Immigration Matters

‘Poilievre blames “a radical out of control NDP-Liberal government” for the current high numbers. He loves simple, nonsensical slogans like “Axe the tax,” and never concedes that some issues are complex, and cannot be boiled down to three words'

'If we take out the temporary foreign worker program, then you better not complain about the line at the local restaurant or the increase in menu prices'

In the early days of RNIP fast food and retail jobs were being accepted for community recommendations, but, no longer

The latest census information available, from 2021, has North Bay’s population at 52,662. The immigrant population was 2,615 and only 130 were from India. Since then that number has likely increased ten-fold. We won’t know for sure until the next census in 2026, with results published in 2027.

With RNIP, there is no money involved, and some employers don’t get that part.

I can sense a collective sigh of relief from those involved with RNIP, and the newcomers who want to stay and work in centres like North Bay who were hoping the program would become a permanent one.

My response was, why is no one talking about immigration in North Bay when the face of the city is changing before our eyes?

Ontario froze domestic tuition fees for colleges and universities, forcing the schools to rely on international students — often paying three times the tuition fee of a domestic student — and leading Canadore to forge public-private partnerships with colleges in the GTA to change its financial picture

What all this means is local employers will have more difficulty finding part-time workers. They just might have to raise wages to find permanent residents or Canadian citizens to fill the positions

Another item in the news this week is a 40 per cent decline in the number of study permit applications from India in the second half of this year