MEETINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA
We are now booking meetings for our next trip to South Africa from 12 -21 May 2016. Meeting sports are filling up quickly! In case you missed it, you can still book below. There are two steps to booking a meeting with our leading Immigration Consultant Cobus Kriek:
Part 1. Assessment of Eligibility
Part 2. Book a Meeting
Click on “BOOK HERE” below, which will get you started on Part 1.
Should you have any questions about booking meetings, you can contact Natasha Boshoff at admin@matrixvisa.com or call (087) 750-0341 ext 103. We will gladly assist you with any inquiries you may have.
MEANWHILE IN CANADA
Summer Is Almost Here
One of the first indications of summer is when the roads are being scrubbed and vacuumed; during winter a mix of sand and salt are spread on the roads to melt the ice and prevent cars from sliding on the slippery roads. In spring the sand and gravel are removed from the streets and returned to the municipal yards for re-use later in the year.
Weather & Forest Fires
Yesterday Vancouver experienced the hottest day since 1945 and Calgary has experienced a record breaking 28 today. These extremely high Spring temperatures have been caused by the El Niño effect in the Pacific Ocean.
Yesterday 80 000 people was evacuated from Fort McMurray (Alberta) after wildfires threatened the town. This was the biggest mass evacuation in Alberta history. It was reported that 1600 structures was destroyed the past 48 hours and the fire is not yet under control.
Crime in Canada – Police Break-Up Dispute between Man & Parrot
In some cities, such as Toronto, there are often articles in the media thatthe police budget should be reduced. Some of the arguments are that the crime is significantly lower now than was 30 years ago. Crime in Canada has decreased by approximately 30% each decade for the past two to three decades.
A good example of this low crime rate is when the Ontario Provincial Police (called “OPP”) in Brighton Ontario were called to a domestic disturbance. The neighbours of a specific house report they heard someone shout, “I hope you die.” When the OPP Constable Bates arrived at the house he saw a man (intoxicated) in a shouting match with his parrot. The constable reported that the parrot did not appear to be hurt in any way. It was also reported that no arrests were made.
You can go to the Vancouver Sun to see the full article.
IMMIGRATION NEWS
This year Canada increased its number of immigrants to 310 000, which is the largest number of immigrants allowed into the country in many years. Canada is now accepting 58 000 refugees for 2016 compared with 24, 800 last year. Family Class has also seen a radical increase from 68 000 to 80 000.
The Minister of Refugee, Immigration and Citizenship Canada, announced that he has signed a document increasing the age of dependency to 22 years, but that it would take 18 months to take effect.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) are having hearings this month about the temporary foreign worker program that will include a review of the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process. One of the issues that is expected to be discussed is that foreign nationals in Canada on open work permits (spouses of students or foreign workers) and intra-company transferees might become eligible for an extra 600 points in Express Entry.
The Quebec Immigrant Investor program will again open in May.
Matrixvisa assisted a South African entrepreneur with an immigration law service to establish Jetpatcher (www.jetpatcher.ca) in Canada. Jetpatcher distribute new technology to repair potholes in asphalt roads across Canada. Foreign Entrepreneurs that are interested to participate in the growth of Jetpacther in Canada can contact Tinus Joubert at tinus@jetpatcher.ca or call him on 00-1-(306) 220-9884.
ECONOMY IN CANADA
Heinz or French’s Tomato Sauce
During January, the cost of fresh vegetables and fruit in Canada increased by 18% and 16% respectively. This is likely due to the drop in the Canadian dollar against the US dollar; Canada imports some types of vegetables from the USA.
It is expected that further increases will be less significant because Canada has large areas of greenhouse horticulture in Southern Alberta, Southwestern Ontario (Leamington area) as well as the lower Fraser Valley near Vancouver. Fruit from Ontario and British Columbia will be available this summer which means the drastic increase in fruit prices will become a thing of the past.
In the Leamington area of Ontario the US based company Heinz announced that they will not purchase Canadian tomatoes for the tomato sauce (‘ketchup’) and closed the factory after a 100 years in Leamington. The result was that 750 people lost their jobs. Another producer of tomato sauce ‘French’s’ from Ohio decided only to purchase Canadian tomatoes for tomato sauce sold in Canada. This has resulted in many Canadians refusing to purchase Heinz products and only buying ‘French’s’ tomato sauce. One of Canada’s largest retailers, ‘Loblaws’, found that fewer consumers were purchasing their ‘no-name’ brand tomato sauce and wanted to remove French’s tomato sauce from its shelves in order to reduce competition. This was deemed an unpatriotic move by the retailer and threats of a boycott against Loblaws loomed. Loblaws decided to keep French’s tomato sauce on their shelves. Due to the nationwide surge in buying French’s tomato sauce, Canadian tomato farmers of the Leamington area are extremely busy. Fortunately Highbury Canco purchased the Leamington factory from Heinz and now employs over 400 people, and require a further 85 employees.
Job Market
It was reported that 32 500 full time jobs were created in Ontario’s film industry, which is 4500 more jobs than 2014.
The film industry also injected CAD1.5 billion into the Ontario economy. This is another advantage of the low Canadian dollar.
Unknown to many in Canada, Montreal and Quebec, based retailer, ‘Couche-Tard’ (pronounced “Cush-Tar”) owns 16 000 stores in Canada, USA, Europe, Mexico, Japan, China and Indonesia. It is a Canadian grown world brand that competes with Spar and other retailers. It has brands that include Mac’s, Circle K, On the Run, with affiliated brands such as Daisy Mart, Dairy Mart and a few others. It recently purchased a large number of Esso gas stations in Canada is quickly expanding into the retail gasoline market.
The Piccadilly Potash mine in New Brunswick closed and 430 people lost their jobs.
In Saskatchewan the Rabbit Lake uranium mine closed and 450 employees lost their positions at the mine. The reason is the collapse in worldwide Uranium prices from CAD72 per pound 5 years ago to CAD26 at present.
Human Rights
The Ontario Human Rights Commission has written a report in which employers were warned that they can open themselves to complaints over sexualized dress code policies. Employer policies that would require employee to wear high heels, short skirts or low cut tops, should be eliminated as it could violate the Province’s human rights code. It seems as if Grandma would now be able to get a job at Hooters Bar.
Industry
The Canadian federal government has released their budget for 2016/17 and a deficit of CAD30 billion has been forecasted.
Canada’s industrial conglomerate, Bombardier, has signed a contract with Delta Airlines in the USA to supply 75 passenger jets with a possible additional 50 units later on. The contract is worth CAD5.6 billion. In the process Bombardier competed against Boeing from the USA and Airbus from Europe. Bombardier is also in the process of supplying more than 200 electric streetcars for Toronto.
Due to low gas prices, drilling for natural gas is now the lowest it has been in 30 years. It also comes as no surprise that none of the planned 24 Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) projects that seem to be going ahead. One of the largest projects owned by Altagas said they could not find customers for its planned LNG Export facility. Some in the industry believe that certain LNG projects might go ahead.
A company based in the town of Stellarton, Nova Scotia, called ‘Empire Co.’, own 2 well-known brands of grocery retailers: Sobey’s and Safeway. Due to the economic downturn in Western Canada it lost CAD1.36 billion after downgrading its valuation of its Western Canadian business.
In Western Canada, Westjet, one of Canada’s two domestic airlines, saw a drop in earnings of 38% in the most recent quarter. Fortunately, Westjet still made a profit of CAD87.6 million for the most recent quarter.
SINCERELY,
THE MATRIXVISA TEAM
We are committed to sharing the latest and greatest about Canada with you.