Fabiola Sicard: Hispanic-Canadians

Canadian Counterparts Dept: That much, at least, is known. But in sharp contrast to the U.S., where the Hispanic community is a 50 million-strong economic and political force that marketers study intently, their Canadian counterparts are practically invisible, according to Globe and Mail. But what little research exists suggests the Hispanic market which numbers between 600,000 and 1.2 million, depending on the definition is not just its own unique beast, but a valuable one. Latin America is the fourth-largest source of immigration to Canada, said Fabiola Sicard, the Toronto-based director of Latin markets for Bank of Nova Scotia, who is charged with convincing new Hispanic-Canadians to open accounts at her bank. On Wednesday evening, Ms. Sicard told a meeting of the Toronto Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that the number of immigrants from Latin American countries jumped by 121 per cent from the five-year periods of 1996-2000 to 2001-2006. Chalk it up, said Ms. Sicard, to three obstacles: Hispanic-Canadians are a smaller market than other immigrant communities, they are geographically fragmented stretching from the Venezuelan oil workers in Lethbridge, Alta., to IT professionals in Oakville, Ont., to dentists in Montreal , and there is almost no significant research that delves into their unique needs. Making matters worse, the eradication of Statistics Canada s long-form census last year means the one half-decent source of information that marketers depended on is now gone. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.