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New Immigrants Driving Housing Demand, according to Scotia Economics "Given Canada's aging population and relatively low fertility rates, longer-term household formation and housing needs will be largely determined by immigration," TORONTO, July 9 /CNW/ - Canadian immigrants are narrowing the homeownership gap with their Canadian-born counterparts, according to the latest Real Estate Trends report released today by Scotia Economics. The most recent census data available show that in 2006, almost 72 per cent of immigrants lived in a dwelling owned by a household member, up from 68 per cent in 2001. The comparable share for the Canadian-born population rose a more modest two percentage points over this period, from 73 per cent to 75 per cent. "Homeownership tends to increase the longer one has lived in Canada, with the majority of new arrivals first settling in rental accommodation," said Adrienne Warren, Senior Economist, Scotia Economics. "Over time, immigrant families eventually make the move to homeownership, at rates similar to the Canadian-born population. However, between 2001 and 2006, the homeownership rate rose for all immigrant groups, regardless of how long they had resided in Canada. The biggest increase was among those living in Canada for less than 10 years. "As recent immigrants to Canada make the transition from renter to owner, they will increasingly drive housing demand," states Ms. Warren. According to the report, the faster transition to homeownership has been supported in part by strong labour markets. The employment rate for core working-age recent immigrants jumped 3 1/2 percentage points between 2001 and 2006 (to 67.0 per cent). This was faster than the 1 1/2 percentage point gain among their Canadian-born counterparts (to 82.4 per cent). The employment rate for all immigrants also increased over this period, but by a more modest one percentage point (to 77.5 per cent). "The better labour market performance of recent immigrants may reflect a favourable skills mix, with many employed in high-growth industries such as engineering, construction and skilled trades. It may also reflect a greater geographic mobility to meet shifting regional labour requirements," said Ms. Warren. The report also states that, of the more than one million immigrants that came to Canada between 2001 and 2006, 69 per cent settled in the three largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs) - Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - and their surrounding municipalities. Meanwhile, a growing proportion (28 per cent) of immigrants settled in smaller CMAs, most notably Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Kitchener. Less than three per cent chose to live in a rural area. "Given Canada's aging population and relatively low fertility rates, longer-term household formation and housing needs will be largely determined by immigration," concluded Ms. Warren. "Using standard assumptions regarding immigration, fertility and mortality rates, the share of Canada's population growth coming from immigration could rise to three-quarters a decade from now, up from 60-65 per cent today and almost all by 2030. Most of this growth will be in Canada's urban areas."

Study reveals pervasive discrimination in Toronto’s rental housing market http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/johnbon/2009/07/study-reveals-pervasive By johnbon | Created Jul 7 2009 - 9:07pm | July 8, 2009 Approximately one in four households receiving social assistance, South Asian households, and Black lone parents experience moderate to severe discrimination when they inquire about an available apartment in Toronto, according to a new study published Tuesday by the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA). When the housing seeker has a mental illness, the research finds that one third will experience discrimination. While these numbers are cause for concern, CERA says they may only represent the tip of the iceberg because the Ontario-based human rights organization only tested the first stage – the initial telephone inquiry – associated with the rental application process. Individuals could still be treated unfairly when they go to view the apartment or when they fill out and submit an application. During the testing, CERA and over twenty volunteers conducted telephone-based housing discrimination “audits”, matching two individuals for all relevant characteristics other than the one that might lead to discrimination, of almost 1,000 apartments across the City of Toronto. One of the advantages of this testing methodology is that it can capture hidden discrimination. While the research found that discriminatory comments from landlords were relatively common, the bulk of the discrimination was hidden. A caller would not know, for example, that the allegedly rented apartment was still in fact available, that the landlord returned another caller’s, but not her, call inquiring about the apartment, that he wasn’t offered the “free TV with a 12 month lease”, or that the landlord was applying particularly rigorous application requirements. CERA says they now need to go further and look at different types of discrimination and different communities. For example, what kinds of barriers do youth face when trying to rent an apartment? What about recent immigrants or refugees who have no Canadian credit or landlord references? What affect does perceived sexual orientation have on rental opportunities? Will a person with a physical disability experience a high level of discrimination? In CERA’s view all of these questions could be tested effectively and affordably through telephone-based discrimination audits in communities across Ontario. In the meantime, CERA says their study, "Sorry, It's Rented: Measuring Discrimination in Toronto's Rental Housing Market, demonstrates that discrimination is indeed a significant barrier for many communities in their attempt to access housing, pushing individuals into over-priced or inadequate apartments – and potentially into homelessness. To ensure that doesn’t happen, CERA recommends that the Ontario government fund housing discrimination audits across the province; establish and fund a system to monitor housing discrimination; provide adequate funds to ensure that equality seeking communities can access targeted advocacy supports; and provide adequate funds for human rights education targeted at housing seekers, tenants and housing providers.

Pope Calls For A New World Order http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/pope-calls-for-a-new-world-order- Barney Zwartz | July 9, 2009 - 12:18AM POPE Benedict XVI has proposed a new world political authority "with real teeth", possibly in place of the United Nations, to enforce an ethical financial order and end the global financial crisis. Calling for more aid, a bigger role for trade unions and an economic system aimed at the common good as well as profit, the Pope said only a moral market could end the crisis and solve world poverty. The proposals were in his long-awaited encyclical - the second-highest level of papal teaching - released in Rome yesterday morning Australian time, before the G8 leaders gathered in Italy to discuss the global crisis. The conviction that the economy must be autonomous and shielded from moral influences had led humanity to abuse the economic process in a destructive way, the Pope said in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth). Such convictions had led to economic, social and political systems that "trample upon personal and social freedom" and could not deliver justice. His suggested political authority would manage globalisation, revive economies, stop the crisis deepening, protect the environment and regulate worldwide migration. It would need to be universally recognised and given power to ensure compliance from all countries. "In terms of secular politics, there's something for both left and right to cheer, and something for them to be grumpy about," said the respected Vatican commentator John Allen, observing that in 30,000 words the Pope never mentioned the word "capitalism". He said liberals would applaud the Pope's call for robust government intervention and support for unions, while conservatives would appreciate his unyielding opposition to abortion, birth control and gay marriage, on economic as well as moral grounds. The Pope, 82, in his third encyclical, wrote that when profit became the exclusive goal, without the common good as its ultimate end, it risked destroying wealth and creating poverty. The world's wealth was growing but so was inequality. Aid to developing countries also provided economic benefits to donors, he said. The Pope said the Church did not have technical solutions, but he offered a large number of specific policy suggestions. One was that people should be allowed to decide how to allocate a portion of their taxes that would help welfare and aid. Another was that trade unions should also work for non-members, particularly workers in developing countries. "As society becomes ever more globalised, it makes us neighbours but does not make us brothers," he said. This story was found at: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/pope-calls-for-a-new-world-order-20090709-ddic.html

Kenya going the Somalia way? Apparently yes The East African | By JULIUS BOSIRE | Monday, July 6 2009 US think tank Fund for Peace has ranked Kenya 14 out of 20 countries considered to be critical in the “failed state” category In its Failed States Index annual report, the think tank says Kenya’s stability was wavering since the 2007 General Election, but expressed hope that the Coalition government led by President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity and Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement could save the situation if it delivered services to the people. Kenya was the worst ranked country in East Africa scoring 101.4, inching closer to the most unstable state in world, Somalia, which scored 114.7. In 2008 Kenya scored 93.4; in 2007, 91.2 and in 2006 scored 88.6. Tanzania was ranked among the more stable nations with a score of 81.1 but in a different class of “the warning category” which can be said to be stable. Rwanda scored 89.0 in the same category as Tanzania. The most stable nation of the world is Norway with 18.3. Uganda scored 96.9 and Burundi 95.7. Kenya’s current poor showing was drawn from its failure to contain corruption, which the report says is widespread, with the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission failing in its mandate. Commenting on the report, Foreign Affairs Assistant Minister Richard Onyonka warned that the country could degenerate further if national resources were not equitably shared, arguing that the consequences of corruption had impoverished many Kenyans and deterrent measures were needed. “Unless Kenyans are willing to resolve these issues and ensure that those factors that make our country fail are corrected, then I agree with the report,” Mr Onyonka said. The minister pointed out that land ownership and fighting impunity must be addressed for the country to regain its pre-2007 stability. “We must implement Kofi Annan’s recommendations on Agenda Four regarding land policy, equity and fairness, the judiciary and structures which act as deterrents against impunity in our country. The fighting after the elections was not necessarily about political power. It was about resources and unless there is equity in resources distribution in any country there is likely to be no lasting peace,” Mr Onyonka said. A failed state is an administrative unit where services can no longer be delivered to the masses by the governing elite. German philosopher Max Weber described state as “monopoly of power.” A failed state then is where the monopoly gets out of hand — the police, judiciary and other bodies serving to maintain law and order have either ceased to exist or are no longer able to operate. A “state” in the context of Fund for Peace is defined within the Westphalian sense — where sovereign states could control the larger portion of their territory and population and act as sovereign entities in the sense of co-operating with other states, govern according to the rule of law, respect international legal obligations, prevent crime and deliver essential services to its people. If a state (government) fails to deliver or does not abide by the above mentioned conditions, it may be deemed failed. Failed states can no longer perform basic functions such as offering education, security, or governance, usually due to fractious violence or extreme poverty. Within this power vacuum, people fall victim to competing factions and crime, and sometimes the United Nations or neighbouring states intervene to prevent a humanitarian disaster. The ranking by the Washington-based Fund for Peace Failed State Index focuses on the movement of refugees or internally displaced persons creating complex humanitarian emergencies, where Kenya scored 9.0, a very poor score. In the legacy of vengeance-seeking, group grievance or group paranoia, it scored 8.6 and in chronic and sustained human flight it scored 8.3. On the economic front, uneven economic development along group lines was taken into consideration with the country scoring 8.8, while the economic decline earned the state 7.5 rating. Political indicators used focus on criminalisation and delegitimisation of the state, where the country performed dismally with a rating of 9.0, progressive deterioration of public services got 8.0, suspension or arbitrary application of the rule of law and widespread violation of human rights got 8.2, security apparatus operating as a “state within a state” was scored 8.0, rise of factionalised elites, 8.8; and intervention of other states or external political actors the country scored 8.3. The indicator for uneven development remained high at 8.1 as half the population lives below the poverty line and 40 per cent is unemployed. That the think tank believes that the country can redeem itself, is a pointer that most probably the survey data was collected about the time of the events preceding and after the 2007 General Election. It is however important to note that states fail not only because of internal factors, but foreign governments can also knowingly destabilise a state by fueling ethnic war or supporting rebel forces, causing it to collapse. Former United Nations secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali described a failed state thus: “A feature of such conflicts is the collapse of state institutions, especially the police and judiciary, with resulting paralysis of governance, a breakdown of law and order, and general banditry and chaos. Not only are the functions of government suspended, but its assets are destroyed or looted and experienced officials are killed or flee the country. This is rarely the case in inter-state wars. It means that international intervention must extend beyond military and humanitarian tasks and must include the promotion of international reconciliation and the re-establishment of effective government.” Whereas Kenya was ranked 14 with a total score of 101.4, The organisation notes: “The elections of December 2007 showed that Kenya still has a long way to go in rooting out corruption and building a stable democracy. Although Kenya has taken several steps in the right direction, it still faces a number of challenges.” The report points out that President Kibaki had succeeded in some areas, such as reforms in education and strengthening the economy, but tribal favouritism within the government and election fraud had led to violent fighting along ethnic lines. “Much depends on whether the two groups — in the power-sharing government that was created to end months of post-election political stand-off will work together. If so, the government can return to improving public services, reforming the police force, building the economy and fighting poverty,” says the report. The score for delivery of public services remained at 7.4 as was in 2008. Healthcare was found to be poor. “The government only spends 4.5 per cent of the gross domestic product on health expenditure and there is a high risk of waterborne and bacterial diseases.” The indicator for human rights worsened from 7.0 in 2007 to 7.2 in 2008. Human rights abuses were widespread, often involving excessive force and unlawful killings by the police, as well as violence against women. The score for security apparatus remained high at 7.1 and although the government had been working toward police reform, the police force continues to commit serious human rights abuses against citizens. Factionalised elites worsened from 8.2 in 2007 to 8.4 in 2008. The index gives Kenya’s military a clean bill of health. “The Kenyan military is voluntary, professional and under civilian control. The primary role of the approximately 22,000 military personnel is to defend the borders, given the instability of the region. The military has not been involved in political competition or local conflict.” But the police are blamed of corruption and brutality. Under President Kibaki, significant reforms have been undertaken. Problems remain, however, including unlawful killings, torture, excessive force and arbitrary arrest. The report points out that although the law provides for judicial independence, the executive branch has considerable influence. “Corruption in the judiciary has been a problem, which is being addressed somewhat by Kibaki’s reform measures. Defendants had the right to an attorney, but indigent defendants did not have the right to an attorney provided by the state, except in capital cases. As a result, the majority of defendants were tried without an attorney.”

Canada June job losses smaller than expected http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090710/business/cbusiness_us_canada_jobs Fri Jul 10, 7:08 AM Canada's net job losses in June totaled 7,400, a much smaller decline than expected due to gains in most services industries while factories continued to lay off workers, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 8.6 percent from 8.4 percent as more people looked for work, the federal agency said. More people were self-employed or working in part-time jobs. LINK * Statistics Canada report http://www.statcan.ca/english/Subjects/Labour/LFS/lfs-en.htm