“Paths to Professionalization: Hotel Workers Labour Matching Service Feasibility Study.”

The Toronto Training Board is releasing a new study entitled “Paths to Professionalization: Hotel Workers Labour Matching Service Feasibility Study.”
The study examined various models of “labour matching” in the hotel industry in Toronto and Niagara. Interviews were held with stakeholders in each community. The report will be available online at www.ttb.on.ca.

Labour Market News

Labour Force Survey

Statistics Canada
The Daily
May 2007

Estimates from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey (LFS) showed little overall change in employment in April. Ontario suffered employment losses in manufacturing in April, continuing the weakness in this sector.

Large full-time losses (-38,000) in Ontario in April, were partially offset by increases in part time. Declines were primarily in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing, "other services" and manufacturing. Ontario's manufacturing sector shed 13,000 workers in April, continuing the downward trend of the past two years. Manufacturing losses in April were mainly in transportation equipment and food. At the same time, natural resource employment increased by 5,000, mainly in forestry and mining.

Woodbine Live Deal Galvanizes Community

Toronto Star
Laurie Monsebraaten
May 10, 2007

Something is growing in Rexdale. It is a $350-million expansion plan for Woodbine racetrack on the largest swath of undeveloped, individually owned land in Toronto. A coalition of 35 community groups known as CORD (Community Organizing for Responsible Development) has been busy in Rexdale to spread the word. With the prospect of 5,000 construction jobs and 9,000 permanent jobs in the proposed hotel, shops, restaurants, cinemas and concert space, residents at a local meeting saw an opportunity. "Too often we see the promise of good jobs bypass the local community or turn into low-wage jobs with no benefits or future," said Janet Dassinger, a job training specialist with the UNITE HERE union, Local 75, which represents about 1,600 hotel and hospitality workers in Rexdale, including about 400 food servers at the Woodbine racetrack.

Demand for IT Professionals Reaches All-Time High In Canada

Canada News Wire
May 14, 2007

The demand for IT professionals in Canada is on the rise and shows no sign of slowing down.The demand for full time roles continues to grow in all regions across the country. It accounts for 50% of all demand in the GTA. According to statistics compiled by CNC Global, Canada's leading provider of IT staffing services, numbers for Canadian companies hiring IT staff reached an all-time high during the first quarter of 2007. These latest numbers reflect a 10% increase over the last quarter and even surpassed the demand experienced during the build up to Y2K, suggesting that the economy is stable and more companies are turning to technology to stay competitive in today's global economy.

Immigrants

Difficult To Find Job In Own Field, Immigrants Say

Toronto Star
Nicholas Keung
May 1, 2007

Almost half of Canada's newcomers say they find it difficult to get employment related to their education and training, while one in four has problems with at least one of the two official languages. Yet according to a longitudinal survey that tracked the progress of 7,700 new immigrants in their first four years in Canada, 72 per cent insist they would still come to the country if they had to make the decision again. Experts say the findings of the two related reports, both released by Statistics Canada, speak to the general satisfaction of Canada's quality of life – but also underline the disconnect between the country's immigration selection policy and labour market needs.

Career Centre Called A " Ray Of Light For New Immigrants

Toronto Metro
Canadian Press
May 19, 2007

A Career Service Centre was opened at the Scarborough headquarters of the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada. This year, the Ontario Ministry of Immigration and Citizenship granted CPAC $250,000 for the centre, which will help foreign-trained professionals find jobs and give them other kinds of support. The ministry is also paying $25,500 for a CPAC study on the social services needs of Mandarin-speaking immigrants. It's as if "a ray of light is shone upon the immigrant community," CPAC president Howard Shen said at the celebration, adding the group will expand services in suburban regions beyond Toronto by working with local agencies and organizations such as the Markham Board of Trade.

Women

Some Nurses Take On New Role. Training Meant to Help Wait Times

Toronto Metro
Canadian Press
May 19, 2007

In March, Ontario’s Ministry of Health announced that it would help ease surgical wait items with the creation of “anesthesia care teams,” specially designed to increase the number of
trained anesthesia professionals in the health-care system.
Training nurses in anesthesia will enable them to do the necessary patient care work. Nurse practitioners-anesthesia
will be trained at the University of Toronto, in a joint program set up betweenm the faculties of nursing and medicine — the Ontario government will provide the funding. This new initiative will address the shortage of anesthesiologists.

Youth

Youth Who Overcome Adversity Recognized At Awards Luncheon

Canada News Wire
May 16, 2007

The Learning Partnership celebrated the achievements of a special group of students who are participants in the Change Your Future and Turning Points programs at publicly funded schools in the GTA. Change Your Future is an innovative school-based education program designed to increase the odds of success in school. It provides racially diverse students, in Grades 7 - 11, who want to succeed academically with the necessary support to stay in school and to plan their future. This year, more than 400 students from 20 schools participated in the program.

Education

McGuinty Government Invests In Arts Education

Canada News Wire
May 17, 2007

The McGuinty government is supporting arts education across the province by partnering with more than 100 arts and community organizations through the Arts Education Partnership Initiative. The initiative matches money raised by 119 arts and community organizations from private donors to support new or enhanced arts education projects. The initiative is administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation. Successful applicants were selected by a review team managed by the Ontario Arts Council. The organizations have until March 31, 2008 to raise funds from the private sector.

In A Green Age, A Perplexing Disconnect. There Are Plenty of Jobs in Forestry And Agriculture. Where Are The Students?

Toronto Star
Leslie Scrivener
May 20, 2007

At a time when the colour of the decade is green and Canadians say concern about the environment is their top priority, universities that train the future stewards of the land and forests face a problem: steeply declining enrolments.Part of it is a perception problem, say the deans of Canada's agriculture colleges and faculties of forestry. Mention "agriculture," and many young people see a farmer in a field with a pitchfork. Say "forestry," and at best they envision a plaid-shirted Paul Bunyan type. At worst they conjure up a hillside, clear-cut by a logging company. They are images – outdated though they are – that still haunt agriculture and forestry schools across Canada and have curbed undergraduate enrolment. (The situation is not as dire in graduate studies.)

Other News

Toronto Area Construction Workers Settle

Toronto Metro
Canadian Press
May 3, 2007

Toronto area members of the Labourers’ International Union have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract. The union says the deal is worth more than $4 per hour in wage, benefit and pension upgrades for more than 25,000 construction workers.
The union members work in the major construction sectors, from roads and utilities to residential and commercial buildings. Local 183 officials say the new contract represents the “best settlements in the 55- year history of the union.”

Toronto And Area Community Social Services Agencies Receive Significant Funding Boost

Canada News Wire
May 7, 2007

The McGuinty government is investing more than $4.7 million in 33 Toronto and surrounding community social services organizations that serve people with developmental disabilities, and women and their children fleeing domestic violence. "This funding recognizes the significant community contributions these organizations make to the well-being of our citizens and of our province," said Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur. "We're helping community agencies to keep their facilities accessible, safe and secure for people who need their services." These grants will go to projects that will help to improve the quality of life for thousands of Ontarians in Toronto and in communities in and around the GTA.

Canada's Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer

Yahoo News
The Canadian Press
May 11, 2007

A new study says the gap between rich and poor is widening in Canada, appearing to confirm that the rich do indeed get richer while the poor get poorer. Statistics Canada found that inequality in after-tax family incomes has increased over the past 15 years. The gap is due to changes in family earnings from all sources - employment and self-employment incomes, investment incomes, and private retirement incomes. The trend appears to be driven in part by changing family characteristics, such as the rise in the number of families with two highly educated earners. The study found that incomes among the top 10 per cent of earning families rose by 22 per cent between 1989 and 2004, while at the same time incomes fell 11 per cent among the poorest families.

VOLUME 5, Issue 1
May 2007

Education Matters: Insights On Education, Learning And Training In Canada

Statistics Canda

This issue of Statistics Canada's online publication Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada contains two articles.

The first article "Children with disabilities and the educational system – a provincial perspective" documents differences across provinces in the education of children who have physical, cognitive and behavioural disabilities.

The second article, "Are 5-year-old children ready to learn at school? Family income and home environment contexts", reports on a recent study that analyzed the impact of activities in a child's home environment on the child's readiness to learn. These activities include daily reading and positive parent-child interaction. It found that children in lower-income households were less likely to have exposure to these activities. But, those who did were more ready to learn than those who did not.

Study: Workaholics And Time Perception

Statistics Canda
The Daily
May 15, 2007

One out of every three Canadians identifies themselves as a workaholic, and these individuals are much more likely to be dissatisfied with the balance between their work and family time than other workers, a new study has found. The study, used data from the 2005 General Social Survey (GSS) to examine whether quality of life is different for workers who describe themselves as workaholics than for those who do not self-identify as workaholics. The self-identification question is one of a set of questions designed to measure Canadians' perceptions of time pressure, especially as it affects the balance between work and family life. Quality of life was measured using three criteria: balance between work and family time, time pressure and general life satisfaction. The perceptions and thresholds depend to a large extent on a worker's family, social and work circumstances. Crossing these thresholds can have important impacts on their lives.

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