Monthly Archives: September 2012

Globe & Mail: Highly Educated Parents Choose Canada

Posted on by
Reply

The make-up of the typical Canadian school has changed dramatically since the 1950s, with 10 percent of K-12 students now foreign-born, and a majority of immigrant students belonging to a visible minority group

A new story in the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper, explores the advantage Canada has over other high income democracies in attracting highly educated emigrants.

The article notes that 10 percent of K-12 students in Canada are foreign-born, with the prevalence increasing to over 25 percent in major metropolitan centres like Vancouver and Toronto.

It lauds the success of these foreign born students, who despite facing the challenges of integrating into a new country, outperform their native born peers academically.

This is in contrast to other countries, including the US and UK, where immigrant students perform more poorly academically than their native-born peers, and this, the article contends, is often the reason why highly educated parents choose to immigrate to Canada.

The article has generated tremendous interest among the Globe’s readership, with 600 comments submitted at the time of this writing.

Alberta Has Best Labour Market in North America -Study

Posted on by
1

Suncor Energy Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Alberta has seen the fastest employment growth in North America according to the latest Index of Labour Market Performance report by the Fraser Institute (Chuck Szmurlo)

A new Fraser Institute study finds that Alberta tops all Canadian provinces and US states in labour market performance.

The report, by Nachum Gabler, Niels Veldhuis, and chief economist for the Fraser Institute, Amela Karabegović, rates jurisdictions by five indicators: average total employment growth, average private-sector employment growth, average unemployment rates, average duration of unemployment, and average labour productivity.

In the overall index, Alberta received a score of 8.9 out of 10, higher than any other province or US state. Saskatchewan came second in the rankings, with a score of 8.3, and Manitoba ranked 5th, with a score of 7.2.

All three high-ranking provinces have enjoyed strong employment growth thanks to booming natural resource sectors. Alberta leads the provinces in oil production, followed by Saskatchewan. All three have large mining and agricultural sectors which have benefited from rising commodity prices on the global markets.

In addition to having the best employment growth and the sixth lowest unemployment rate in North America, Alberta’s ranking was helped by low unionization rates, low dependence on the public sector to provide jobs, a low minimum wage relative to average wages, and, among Canadian provinces, the most labour flexibility provided by “worker-choice laws”, which prohibit mandatory payment of union dues as a condition of employment.

Alberta also placed first in Canada, and sixth overall, in labour productivity, with a GDP per worker of $131,040. Newfoundland & Labrador ranked second among the provinces with a per worker GDP of $129,547, and Saskatchewan ranked third with $120,372.

One factor that the study’s authors consider important in labour market performance but did not include in the Index of Labour Market Performance is the number of working days lost to labour disputes.

British Columbia ranked last among all jurisdictions in this metric, with 105.5 working days lost per 1,000 workers, due mostly to strikes by public sector unions.