Skip to main content

Home/ Groups/ Edmonton Economic Development Corporation
Omar Yaqub

A Toronto immigrant mentoring program is keeping New Canadian professionals out of cabs - 0 views

  • The Mentoring Partnership Program is run by the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) through 12 agencies and 27 corporate partners. Since its creation six years ago, it's arranged 5,300 matches, with the help of more than 3,800 volunteer mentors.
  • "Of all our programs, it's probably the initiative that's caught the imagination of our corporate partners. It has a real return for them," says TRIEC executive director Elizabeth McIsaac. "It can be a form of soft recruitment and it helps its leaders become more cross-culturally competent."
  • it's in unlicensed professions where networking is crucial that the mentoring program makes the biggest difference.
  •  
    Write up on the program ERIEC was modeled on. 
Omar Yaqub

CDS Monthly Update - February 2011 | CDC Development Solutions - 0 views

  • IBM Corporate Service Corps Teams Head to India and Ghana CDS is kicking off the third year of its partnership with IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) with teams heading to Ghana and India at the end of February.
  •  
    Corpoate Service Corps Teams Head to India and Ghana CDS is kicking off the third year of its partnership with IBM's Corporate Service Corps (CSC) with teams heading to Ghana and India at the end of February.
Omar Yaqub

Alberta puts two immigration programs on hold - 0 views

  •  
    Alberta puts two immigration programs on hold
Omar Yaqub

America's recovery: The new new normal | The Economist - 0 views

  • if the new normal was slow growing employment, the new new normal is a slow growing labour force. Put the two together and the unemployment decouples from the overall health of the economy. Why? Perhaps the Great Recession has permanently diminished work opportunities for big swathes of the work force, in particular prime-age men. Perhaps America is now experiencing an echo of what older Europe and Japan already have: a demographically driven slowdown in potential growth. Or perhaps it’s one of those temporary statistical mysteries that will disappear soon.
Omar Yaqub

- Cities - GOOD - 0 views

shared by Omar Yaqub on 02 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • mid-sized cities in developed countries with relatively low population densities tend to score well by having all the cultural and infrastructural benefits on offer with fewer problems related to crime or congestion
  • oderately sized and populated, can more thoroughly address urban infrastructural and governmental needs like public education, healthcare, and safety than their larger, denser global counterparts.
Omar Yaqub

Industrial policy: Moving the movie business | The Economist - 0 views

  • Yet it's worth thinking about why it's absurd to argue that every state should try to subsidise up a local film industry but not crazy to support local universities. Certainly, there are huge efficiencies being sacrificed by duplicating administrative capacity all around the country. And academics benefit from close proximity to those working on similar problems; the efficacy of research is reduced when it's spread more thinly around the country. If America had fewer, bigger states, it would probably have fewer, bigger universities, and that might well be a very good thing.
  • The joke, I'm sure I don't need to explain, is that not every state can succeed by poaching productions from other states, since what's made in one state can't be made in another. But that's not quite right. A subsidy allows a business to cut prices and artificially raise demand. Given generous enough subsidies, many more movies would be made, and each state could, potentially, have a thriving film industry. This is how higher education works, more or less. New Mexico has state universities just like California and Iowa and Alaska. These schools are understandably viewed as foundations of the local economies in which they're located, as well as important cultural institutions. And we obviously view the subsidisation of the production of college graduates as a worthwhile contribution to long-run growth, again, understandably.
  • [Former New Mexico Governor Bill] Richardson says that the film and TV subsidy has brought "nearly $4 billion into our economy over eight years" and has created 10,000 jobs. By "our," he means New Mexico. He says every state should emulate this success.
Omar Yaqub

Big Rethink 2011: Economically Driven Innovation - Core77 - 0 views

  •  
    This notion of economically driven innovation was apparent throughout the conference and it was encouraging to hear was that there would be a green upside. According to Bew, the past ten years have been responsible for half of the price increases the world's commodities have experienced over the last 150 years. This economic situation will drive governments to encourage innovation in environmentally friendly alternatives in the same way necessity drives innovation in businesses and entrepreneurs.
Omar Yaqub

Productivity key to increased personal - and national - luxuries - thestar.com - 0 views

  • What if, however, you were told most of your mortgage or all of your rent could be paid off instantly, or you could send your kids to a national daycare program? Still bored? Yet that’s exactly what could have happened if Canada didn’t have a productivity gap with the U.S., according to Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
  • Canada trails the U.S. in GDP per capita by $9,300. In 1981 that gap was only $2,600. If we got back to the 1981 gap, the average family would see their disposable, after-tax income go up by $8,800, according to the institute, which is the research arm for the task force chaired by Martin.
  • That would be like having almost all the mortgages and rental payments disappear. It would be like having enough money to pay for a national child-care program and still have enough left over for the biggest tax cut in history
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Lest you assume productivity gains are more a concern of free marketers and other pro business forces, that extra income would generate another $76 billion in tax revenue for various levels of government, according to the institute. That would be enough to pay for a national daycare program, fund the healthcare recommendations by the Romanow Commission, cover the cost of Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Accord, and pay for a $55 billion tax cut.
  • what’s behind the gap?
  • Canada’s resource boom, a lack of innovation by Canada’s businesses, and a lack of investment in new, more efficient equipment are the three biggest causes
  • resources are hard to find. . . . By becoming more focused on resources, we’ve hurt our productivity numbers
  • tar sands are particularly bad for productivity numbers because of the sheer amount of time and effort of extracting the oil,
  • lack of innovation can also partly be blamed on the size of Canada’s resource sector,
  • Because it’s easy to make big amounts of money extracting and exporting resources; businesses haven’t had to innovate. Our abundance of natural resources is actually something of a curse,
  • In business sector spending on R&D, Canada ranks a disappointing 17th among OECD countries, and when it comes to innovation, the World Economic Forum rates us 19th, far behind the United States, Germany and Japan,” Macklem told a Calgary audience. Macklem also pointed out Canadian companies don’t spend much on new, efficient equipment. That means it takes a Canadian longer to make whatever’s being produced, whether it’s clothes, widgets or iron ore. That pushes down productivity.
  • “It will take a lot more than just freeing our private sector. … None of that works. In fact, it takes a deliberate state strategy,” argued Stanford, pointing to countries such as Finland.
  • “Economists, policy makers and corporations have been too focused on the denominator, and not enough on the numerator. … People always say ‘gee, it’s too bad that auto plant closed, even though it was really efficient and made things quickly.’ Well guess what? If the price of the car gets cut to $10,000 because it’s something nobody wants to buy, that affects productivity numbers too.”
Omar Yaqub

U of A signs postsecondary mutual-aid agreement | The Gateway - 0 views

  •  
    The idea for a mutual-aid agreement was initially brought up at a province-wide symposium on enterprise risk in June 2010 with strong support from the U of A, and was signed in early February of this year. Stack said that reaction to the partnership has been highly positive. The agreement wouldn't have any financial implications on the institutions providing resources, as the requesting institution would recover any direct costs that the assisting institution might encounter. The partnership was modelled after a similar contingency plan that the City of Edmonton has in place with surrounding municipalities.
Omar Yaqub

Lure of jobs in Alberta not enough to get workers to stay: StatsCan - 0 views

  • A Statistics Canada study suggests that the lure of jobs in Alberta's energy sector isn't enough to persuade out-of-province workers to make a permanent move.
  • there were plenty of people moving to Alberta between 2004 and 2009. But only one in four who were coming for jobs decided to make Alberta their primary residence
  • three-quarters of the job seekers were men under the age of 35 from British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Atlantic Canada
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Roughly half of those were employed in construction and oil and gas extraction. More than one-third of female interprovincial employees were working in accommodation and food services or retail trade.
  • In 2004, there were between 62,000 and 67,500 interprovincial employees in Alberta, accounting for about 3.8 per cent of provincial employment. By 2008, the number of interprovincial employees had increased to a peak of 133,000, making up 6.2 per cent of the workforce.
  • More than 330,000 workers live and work in Canada as part of the federal temporary foreign worker program — a number that has nearly tripled over the last 10 years, with the bulk of those job seekers going west in search of work.
Omar Yaqub

Report examines Alberta labour market, impact of labour shortages - News & Events - Uni... - 0 views

  •  
    "Report examines Alberta labour market, impact of labour shortages Study reveals cost of labour shortages, offers recommendations for tackling one of the province's most pressing policy challenges. By Jamie Hanlon on July 18, 2013 (Edmonton) The scope of Alberta's labour shortage and the need for recommendations on how to address it were the catalyst for a year-and-a-half-long study of one of the province's most pressing policy challenges. The University of Alberta's Institute for Public Economics commissioned the study to foster informed debate on the highly relevant policy issue. An Examination of Alberta Labour Markets explains that the opportunity cost of not filling jobs under an economic scenario similar to that outlined in Alberta's 2013 budget is $33 billion in current dollars over four years. Lost personal tax revenue to the provincial and federal governments is estimated to be nearly $6.8 billion over four years. The report emphasizes that several industries risk significant shortages-including retail, hotel and food services, and health care. Edmonton and the Banff-Jasper region are two areas at the greatest risk for labour shortages. To counteract these trends, the report's authors developed a number of recommendations to provide access to otherwise untapped labour groups including mature workers, disabled people and First Nations people. "This comprehensive analysis leads to a number of concrete policy actions that can be taken by both the federal and Alberta governments," said Robert Ascah, director of the institute. "The report's recommendations are aimed at developing a highly skilled workforce, which will benefit all Albertans. "This means attracting the most skilled workers possible and ensuring we are doing everything we can to have apprentices complete their training." The study was funded by the Government of Alberta and 12 associations and unions with an interest in addressing periodic labour shortages in A
Omar Yaqub

What is the difference between a pre-approved LMO and a LMO? - 0 views

  • A pre-approved LMO or ‘pre-approval to hire temporary foreign workers’ is a process introduced by Service Canada for employers hiring foreign workers in occupations where the recruitment activities are ‘prolonged and/or extensive’. Given the current pressure for workers, most of the occupations in the construction industry fall under this category. Pre-approved LMOs are used when the employer wishes to have an ‘approval in principle’ prior to starting the recruitment phase. It is important to note that pre-approved LMOs do not guarantee a positive Labour Market Opinion from Service Canada. LMOs are specific to a particular worker and the labour market situation at any given time. The actual determination of a positive LMO can only be made after the employee has been selected. If you have already applied for a pre-approval, you will only provide the worker-specific information once you have selected your worker. For employers who have not applied for a pre-approval to hire a worker, ...
  •  
    "A pre-approved LMO or 'pre-approval to hire temporary foreign workers' is a process introduced by Service Canada for employers hiring foreign workers in occupations where the recruitment activities are 'prolonged and/or extensive'. Given the current pressure for workers, most of the occupations in the construction industry fall under this category. Pre-approved LMOs are used when the employer wishes to have an 'approval in principle' prior to starting the recruitment phase. It is important to note that pre-approved LMOs do not guarantee a positive Labour Market Opinion from Service Canada. LMOs are specific to a particular worker and the labour market situation at any given time. The actual determination of a positive LMO can only be made after the employee has been selected. If you have already applied for a pre-approval, you will only provide the worker-specific information once you have selected your worker. For employers who have not applied for a pre-approval to hire a worker, "
« First ‹ Previous 281 - 300 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page