Canada Dept: Since 2010, fewer foreign live-in caregivers have been admitted to Canada, partly due to the declining applications by Canadian families who are now required to pay for all recruitment fees incurred and partly a result of Ottawa s slower processing and tighter screening, according to The Star. The open work permits allow nannies to work outside of an employer s home and in the field they choose, and many have since given their two-weeks notice and left their jobs and these days, it scares Jodi Kaplan to let her live-in caregiver, Rose Pablico, out of her sight because of the rampant nanny poaching across Canada, especially in Greater Toronto. The shortage of live-in caregivers has been exacerbated since mid-December when the federal government issued 14,000 open work permits to nannies who met the employment hours to apply for permanent residency. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

West Coast Dept: And because of an agreement Harper signed while in China - though negotiated over the past several years - West Coast can expect to export a lot more of one of its main products to that country by the end of the year, according to Vancouver Sun. Before 2003, China had been Canada's largest export market for tallow, Glotman said. But when some Canadian cows were hit with bovine spongiform encephalopathy BSE that year, China stopped buying Canadian tallow. At the time, West Coast was selling about 80,000 tonnes of tallow a year to China, which today would be worth about $80 million, Glotman said and west Coast Reduction president and CEO Barry Glotman says he's not political at all. Yet he was part of Stephen Harper's four-day China mission last week and came away impressed. While overseas he met with many Chinese businessmen, some of whom he hopes will become customers. West Coast is in the business of buying the non-edible parts of animals from farmers and turning them into a variety of products, such as protein meals used in animal feed, animal fats and tallow - a product used, among other things, in the production of soaps and cosmetics. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Regions Of Canada Dept: Did you fill out your census this time? If you did, you re in good company as 98.1 per cent of Canadians complied this time, slightly higher than the 96.5 per cent who responded in 2006. Census 2011, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Explore the numbers and see how different regions of Canada compare and have changed since the last census in 2006 and statistics Canada last week began releasing the findings of the 2011 Census. The first release, population counts, is from the short form census which all of us had to fill out. Information from the controversially voluntary national household survey will not come until next year. In depth: The Census (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Chickens Dept: They will pick our fruit, vegetables and tobacco; they will care for our chickens and hogs. They will feed us. They will enrich our economy. And they will achieve this by working for pay and under conditions the vast majority of Ontarians would disdainfully reject, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Sadly, at a Perth County crossroads on Monday afternoon, it increasingly appears the people of Ontario did not live up to this responsibility. Eleven people died in the hamlet of Hampstead when a van filled with migrant workers failed to stop at a stop sign and was struck by a transport truck and this year, Ontario will open its borders and welcome more than 18,000 agricultural workers from other countries. These men and women will toil in our fields and orchards, in our greenhouses and barns. They will endure scorching suns, freezing winds, driving rains, mud, dirt, dust and bad odours. These labourers and temporary residents in Canada will do much for those of us lucky enough to call this place home. In return, beyond seeing they are properly recompensed before we send them home, we have a responsibility to ensure they are safe and protected when they are in this country. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Benjamin Monty Robinson Dept: Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson was off duty and driving his children home from a Halloween party when he struck Orion Hutchinson's motorcycle with his Jeep at a Tsawwassen intersection on Oct. 25, 2008. Instead of helping the 21-year-old, Crown lawyers alleged that Robinson left the young man to die in the street while he walked home and drank two shots of vodka, according to CTV. Hutchinson's family attended the first day of Robinson's trial in B.C. Supreme Court Monday and sobs could be heard inside the courtroom. Outside the court, mother Judith Hutchinson made an emotional plea for harsh justice and a B.C. Mountie accused of obstruction of justice in a fatal crash has pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors say they plan to present damning evidence that he knew about at hiding evidence of drunk driving. Robinson failed two separate police breathalyzer tests when he returned 10 minutes later, leading Delta police to recommend a charge of impaired driving causing death, but prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to support that charge. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Canada Dept: While minority-language publications remain anonymous to most Canadians, their combined readership is in the millions -- more than the country's largest daily newspapers, according to CBC. Canada's ethnic newspapers and magazines -- often one-person operations typed up in the homes of recent immigrants -- are now hoping to raise their game even higher and canada's increasingly influential ethnic-press industry will seek a financial boost from the upper levels of government to better its business and journalistic know-how. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, listens as master of the ceremonies Thomas Saras hosts a gala dinner at a professional development seminar for the National Press and Media Council of Canada in 2009. Saras is asking for federal and provincial government funding for future training seminars for multicultural journalists. Nathan Denette/Canadian Press The ethnic press also wields clout inside the Prime Minister's Office, where, more than ever, the industry is viewed as a coveted conduit to the multicultural vote. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Asylum Seekers Dept: Fearing that the illegal migrants were headed their way, the Australians tracked the MV Ocean Lady and the MV Sun Sea almost from the moment those on board left Sri Lanka and alerted Canadian authorities to their existence and progress, according to people here familiar with the file, according to Vancouver Sun. On one hand there has been anguish over their fate, as when several dozen asylum seekers from the Middle East drowned when their weather-beaten Indonesian vessel crashed 14 months ago into rocks on Australia's Christmas Island - an incident that received an extraordinary amount of attention, because the horrific drama was captured on video and there were great sighs of relief in Australia when two ships carrying 568 Tamil asylum seekers sailed north of the island continent before crossing the Pacific Ocean to make landfall in Canada in 2009 and 2010. Canada has got off easy so far. Hundreds of such vessels having already reached Australia since 2008 carrying thousands of "boat people" from South Asia and the Middle East on board rickety fishing vessels. What to do with these uninvited migrants is a politically toxic issue here. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Canada Dept: Last year, Citizenship and Immigration Canada unveiled a $500,000 monument at Halifax s Pier 21 in memory of MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 907 Jewish refugees who were refused entry to Canada in 1939. The monument, The Wheel of Conscience, reminds Canadians of our collective responsibility to others, according to The Star. Bill C-4 calls for a balanced refugee reform. In certain cases, the law would prevent recognized refugees from reuniting with their families or from traveling abroad to visit them, limiting their mobility rights for up to five years and minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney says Bill C-4 will punish human smugglers, but in reality the law would punish refugees who have given up everything to reach Canada. But the reintroduction of an immigration bill that punishes refugee claimants for seeking refugee status in Canada suggests that we don t seem to have learned much from the St. Louis. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Population Growth Dept: Once the centre of Canada s growth, Ontario is still growing at a healthy rate, 5.7 per cent, but nowhere near the pace it once boasted. Faced with diminishing job prospects in the manufacturing and auto sector, Ontarians are migrating to other provinces after the fallout from the recession. That, coupled with lower levels of immigration, means it s the only province that didn t see an increase in population growth. Toronto s growth rate increased by 4.5 per cent, but the real change was in Brampton, which jumped by 20.8 per cent, fuelled by an influx of immigrants from South Asia and, in particular, expansion in the Sikh community, according to Globe and Mail. Quebec saw its share of the Canadian population slide further, as it has for several years. It s now down to 23.6 per cent from 29 per cent in 1951. By contrast, Ontario s share climbed from 32.8 per cent in 1951 to 38.4 per cent in 2011. Still, Quebec s population did increase 4.7 per cent, thanks to higher levels of immigration and fertility and ontario: The looming slump Quebec: A shrinking share (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

Newfoundland And Labrador Dept: Despite the ever-present prospect of better jobs outside the region, the four Atlantic provinces managed to grow their ranks during the past five years by placing a greater emphasis on attracting and retaining immigrants from abroad, according to The Chronicle Herald. Even Newfoundland and Labrador, long a perennial population loser, managed to post its first positive growth rate since 1986 1.8 per cent and aFTER DECADES of losing its young people to the lure of high-paying work in Ontario and Western Canada, the Atlantic region is showing signs of having turned things around, the latest census figures show. Census figures released Wednesday show Eastern Canada with a growth rate of 1.9 per cent, led by Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick at 3.2 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively. Growth was modestly higher in Nova Scotia 0.9 per cent, up from 0.6 for the previous five-year period. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.