ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE JUDY SGRO, MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION At the Ontario Immigration Roundtable
Toronto, Ontario February 9, 2004
I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you here this morning and express my thanks to Dr. Bountrogianni for jointly organizing and hosting this very important roundtable. It's a pleasure for me as new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada to meet with so many leaders from such vibrant and culturally diverse communities.
Welcome all.
I've been impressed during my short tenure as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration with the willingness and ability of all levels of government to work together in a spirit of cooperation and understanding. The recent Federal-Provincial-Territorial meeting of Immigration Ministers is just one example of this.
So I'd like to think that this meeting today represents a further strengthening of our resolve and commitment to forge lasting relationships that will help ensure immigration to Canada benefits everyone in every region.
Today we live in an age of migration. People from every corner of the globe are on the move in unprecedented numbers in search of a better life for themselves and their families.
This presents both an opportunity and a challenge for all of us. Newcomers bring ideas, skills, and talents to help fuel the growth of Canada's economy into the 21st century. Most come with the skills and knowledge Canadian businesses will need to be successful in the new and traditional economies. We're therefore committed to increasing immigration levels over the coming years according to a balanced plan. What's the best way to achieve this? How do we ensure that the immigration program is working properly and benefits both the communities where newcomers settle as well as immigrants themselves?
One of the most important elements will be to fully engage all of you as municipal leaders in the process and ensure that the immigration plans we develop fully reflect your perspective, your views, and your concerns. Our immigration plans have to be developed with you in mind from the start. In many ways, this meeting therefore represents the beginning of a new way of doing business and a new spirit of cooperation between our respective governments.
Today we need more collaboration in the decision making process. We need closer working relationships among our governments so that everyone can have a stronger say in the immigration process. And we need to hear from you. Over the coming months, the federal government will also be consulting with other municipal leaders and stakeholders to help ensure that as many as possible have a say in the development of our immigration plans. We appreciate that funding may be an issue and are prepared to listen to your concerns and any proposals you may have as we develop a shared national plan.
Last week's Speech from the Throne committed us to deepening the pool of Canada's talents and skills by ensuring more successful integration of new immigrants into the economy and into communities. This means working hand in hand with municipalities to help provide an appropriate welcome for newcomers. It also means working together with our municipal partners to ensure an appropriate match between the skills immigrants bring and local business needs.
The Throne Speech also committed us to a new deal for municipalities. This meeting gives us an opportunity to move the process forward by listening to your concerns, valuing your input, and together clarifying the roles that municipalities want to play in immigration.
Newcomers to Canada overwhelmingly choose to put down roots in cities. This helps to make our country one of the most urbanized in the world and our cities among the most ethnically diverse.
While immigrants made up slightly more than 18 percent of Canada's population in 2001, for example, they made up 44 percent of the population of Metropolitan Toronto and 37 percent of the population in Vancouver. Across Canada, over 90 percent of newcomers settle in cities.
You as mayors therefore have an especially important role to play. It's critically important that your voice be heard on immigration matters. We're here to listen. We're here to learn. And we're here over the long term to ensure that all of us have a role in building an immigration plan that meets the needs of Canadians and is a model for the rest of the world.
Thank you.

Home ownership in Canada
Affordability will remain solid in 2004 as market continues to move into balanced territory
TORONTO, Feb. 17 /CNW/ - Alberta's reign as one of the most affordable provinces in Canada in which to own a home is expected to continue through 2004, according to the new Housing Affordability Index released today by RBC Economics.
RBC's Housing Affordability Index for Alberta -- which measures the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to service the costs of owning a home - remained unchanged from the previous quarter at 27.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2003. This translates into an average monthly payment of $1,231 for an average detached bungalow (principal, interest, tax and utilities) and compares to a national average of 32.2 per cent or $1,283 per month for the final quarter of 2003.
"Alberta's housing market shifted to more balanced conditions in 2003 after an increase in resale listings helped to ease the double-digit pricing growth of 2002," said Carl Gomez, RBC economist. "This healthy shift in the province's housing market will continue this year. Still, housing activity will remain well above historical norms given that housing demand continues to be supported by solid affordability and moderately good employment growth."
According to the RBC report, the benchmark price of a detached bungalow in Alberta increased on an annual basis by 2.6 per cent to $184,368 in the fourth quarter of 2003 - the slowest rate of appreciation seen in the province since 1996. In Calgary, the trend was similar as the benchmark price rose 5.2 per cent to $228,099 with the city's Affordability Index remaining unchanged at 29.3 per cent for the final quarter of 2003.
The Housing Affordability Index, which RBC has compiled since 1985, is based on the costs of owning a detached bungalow, a typical target home for first-time buyers. The higher the index, the more difficult it is to afford a house. For example, an Affordability Index of 50 per cent means that home ownership costs, including mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes, take up 50 per cent of a typical household's pre-tax income.
The RBC report notes that Atlantic Canada remained the most affordable region with an Affordability Index of 26.8 per cent and British Columbia remained the least affordable with an index at 42.9 per cent. RBC's Affordability Index for Canada's three largest cities for the last quarter of 2003 breaks down as follows: Vancouver 46.2 per cent, Toronto 38.4 per cent
and Montreal 30.1 per cent.

Highlights from across Canada:
- British Columbia: Lack of housing supply resulting in rising home prices eroded affordability to 42.9 per cent in the last quarter of 2003 from 42.1 per cent during the previous quarter. For 2004, the ongoing lack of inventory will mean that prices will continue to climb sharply, helping to trigger the biggest annual increase in new home construction among all provinces.

- Saskatchewan: Relatively low mortgage rates and an improving supply of new homes in 2004 should help Saskatchewan maintain its position as one of Canada's most affordable regions, despite an erosion in affordability to 29.7 per cent in the last quarter of 2003 from 29.2 per cent the previous quarter.

- Manitoba: Tight inventory caused the largest deterioration in affordability of any region in Canada during the final quarter of 2003, as its index rose to 30.9 per cent from 30 per cent the previous quarter.

- Ontario: A more balanced market and low mortgage rates resulted in affordability eroding to 31.3 per cent from 31 per cent the period before. Move-up buyers will become a dominant force driving Ontario's housing market in 2004.

- Quebec: Housing affordability remained stable in the last quarter of 2003 at 29.9 per cent even as home prices continued to accelerate sharply. With mortgage rates expected to remain relatively low for most of 2004 and income growth expected to pick up as the economy improves, housing activity is likely to remain strong in 2004.

- Atlantic region: Remains the most affordable area in Canada in which to own a home with Affordability Index levels at 26.8 per cent. With overall housing inventory up and demand easing, housing markets will likely move to even more balanced territory in the coming year.

The full RBC Housing Affordability Index report is available online at www.rbc.com/economics/market/pdf/house.pdf.

"Canada's future is going to depend even more on immigration" Citizenship and Immigration Minister Judy Sgro
Toronto Star Feb. 10, 2004. 01:00 AM
Cities want immigration deal Talks with senior governments a first
But no cash from Ottawa forthcoming
NICHOLAS KEUNG IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER
While Ottawa hasn't promised additional funding for immigration programs, some Ontario municipal leaders say they are pleased to be part of federal-provincial talks for an immigration agreement.
Eight mayors and regional chairs from across the province met with Citizenship and Immigration Minister Judy Sgro and her provincial counterpart, Marie Bountrogianni, in Toronto yesterday to come up with a framework to better deliver immigrant settlement programs.
It was the first time in Canada that mayors were given a say in the very services and programs - from English-as-a-second-language classes to immigrant job training - that municipalities help deliver to newcomers. "It is the beginning of something that had not happened before. It is a breath of spring to the municipalities," Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion said after a three-hour closed-door meeting at the Marriott Hotel.
Ontario is the only province or territory that doesn't have an immigration agreement with the federal government. Yesterday's tri-level meeting is to be the first among many before a broad agreement can be hammered out later in the spring.
Among the key issues discussed, Sgro said, were how diversity can be better reflected in society, how roadblocks can be removed for new immigrants and what governments can do on the issue of foreign credentials.
"(Canada's) future is going to depend even more on immigration," she said. "It is imperative that we do it right, that our immigration policies in the future clearly reflect our compassion, our common sense, our fairness in our immigration policies ... in consultation with our Canadians, our mayors and cities."
Ontario currently receives $800 from Ottawa for each new immigrant that comes into the province. The amount is far below the $3,000 received by Quebec, said Bountrogianni, who attributes the inequity to the lack of a mutual agreement with the federal government.
Asked if an agreement would translate into additional settlement program funding to Ontario, Sgro replied: "We are building a relationship. We are not going to get into what one province gets, what another one should be getting or should not be getting. The question is, we're trying to build a nation, that's why we're moving forward."
Mayor David Miller said he would like to have a memorandum of understanding among the three levels of government on immigration. About 60 per cent of Canada's 220,000 new immigrants each year choose Ontario as their home, with 80 per cent of them settling in the Greater Toronto Area.
"The challenge is people are having a harder and harder time settling. Foreign-trained professions and trades are getting a tougher time getting their credentials recognized. And that's wrong. It is a loss for cities, a loss for the people and their families," Miller said.
Bountrogianni said among other things she'd like to see included in the immigration agreement are a provincial nominee program that can fast track the immigration process for those skilled workers needed in Ontario and better information for potential immigrants overseas.
Other participants included: York Region Chair Bill Fisch, Markham Mayor Don Cousens, Hamilton Mayor Larry Di Ianni, Sudbury Mayor David Courtemanche, Waterloo Mayor Ken Seiling and Oakville Mayor Ann Mulvale.

Corporate Canada fails to protect stakeholders
Corporate Directors warn more financial statement manipulation ahead in 2004: KPMG Survey.
TORONTO, Feb. 10 /CNW/ - In a survey sent to the directors of 75 of Canada's largest corporations, 84 per cent said that they think it is likely they will hear of a public company in Canada that has been involved in financial statement manipulation in 2004, according to this year's Survey of the Risk of Manipulation of Financial Statements published today by KPMG Forensic. A further 46 per cent thought it possible that such manipulation could occur in the company of the Board on which they themselves sit.    "It's illuminating that our survey results show that this type of fraudulent behaviour carried out as a conspiracy by a group of senior people to deceive corporate directors, auditors, lenders and other stakeholders to line their own pockets, has come to be seen as commonplace," says James Hunter, President, KPMG Forensic.
Sixty-two per cent of directors said that compensation models based on profitability encourage manipulation by CEOs and CFOs. However, directors also argued that the CEO and CFO both bear the greatest responsibility for protecting stakeholders against fraud.
Only 28 per cent of respondents thought the Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for ensuring that financial statements have not been deliberately manipulated. However, 47 per cent felt that it is the CEO who bears the greatest responsibility for protecting against such manipulations.
"This is an interesting choice considering how often CEOs themselves have been implicated when financial statement manipulation occurs," said Hunter.
A further 91 per cent of respondents indicated that although a conflict of interest policy for members of their Board exists, only 55 per cent of Directors could say that they were required by their company to sign this attestation form annually. A further 62 per cent said they have received no formal training to help them address the issue of financial statement
manipulation.
Other survey highlights include:

• 71 per cent of directors said that Canadian regulators should be more aggressive in dealing with companies where financial statement manipulation occurs.
• 72 per cent said they rely on the external auditor more than anyone else to inform them of attempts at manipulation.
• 94 per cent of survey respondents agreed that members of the audit committee must be independent and not involved in the management of  the company.
• The majority of respondents agreed that manipulation of financial  statements by a conspiracy of senior managers was the greatest risk to reputation facing a public company today.
• Although 73 per cent of respondents agree that the role of Chairman  of the Board and CEO should be separate, 27 per cent felt this was  not imperative.

Owners have until March 31 to file property assessment complaints
TORONTO, Feb. 16 /CNW/ - Property owners who disagree with the property assessments they have received from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) for tax purposes, have until March 31, 2004 to file an annual assessment complaint with the Assessment Review Board (ARB). The ARB is an independent, adjudicative tribunal established under statute by the Province of Ontario that hears property assessment complaints across the province.
The assessed value of properties is determined by all the buildings, improvements and land that comprise the property, and this assessment is used to calculate the municipal and education taxes a property owner will pay.
The assessment property owners received for 2004 is based on the "current value" of the property as of June 30, 2003. "Current Value" is the price that a willing buyer would pay a willing seller in an arm's-length transaction, if the transaction were to have taken place June 30, 2003.
If owners disagree with the assessed value on their property, there are two steps that can be taken to obtain a review of the assessment.
First, a Request for Reconsideration of the property assessment can be filed with MPAC. This is an informal process, available free of charge, where MPAC re-evaluates the assessment of the property in question. Request for Reconsideration forms and information about the property assessment process are available at municipal offices, MPAC offices, on the Internet at www.mpac.ca, or by calling 1-866-296-6722. If an owner and MPAC cannot reach an agreement, or if MPAC is unable to process the Request for Reconsideration before the ARB's filing deadline, the owner may wish to file a complaint with the ARB. There is a fee required to file a complaint, and complaints must be filed with the Board by March 31, 2004.
"We strongly encourage property owners to contact the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation if they disagree with the assessed value before going to the expense of filing a complaint with the Assessment Review Board," says ARB Chair Marie Hubbard. "Often a resolution can be reached with MPAC with no need for further action."
Complaints can be filed electronically through the ARB's website at www.arb.gov.on.ca and can also be mailed, faxed, or delivered to the Board in person. Forms, instructions and information pamphlets are available at the ARB's office at 250 Yonge St. in Toronto, at MPAC and municipal offices, and at Government Information Centres (GICs) across Ontario.
Information about the ARB and filing a complaint is available on the Board's website or by calling (416) 314-6900 or toll-free 1-800-263-3237.
The Assessment Review Board is an independent adjudicative tribunal established under statute by the Province of Ontario that hears complaints filed by property owners who believe there is an error in the assessed value or classification of a property. The Board, which operates under a variety of legislation including the Assessment Act, also deals with complaints on matters such as school support designation and property tax appeals. Visit
the ARB at www.arb.gov.on.ca