Canadian Immigration News

Thanks to a unique Canadian program, new Canadian citizens are offered a free 12-month entrance pass to attractions across the country. The program is called the Cultural Access Pass, CAP, and is managed by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. The program is quickly gaining popularity. Three years ago, only six facilities participated. Now, the program enrols 80 citizens a day with over 1,000 attractions across the country.

An Ontario community, Simcoe County, is welcoming immigrants with open arms. The county is one of 45 in Ontario that has been asked by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to host a partnership aimed at analyzing the needs of current residents and newcomers.

The Government of Canada views immigration as one of the most important factors in strengthening the economy following the recession and has noted that changes may come to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

A recent compilation of rankings by the U.S. website Newsweek found Canada to be the third-best country in the world to be a woman.

Canada has become the first country to sign the Ottawa Protocol on Combating Anti-Semitism. The Protocol, which developed during the Interparliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA) in Ottawa last year, is aimed at stopping hatred and discrimination, including anti-Semitism.

According to Investissement Quebec, an economic development agency, 86 companies and more than 8,000 jobs have moved to Montreal as a result of a government program. The program allows 37.5 percent of a video-game company’s payroll to be subsidized by Montreal in the form of a refundable tax credit.

A recent study on Canadian immigration policies has found that immigrants who move to Canada as independent skilled immigrants had the highest earnings of four categories of immigrants studied: independent primary skilled immigrants, accompanying economic immigrants, family class immigrants, and refugees.

Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State and Foreign Affairs (Americans and Consular Affairs), recently announced improvements to make Canada more easily accessible for Latin American travellers.

According to the new QS World University Rankings, Montreal’s McGill University is the top-ranked university in the country. McGill moved up from 19th place last year to 17th place worldwide this year.

Beginning next month, CICNews.com will be adding a new Q&A feature to its monthly newsletter. Readers will have the opportunity to send in their Canadian immigration questions to be answered by Attorney David Cohen.