November 2022

One of the best books I’ve ever read about Canadian immigration is Maximum Canada: Toward a Country of 100 Million. In it, Globe and Mail international affairs columnists Douglas Saunders argues that Canadian immigration policies instituted by Britain led to Canada being underpopulated and deprived it of the critical mass of individuals necessary to create an economic environment conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship. This led and continues to lead to the ‘out-migration’ of Canada’s best and brightest, with the USA the primary beneficiary.

October 2022

IRCC has just announced the details of the 2022 Parent and Grandparent Program, and it will be of great disappointment to anyone hoping to apply who didn’t submit an interest form in 2020.

October 2022

Here in the city of Ottawa, we dispose of our waste using different coloured bins. Blue is for containers (think that empty bottle of ketchup), black is for paper, green is for organics, and your garbage can will be whatever is for sale at the local hardware store.

Introducing the municipal compost program in Ottawa was smartly done in the fall, so people could get used to recycling their organic waste before the hot summer months turned green bin contents into a smelly, sometimes wriggly affair.

September 2022

On May 11, 2022, the Canadian parliament approved a Private Member’s Bill, M-44, brought by Randeep Sarai, a politician from British Columbia. The motion required the Immigration department to develop a plan to expand the economic immigration streams available to individuals with Canadian work experience. The motion required the government to develop the plan within 120 days.

As soon as the Bill was passed, I started getting emails from clients holding post-graduate work permits. Some have already set up an Express Entry profile, and others are waiting to obtain a full year of work experience to be able to do so. They wanted to know what documents they should have prepared so they could apply for the new program when it was announced.