Blue Bird Blog

Canada welcomes millions of tourists, visitors, immigrants, foreign workers, and students each year. However, before coming to Canada, whatever the reason, it’s important to know that a past criminal record can make you inadmissible.
If you have been convicted of a crime in the past, your admissibility to Canada is calculated based on the equivalency of the foreign criminal offence into Canadian law.

On June 29, the Government of Ontario announced it would cap rent increases for 2023 at 2.5%.
Each year, Ontario releases a rent increase guideline that landlords can then use to raise the cost of tenants’ rent by a specific percentage to align with the cost of living. The province typically uses Ontario’s Consumer Price Index as a baseline for inflation. However, the recent high rate means that by this standard, landlords would have been able to raise rents by 5.3% for the year, which is not sustainable for most tenants.

Three of Canada’s provinces have nominated candidates through streams of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).
A candidate that receives nomination by a province becomes much more likely to receive an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residency from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). This is because the federal and provincial governments share responsibility for immigration in Canada and being nominated by a province means you are considered a good fit for the provincial labour force.

The leaders of Canada’s provinces met in Winnipeg this week to discuss shared priorities.

The Premiers highlighted some areas that require urgent action. Three of these areas are linked closely to immigration.

Building a strong labour force;
Improving health care;
Addressing housing needs

Five of Canada’s provinces have invited candidates to apply for provincial immigration.
Provincial immigration is not the same across Canada. For example, while most Canadian provinces and territories have Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs), Quebec does not have one due to a special agreement with the federal government that allows it to select all its economic immigrants.