Toronto’s citizens can hold their heads high in the wake of the Reader’s Digest “Global Courtesy Test”. The survey used undercover reporters to assess 2,000 people in 35 different countries, observing how they behaved in three situations:

• whether people help someone to pick up papers they have dropped in the street
• whether shop assistants say “thank you” after making a sale
• whether people hold doors open to people following them into a public building

Worldwide, men were more polite with other men and women more polite with other women.

The survey results were:

21 Jun 2006

Sales activity in the Canadian housing market broke all records in May according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The average Canadian house price broke through the $300,000 barrier for the first time ever.

At $303,836, the average Canadian house price was up by 12.9 percent on the same time last year – the biggest increase since May 2004 and the highest level on record.

The average house price broke all previous monthly records in a number of major markets including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, London, Hamilton, Montreal, and Saint John.

Sales activity for the year-to-date in May was up 5.0 percent compared to the first five months of last year.

Record numbers of houses sold in Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, London, Kitchener, Sudbury, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Saint John. “May marks the fourth consecutive month in which the major market average residential price broke all previous records,” said CREA Chief Economist Gregory Klump.

“Sales activity continues to run high, despite rising interest rates and home prices. This shows how additional full time job growth, rising incomes and resilient consumer confidence are working together to keep housing demand strong.”

“Consumers are continuing to show their confidence in resale housing right across Canada, with new home sales records set in several major centres this May,” added CREA President Alan Tennant.

14 Jun 2006

Canadian businesses added 96,700 employees to their payrolls in May, taking unemployment to its lowest rate in 32 years.

Canada’s official jobless rate stands now at 6.1 percent, according to Statistics Canada.

Banks and oil companies are spearheading job creation in Canada where 150,800 full-time jobs were added and 54,200 part-time positions were cut in May.

The world’s eighth largest economy is growing now at its fastest since 2000, fuelled by rising consumer spending and higher prices for its commodity exports.

Canadian wages rose 3.8 percent in the last 12 months while consumer prices rose by 2.4.

Wages in Alberta, where an oil boom is causing severe labour shortages, rose 7.3 percent. Petro-Canada and other oil-companies in Alberta are struggling to find suitably skilled workers for new projects in Alberta.

Unemployment in Alberta is just 3.4 percent.

9 Jun 2006

Public acceptance of immigrants has grown in Canada over the last few years, despite debates about its merits. AP-Ipsos polling found more tolerance for immigrants now than two years ago in Canada. *

Three quarters of those polled said immigrants are a good influence.

Canadians generally believe that immigrants work at least as hard as workers born in Canada, with 43 percent saying they work harder. Only 15 percent of Canadians believe immigrants are more likely to be involved in crime than people born in Canada.

“The population of immigrants is increasing dramatically,” said Fred Bemak, a professor who studies the impact of immigration. “When it’s the person next door, it changes the tone.”

The changes in public sentiment over the last two years came in a shift from a number of people who didn’t know how they felt in 2004 to more people feeling immigrants are a good influence.

Meanwhile, The Vancouver Sun, through the Access to Information Act, has discovered that seven years of internal government polls suggest that public opinion on Canada’s immigration levels has changed little, with roughly half of those surveyed saying the right number of immigrants are entering the country.

However, a 12 percent decrease in support has been noticed in Vancouver since August 2005.

“This decrease in support can be explained by a number of failed refugee claimants that became high-profile crime cases in B.C. during this period of tracking,” the report said.

* Polling was carried out in May, before the arrests in Ontrario of a number of Canadian muslim men for allegedly plotting acts of terrorism in Canada.

6 Jun 2006

The Ontario government will introduce legislation to help internationally trained professionals work in their fields of expertise sooner, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle announced today.”Ontario is attracting some of the best educated, and highly skilled people from around the world,” said Colle. “The proposed legislation is about making sure that those with great global experience have a fair shot at working in their profession.”

The Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act 2006, would apply to 34 regulated professions in Ontario, including accountants, engineers, physicians, lawyers, teachers, and social workers.

The bill should be introduced before the end of the current legislative session, as part of a comprehensive plan for newcomer success.

Another component of the plan is a new Ontario government internship program for internationally trained individuals. In the first year of the program, up to 70 six-month internship assignments will be created in ministries and Crown agencies. Program participants will be able to apply their talents and experience and gain knowledge of government that can be applied in other workplaces.

“We are leading by example and are the first province in Canada with a program like this,” said Minister of Government Services Gerry Phillips. “We are challenging Ontario businesses to tap into the talents of skilled newcomers. They have the skills businesses need to succeed.”

The proposed legislation and internship program form part of the Ontario government’s strategy to help newcomers succeed. Other parts of the strategy have included:

• Investing over $34 million since 2003, in 60 bridge training projects to help newcomers work in 100 trades and professions.
• Negotiating the first ever Canada-Ontario immigration agreement, which quadruples federal funding for language training and settlement programs to $920 million over five years.
• Doubling the number of training and assessments positions for internationally trained medical graduates - in the past two years more doctors’ certificates have been issued to international medical graduates than to Ontario graduates.

3 Jun 2006