronto on Oct. 24, 2012. The textgallery, according to Globe and Mail. He s facing a new challenge now: going into a leadership convention with the smallest number of delegates just 105 of about 1,800 and almost certain to be dropped after the first ballot and infographic: The regional breakdown of Ontario Liberal leadership support Ontario Liberal party leadership candidates left to right Glen Murray, Charles Sousa, Harinder Takhar, Eric Hoskins, Kathleen Wynne, Sandra Pupatello and Gerard Kennedy take part in a debate in Thunder Bay, Ont., Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS Interactive Primer: The six candidates vying to be Ontario s next Liberal leader and premier (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Dept: A Star analysis of Ontario jail data, obtained by University of Toronto doctoral candidate Akwasi Owusu-Bempah through freedom of information requests, shows:, according to The Star. For black boys, the proportion of jail admissions is four times higher. Related Mother, sons sucked into criminal justice system Behind the Ontario jail data and Toronto Star analysis Data on admissions of youth to provincial jails Few youth get the mental health they need Analysis: Why we should worry about who we're jailing Ontario must stop imprisonment by race: Editorial VIDEO: Who we jail Blacks and aboriginal people are overrepresented in Ontario youth and adult jails, with some staggering ratios that mirror those of blacks in American jails. In Ontario, aboriginal boys aged 12 to 17 make up 2.9 per cent of the young male population. But in Ontario youth facilities they make up nearly 15 per cent of young male admissions. In other words, there are, proportionally, five times more aboriginal boys in the young male jail population than what they represent in the general young male population. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

CanadaImmigrants.com Ontario Desk - Ontario is working with the not for profit sector to better support organizations that help Ontarians maintain a high quality of life. The province will develop a comprehensive and long term strategic action plan for its partnership with the not for profit sector. This initiative will be a first of a kind approach for Ontario and will lead to recommendations to support the not for profit sector. In collaboration with the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the government will conduct a series of discussions with the not for profit, private and public sectors on how to make government more responsive to not for profit and volunteer organizations. This will help inform new ways to strengthen the sector, as part of the province's five year Open Ontario plan. Led by Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins and Ontario Trillium Foundation Chair Helen Burstyn, the province wide discussions will include: Reviewing the structural and legislative framework within which Ontario's not for profit sector operates. Exploring how to better coordinate the government's approach to the sector. Researching models of government not for profit sector partnerships in other jurisdictions. A report outlining the research results and offering concrete recommendations will be completed in Winter 2010. As reported in the news.

Related Websites

• Ontario Trillium Foundation

Canadian Immigration Dept: The primary reason is a restructuring of Canadian immigration that gave more control to provincial governments. Ontario, for so long an irresistible magnet to highly educated skilled workers, was slow to adjust. The status quo had served it well. While provinces such as Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta jumped at the newly created provincial nominee program early in the decade, Ontario did little, according to Globe and Mail. While the number of immigrants remained constant at about 250,000 per year, Ontario s share shrank. The other provinces used the nominee program to gobble up applicants, such as tradespeople, who don t fare well in the points system for skilled-worker applications. As the skilled-worker stream declined, so did Ontario. Ontario s going to show declining growth, that s for sure, said Doug Norris, senior vice-president at Environics Analytics and a leading expert on the census. They ve pulled immigrants out of Ontario, and immigrants drive growth, so Ontario s going to be down. Ontario didn t use the nominee program very much because for a long time it thought it was getting the numbers and also the kinds of immigrants it wanted, said Leslie Seidle, research director for immigration at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Dept: Video: Flaherty on Ontario and the credit rating agencies, according to Globe and Mail. It details the manifold ways in which federal policies punish Ontario workers and the Ontario economy and pDF: A Federal Agenda for Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty speaks to The 's editorial board in Toronto on April 27, 2012. Roger Hallett/The Housing A copy of A Federal Agenda for Ontario , released Thursday, was provided in advance to The . (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Ontario Dept: A new study by the respected Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto puts a number on the amount that the complicated system of federal transfers and payments to the provinces is shortchanging Ontario $11.1 billion a year, or almost 2 per cent of the province annual economic output. To put that in perspective, the province budget deficit, the cause of so much financial pain and political angst, is just a shade higher: $11.9 billion, according to The Star. The reasons are also well known. Equalization and federal programs such as employment insurance were designed many years ago when Ontario was fat and prosperous, enjoying the fruits of a booming industrial economy. Ontario taxpayers paid out more than they got back to support the chronically poor regions such as Quebec and the Atlantic provinces and no one much complained and There are few things more Canadian than claiming you re been shafted by Ottawa. In the case of Ontario, though, it actually true and it getting worse. There nothing new about this fiscal gap, of course. Premier Dalton McGuinty campaigned on it in the mid-2000s. Last year revealed a censored federal report that showed Ottawa had known for years that the national equalization program leaves some provinces Ontario and British Columbia, principally holding the short end of the stick. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Education Choice Dept: Ontario is taking steps to become the destination of choice for international students by protecting the excellence of its post secondary education and making it easier for international PhD students to stay in the province. The province intends to introduce amendments to the Post Secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act that would, if passed, allow the government to better protect students and safeguard the quality of post secondary education in Ontario. The amendments would strengthen the province's ability to shut down unscrupulous and unauthorized educational organizations and prevent them from taking advantage of International and Ontario students. Changes have also been made to the Opportunities Ontario: Provincial Nominee Program to make it easier for highly skilled Ontario trained international PhD graduates to stay in the province. These graduates will no longer need an offer of employment to apply to the program to be fast tracked for permanent residence. These changes support the Ontario government's five year Open Ontario plan to build a stronger economy by creating new opportunities in our schools, colleges, universities and trades. As part of this plan, the government will aggressively promote Ontario's postsecondary schools abroad and increase international enrolment by 50 per cent while guaranteeing spaces for qualified Ontario students. As reported in the news.

Related Websites

• Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) - A Canada ...

Ontario Pay Equity: Ontario Pay Equity Commissioner Emanuela Heyninck is on the committee and admitted laws have not kept up with changing employment patterns. "We are looking at what that non-traditional employer-employee relationship looks like," she said. "That traditional employment relationship is not the standard anymore and that will have a tremendous impact on our final report." In a background report published before the commission started its tour, researchers said failing to close the gender wage gap will have serious implications for the province economy. "Women in Ontario have made significant progress in areas such as labour force participation and education, according to Hamilton Spectator. Yet, they continue to earn less than men," the report says. "Women are overrepresented in lower-paying occupations and industries, make up a disproportionate number of employees in minimum wage and part-time positions, and remain under-represented in many higher paying jobs and sectors that have traditionally been male-dominated. "Achieving greater pay equality between men and women would benefit Ontario economy and society at large," the report says. "The gender wage gap is both an issue of fairness and an economic imperative. The four-member Gender Wage Gap commission stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens headquarters Monday night, one of 13 such stops on a tour of Ontario looking for ways to fulfil Premier Kathleen Wynne orders to close the gap. "Each community is different," the commission executive lead Nancy Austin told a group of three dozen women who turned out to grapple with the issue. "A solution that works in one place may not necessarily work in another." The members heard, however, about a slate of common ideas tabled in many communities they've visited — tougher pay equity legislation, universal and affordable child care for working mothers, more affordable housing, changes in corporate and social cultures to encourage girls to look at career options that pay better. "The problem starts and ends with legislation," one frustrated woman told the panel. "The legislation we have is toothless and can't be enforced." Several local midwives attended the session and complained they're paid barely half their real value, but the province anti-discrimination laws don't help them because they're not in traditional employment relationships. Failure to address this gap could undermine the competitiveness of Ontario businesses and the province potential for economic growth." A 2005 study by the Royal Bank, for example, concluded that if Ontario working women were paid the same as men they would have $168 billion more every year in wages, giving them more to spend on necessities and better income security in their senior years. Under such initiatives the pay gap has narrowed — from an average difference of 55.6 per cent in 1976 to 44.4 per cent in 1986 and 31.5 per cent in 2011, but the pace of improvement seems to be slowing. Unequal pay based on gender is not a new issue — one of Canada early efforts was signing on to the International Labor Organization 1951 "Convention Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women for Work of Equal Value." That same year, Ontario passed the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Sonoco Products Dept: Over the past five to six years, many manufacturing companies have closed shop in Ontario as the province lost competitiveness due to a dollar trading at approximate parity with the U.S. companies like Collins & Aikman in Guelph 500 jobs , Interforest in Durham 120 jobs , Crane Valves in Brantford 88 jobs , Sonoco Products in Cambridge 100 jobs , Siemens in Hamilton 550 jobs , FRAM in Stratford 300 jobs and many more across the province. As companies consolidate operations in North America, Ontario has a tough time making the case to keep operations here, according to The Star. The high dollar, by hitting manufacturing hard, is eroding Ontario s tax base and contributing to the deficit and to Ontario s high unemployment rate and blame it on Alberta s oilsands. Last month, Ontario s premier pickle company, Bick s Pickles, closed its production facilities in southern Ontario and moved its operations to the U.S. The high value of the Canadian dollar was an important factor in a corporate decision that cost 150 regular jobs here. Bick s is not alone feeling the impact of what some are calling the Alberta dollar. In other instances Ontario has lost out to the U.S. or Mexico when investment decisions were being made. The tourist industry has suffered as well. A U.S. visitor to Toronto, Stratford, Niagara-on-the-Lake or Muskoka would have paid $127.40 U.S. in 2002 for a hotel room that cost 200 Canadian dollars. Last year the American visitor would have paid $202 U.S. , or almost 60 per cent more. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.