#Manitoba immigration NEws

[aptechvisaglobalimmigration]

Manitoba PNP invited 623 applicants to apply for Canada PR visa through Manitoba PNP; this Manitoba PNP draw took place on Aug 24, 2023, under its several streams, including 

Skilled Worker Overseas stream – 54 Letters of Advice to Apply with the Lowest CRS score, 724. 

A skilled worker in Manitoba Stream – 256 LAA with the lowest CRS score of 612 in occupation-specific.

International Education Stream pathway – 63 letters of advice to apply issued. 

 The 178 ITAs were issued to those applicants who declared a valid Express Entry profile number and job seeker validation code.

Please find the Manitoba PNP Draw, including the number of invitations, streams, Lowest ranking score, etc.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The premiers of Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador are so far the only leaders to publicly volunteer to take in asylum seekers to ease pressure on Quebec, despite a joint call from all premiers to distribute them more evenly across the country.

During a news conference Wednesday in Halifax at the close of a three-day summit of Canada's premiers, several provincial leaders said they are facing similar pressures from immigration, and would not commit to accepting more people.

Quebec Premier François Legault says his province can no longer support the high number of asylum seekers who have arrived in recent years. On Wednesday, he said "several" provinces are open to accepting more refugees claimants from Quebec, but he wouldn't name them.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he'd be prepared to welcome more asylum seekers, especially francophones, but only if the province gets more money from the federal government.

"We have the housing needs, the health-care and social needs in Manitoba, and so … we really do need the federal government, who has the fiscal resources to be able to move the needle here, to do so," he said.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey also said he told Legault his province would be "happy to proportionally share" the number of newcomers seeking refugee status.

Continue Reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[canadatravel]

Important things to know before immigrating

Education and Healthcare : In most provinces, primary and secondary education is publicly funded for Canadian citizens and permanent residents. But international students and temporary residents must pay tuition fees. Similarly, while Canada’s healthcare system, known as Medicare, provides essential medical services to all Canadian citizens and permanent residents, it does not cover all medical expenses.

Credit Scores: Credit scores play a crucial role in obtaining loans, renting an apartment, applying for a job, debt collection, and insurance applications in Canada

Evolution of Canadian values regarding immigration

Canada’s immigration policy has evolved over time, shaped by social, political, and economic factors. Initially, it was economically self-serving and often discriminatory. However, in 1967, the policy was liberalized with the introduction of the “points system” which marked a shift towards non-discriminatory immigration practices. In 1971, the government articulated its support for cultural diversity, and in 1976, legislation codified Canada’s commitment to refugees. Today, immigration is seen as a tool for meeting the country’s cultural, economic, and social objectives

The Point System

Canada uses a points-based system known as the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) for immigration. The CRS is used by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to evaluate which Express Entry draw candidates are best suited for the program. It determines who should be invited to apply for Canadian permanent residency.

The CRS evaluates each candidate based on their human capital, which includes factors such as age, level of education, work experience, fluency in English or French, and familial ties to Canada

Here is the website - Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) Criteria – Express Entry - Canada.ca

Provincial Nomination Program

The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is a set of Canadian immigration programs operated by the Government of Canada in partnership with individual provinces. This program is for workers who have the skills, education, and work experience to contribute to the economy of a specific province or territory.

The application process depends on which Provincial Nominee Program stream you’re applying to. You might need to apply using the non-Express Entry process, or through Express Entry.

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) is the primary federal legislation that regulates immigration to Canada. It regulates immigration, protects refugees, sets out principles and concepts.

What are the objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act?

To permit Canada to pursue the maximum social, cultural and economic benefits of immigration.

To enrich and strengthen the social and cultural fabric of Canadian culture.

Categories of Immigration

Immigration can be broadly categorized into several types, depending on the purpose and the duration of the stay.

Family-Sponsored

Employment-Based.

Refugees This category is for individuals who are unable or unwilling to return to their home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution.

Other: This category includes various other types of immigrants,

Economic Immigrants: economic immigrants include employees as well as employers. They mostly become permanent residents when they immigrate to Canada.

Canada/Quebec Accord

Quebec can nominate the percentage of immigrants in Canada that corresponds to its population within Canada.

It also allows Quebec to require immigrants who settle in Quebec to send their children to French-language schools. They seek immigrants whose first language is French.

What rights do immigrants and refugees get the moment they set foot on Canadian soil? They will have protection under the Canadian Charter. (fundamental freedoms, democratic rights, legal rights, mobility rights, equality rights, and minority language education rights).

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

Latest Manitoba PNP Draw Sent 583 New PR Invites

February 23 – Manitoba PNP draw (MPNP) sent total of 583 provincial nomination LAAs (Letters of Advice to Apply) under three different streams. This is the first time that Manitoba held an occupation specific draw under Skilled Workers in Manitoba (SWM) category targeting 10 NOC codes. 207 Letters of Advice to Apply (LAAs) are issued in this targeted draw to the profiles having a score of 615…

[myemuisemo]

The further we get into The Hound of the Baskervilles in Letters from Watson -- now being up to chapter 3 -- the more I envision James Mortimer being played by Timothy Hutton. This is not good news, since it's Timothy Hutton as Nate Ford in Leverage. Is Mortimer trying to con Sherlock Holmes?

Mortimer keeps talking up Baskerville Hall as deadly, when we know of only two Baskervilles who've died there. The Hugo who wrote the manuscript got the story passed down from his grandfather. Neither they nor he died of the hound (3 generations). If we assume an average of 35 years per generation from 1742 to the narrative in 1889, another 3-4 heirs did not die by hound.

Mortimer is overselling that hound. “The original hound was material enough to tug a man's throat out, and yet he was diabolical as well.” How do we know this? Did he have tags on his collar giving Satan's address?

Mortimer delayed long enough that the only hard evidence is what he recounts.

So now we have two more Baskerville heirs:

Rodger, the black sheep, supposedly died in South America, where he was likely attracted by the prospect of getting rich mining silver.

Henry, the heir, has been farming in Canada.

Henry likely took up a homestead in western Canada under the Dominion Lands Act, passed in 1872. The government of Canada solicited mass immigration to Manitoba and the Northwest Territories (then including Albert and Saskatchewan) by offering, for only a small registration fee, 160 acres to anyone who would improve it. Unlike the U.S. Homestead Act, a settler who succeeded with one plot could register for a second one.

Land for settlement had been ceded by the First Nations peoples under the earliest of the Numbered Treaties, which sounds tidy and respectful until we reflect that the treaties were the culmination of long years of wiping out the indigenous population with famine and disease. A weakened population ceded valuable territory in return for assistance and then the terms of the treaties were not honored in full.

This leaves Henry as the least directly blood-stained -- and probably most hard-working -- of the globe-trotting Baskervilles. Colonialism has this enormous ill effect: behavior that, in close-up, would seem entirely virtuous (hard work! initiative! willingness to take risks!) is built on the suffering of the indigenous peoples. (Yes, I think about this as an American, also how the California history I was taught as a tot did its best to erase our local native peoples. I can both enjoy the courage of my immigrant ancestors, most of whom were themselves oppressed minorities in Europe or the Middle East, and critique policies.)

In that vein, I found this meme on Threads the other night.

Even that ordnance map that Holmes uses -- which is darn cool -- has its roots in power relations. The first big mapping project in the UK, dating from the mid-18th century -- was to develop accurate maps of Scotland in order to mop up the remains of the Jacobite rebellions and suppress further dissent.

That said, ordnance maps offer an amazing level of detail. The National Library of Scotland offers access to ordnance maps of the era that Holmes would have been using here. It's the kind of mapping that shows the location of every building and all sorts of tiny lanes.

Now I want to go play with maps, if only to distract myself from wondering how much the smoky atmosphere of Holmes' flat is damaging his Stradivarius.

[mariacallous]

You have heard of the wandering Jew, but have you heard of the wandering Jewish cookie?

As Jews move from country to country, they pick up recipes, spices, and dishes along the way. Sometimes, even after a Jewish community is no more, their food remains, an echo of a world that once was. Such is the case of the “Jewish cookie” from Iceland.

Recently, I learned of a cookbook, The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg compiled by Kristin Olafson Jenkyns, a writer with forbearers from Iceland. Her book documents the history and culinary traditions of immigrants from Iceland who settled in North America at the end of the 19th century. Many of them moved to Manitoba, Canada on Lake Winnipeg, where they formed a community that came to be known as “New Iceland.” In the section of the book entitled “Cakes and Cookies,” following classic Icelandic foods like skyr, smoked fish, and brown bread, are recipes for cookies traditionally eaten on Christmas. Their name in Icelandic is gyðingakökur, which translates to “Jewish cookie.”

How did “Jewish” cookies end up in a cookbook filled with the food of Icelandic immigrants to the New World? You can be sure that there weren’t many, if any, Jews among those settlers 150 years ago. Yet there are three recipes for Jewish cookies nestled between other traditional sweets like Vinarterta and ginger cookies.

Olafson Jenkyns is not sure how they came to be part of the culinary canon of the New Icelanders. Her guess is that the Jewish cookies came to Iceland by way of Denmark. For hundreds of years, Iceland was closely tied to Denmark; traders and merchants, some of them Jewish, moved back and forth between the two countries. Perhaps the cookies came via that trade route.

And how did those “Jewish” cookies land in Denmark in the first place? According to Gil Marks, author of Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Jewish butter cookies originated in Holland. Many of the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries found a safe haven in Holland. There they merged, “…their Moorish-influenced Iberian fare with the local Scandinavian cuisine. Instead of olive oil, they used the butter found in great quantity in Dutch cookery to create small rich morsels, still called Joodse boterkoeke (Jewish butter cookie) in Holland.” Until today, Dutch Jews serve those cookies on Hanukkah and Shavuot and at other dairy meals.

From Holland, the cookies spread to Denmark where they became a traditional pre-Christmas treat.

As is the case with all immigrants, when the Icelanders left their homeland in 1875 for the New World and created the community of New Iceland in Canada, they brought their culinary traditions with them. Gyðingakökur were part of that tradition. “The cookies must have been popular for them to have made it from Denmark to Iceland to New Iceland,” said Olafson Jenkyns.

In scouring through old cookbooks from the New Iceland community, Olafson Jenkyns found these three recipes for Jewish cookies – slightly different one from the next but all most definitely known as “Jewish.” One recipe was from a cookbook, circa 1915, from Reykjavik, Iceland.  The other two came from community cookbooks from New Iceland from the middle of the 20th century. In Gil Marks’ book, the Jodekager or Jewish cookie recipe was attributed to Denmark. His recipe is very similar to the Icelandic ones — all have lots of butter, all are rolled out into a thin dough, and then cut into rounds. And all are topped with a wash and a sweetener that combines sugar and nuts.

Are the cookies Icelandic? Canadian? Dutch? Or Danish? No matter where you find them, the name is the same, hearkening back to a Jewish presence and the Jewish bakers who created them.

Try these cookies yourself using the recipe from Jenkyns’ book.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Immediately after the passage of the September [1918] orders-in-council, the police began using their new authority in a series of raids aimed at getting the Reds off the streets. In Winnipeg in early October, Michael Charitinoff, a Russian Jew and former editor of the Russian-language weekly Robotchny Narod (Working People), was arrested for possession of illegal literature. Security forces had targeted Charitinoff as Lenin’s “ambassador to Western Canada,” supposedly sent to Canada with a $7,000 bankroll to foment revolution. Police magistrate Hugh John Macdonald, the sixty-eight-year-old son of Sir John A., the former prime minister, and a former Manitoba premier himself, sentenced Charitinoff to three years in prison and a $1,000 fine, though the editor won release on a technicality. Charitinoff was one of more than 200 people convicted of political offences—possessing banned literature, belonging to an illegal group, or attending illegal meetings—across the country between October 1918 and June 1919. Fines ranged up to $4,000, though most were much lower, and prison terms ran anywhere from a month to five years.

In Ontario, police stormed the offices of several of the banned organizations, seizing correspondence, books, and pamphlets, and arresting dozens of people in Toronto and other, smaller communities. Eighteen Finnish-Canadian militants were arrested in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie. In Brantford, the local police chief, testifying at the trial of Andra Tretjak, a young Russian immigrant found guilty of conspiracy, claimed that the town was “the headquarters of Bolshevik advocates in Canada,” the centre of a vast distribution network of seditious literature. The police enjoyed fear-mongering about alleged conspiracies; the previous summer they had uncovered a nest of Russian conspirators in Windsor, Ontario, who, they told the newspapers, were at the centre of “a continent-wide plot to overthrow lawful authority and establish a similar regime to that instituted in Russia by Trotzky and Lenine.”

In Toronto, police descended on the offices of political and ethnic organizations across the city, arresting dozens of people, all of whom were alleged to be “active Socialists and Bolsheviks.” They carted away stacks of mail, flyers, pamphlets, books, and magazines. Among the twenty-two arrestees at the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party on Queen Street West were Isaac Bainbridge, secretary of the SDP, and Alfred Manse, the circulation manager of both the Industrial Banner and the Canadian Forward, the party newspaper. Bainbridge, who was a thirty-eight-year-old stonemason and the editor of the Forward, was all too familiar with this kind of harassment. During the previous year and a half, he had been arrested three times on charges of sedition and spent a total of four months in jail for promoting ideas that were considered anti-conscription.

Detainees appeared before magistrates, several of whom took very seriously their self-appointed role as the last bastions against Bolshevism. In Stratford, Ontario, where police arrested twenty-two militants, the case of Arthur Skidmore, a machinist and a member of the local trades council, attracted the most notoriety. He was sentenced to thirty days in jail and a fine of $500 for having in his possession a copy of the Forward. Following appeals to the government from his fellow union members, he was released after twelve days. Magistrate Makins, who had sent Skidmore to jail, chided the government for overruling his decision. “Skidmore’s release is having the effect of making these men very bold and defiant,” Makins told the Toronto Daily Star. “I feel that a stand will have to be taken in the near future against just such men.” And in Toronto, Magistrate Kingsford handed out a three-year prison term in the Kingston Penitentiary to Charles Watson for distributing a variety of books and leaflets that three months before had been perfectly legal. As a large deputation from the Carpenters’ Union massed in the street outside the court in protest, Kingsford declaimed from the bench:

Free speech has always been and is the birthright of every British subject; but free speech is not license [...] Sedition will not be tolerated [...] Persons of British birth or descent above all should not forget the orderly traditions of their race. It would be a disgrace if they associated themselves with the propaganda of foreign cut-throats.

Kingsford went on in his condescending manner:

Theoretical discussions about Socialism may do no harm even if, in the hands of uneducated men, they lead to erroneous ideas of political economy. But when they are publications which advocate in so many terms, robbery, plunder, and other crimes against public order and safety, they become a menace and must be dealt with accordingly.

- Daniel Francis, Seeing Reds: the Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada’s First War on Terror. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011. p. 52-54.

[fatehbaz]

Razak Iyal and Seidu Mohammed recently celebrated becoming Canadian citizens. Their stories have been intertwined since they crossed the Canada-United States border to seek asylum near Emerson, Manitoba, on Christmas eve of 2016. Their lives nearly ended on that frigid night at the side of a rural road.

The two men survived but both lost all their fingers to frostbite.

Others have not survived. On March 31 [2023], two families perished at the Quebec-US border, including an infant and a three-year-old.

Stories like Razak and Seidu’s have captured intense political and public attention in Canada.

Why aren’t people going to official ports of entry?

The answer is that the law, specifically the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between the US and Canada, deters people from using official border entry points because they will be turned away and denied the opportunity to make a refugee claim. Canada has acknowledged these crossings by erecting pop-up border stations like one at Roxham Road, facilitating the movement of migrants. Quebec’s premier and main opposition leader have called for this makeshift port of entry to be shut down. And now, as part of US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Canada, the two countries have decided to do just that, under a renegotiated STCA that came into effect starting midnight on Friday, March 24 [2023]. 

Now anyone crossing any point of the Canada-US land border to make a refugee claim will be turned away.

---

They will not be able to make a refugee claim and will be sent back to the US side of the border.

Until now, this agreement only applied at official land ports of entry which pushed people seeking asylum to cross at unofficial points and made the remote Roxham Road that dead-ends at the boundary line between Hemmingford, Quebec, and Champlain, New York, a legal and well-travelled option.

The newly expanded STCA now applies across the entire Canada-US land border, including areas between official ports of entry and certain bodies of water. Anyone making an asylum claim within 14 days of crossing without authorisation or valid immigration status will be brought back to a US port of entry and excluded from being able to make a claim in Canada. [...]

---

Advocates argued that the agreement not only infringes migrants’ rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but also violates Canada’s international legal obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention [...]. Rather than suspending the agreement as many refugees and their advocates have long called for, the Canadian government has instead expanded it even though its legality is in question. [...]

How many deaths and other casualties of the STCA will it take before Canada reconsiders its reliance on increasingly restrictive and short-sighted policies? For the answer is blowing in the frigid wind along the US-Canada border: the Safe Third Country Agreement offers no real safety [...].

---

Text by: Jamie Liew, Petra Molnar, and Julie Young. “The new US-Canada border deal is inhumane - and deadly.” Al Jazeera. 19 April 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.] Liew is a lawyer and associate professor at University of Ottawa. Molnar is associate director of the Refugee Law Lab. Young is Canada Research Chair in Critical Border Studies and assistant professor in Department of Geography and Environment at University of Lethbridge.

A summary, from elsewhere:

The deal, which the Canadian government said would come into effect early on Saturday [25 March 2023], effectively extends the so-called Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) to the entire US-Canada border. “The United States and Canada will work together to discourage unlawful border crossings and fully implement the updated Safe Third Country Agreement,” US President Joe Biden said during an address to the Canadian parliament in Ottawa on Friday afternoon. But human rights groups said the move will not deter refugees and asylum seekers [...] but instead will push them to take riskier routes. [...] “This is very dangerous,” said Frantz Andre, spokesperson and coordinator of Comite d’action des personnes sans statut, a Montreal-based group that provides support for asylum seekers and others without immigration status. [...] Why is this happening now? Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been under political pressure domestically to respond to an increase in crossings, particularly from conservative politicians in Quebec and at the federal level.

Text by: Jillian Kestler-D’Amours. “What the new US-Canada border deal means for asylum seekers.” Al Jazeera. 24 March 2023.

[lebizcanada20]

Canada PNP 2024- Provincial Nominee Programs for Skilled Workers

Canada PNP 2024- Provincial Nominee Programs for Skilled Workers

CANADA PROVINCIAL NOMINEE PROGRAMS

The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is a set of Canadian immigration programs operated by the Government of Canada in partnership with individual provinces, each of which having its own requirements and 'streams' (i.e., target groups). In a program stream, provinces and territories may, for example, target: business people, students, skilled workers, or semi-skilled workers.

While provincial governments manage PNPs according to their individual objectives, the federal government's immigration department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, ultimately administers and decides on permanent residence applications.

What is the process of Canada PNP in 2024?

Have a valid Express entry profile.

Choose a suitable PNP Program.

Check the eligibility & in-demand occupations

Create an account on the official PNP website

Get an invite to apply for the PNP

File an application by submitting docs

Get nomination from Provincial Govt.

Secure 600 CRS Points upon nomination

File ITA in Express Entry & Get a Permanent Resident Canada Visa

What Are The Available Canada PNP Pathways In 2024?

1 Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program 

No job offer required. Any profile from TEER 0,1,2&3 can apply.

2 British Columbia PNP Program

Job offer needed in the profile from TEER 0,1,2&3

3 Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program

No job offer required. Any profile from TEER 0,1,2&3 can apply for Canada PR

4 Nova Scotia Nominee Program

No job offer required. Only need a letter of interest to apply

5 Manitoba PNP Program

Must have a family member and experience in the province.

6 Alberta Advantage Immigration Program

Have experience in an in-demand occupation and family connection in Alberta or a job offer from Alberta.

7 New Brunswick Canada PNP Program  

Have a job offer or a family connection in the province.

8 Prince Edward Island PNP Program

Have a job offer or work experience in the province.

BC Provincial Nominee Program

The BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) is an immigration program for British Columbia that gives "high-demand foreign workers and experienced entrepreneurs" the opportunity to become a permanent resident in BC.The BC PNP offers 2 pathways to obtain a permanent residence in BC, each containing different streams one can apply under, depending on their National Occupational Classification skill level, job, or international-student status:

Skills Immigration: This stream, primarily using a points-based invitation system, is for skilled and semi-skilled workers in high-demand occupations in BC. Candidates may not need prior work experience for some categories; however, Entry-Level and Semi-Skilled category applicants require B.C. work experience. Candidates may have work experience from abroad; and recent international graduates of a Canadian post-secondary institution may not need any work experience, depending on the job being offered.

BC PNP Tech: Those in specific tech occupations may qualify for invitation at a lower points threshold and receive priority assignment for processing..

Express Entry: International Student and Skilled Worker candidates can select either the Express Entry or Standard version of the BC PNP streams. Express Entry streams offer shorter timelines for federal permanent residence application processing.

Priority Occupations: Since 2022, the BC PNP has also provided occupation specific invitations to apply at lower point thresholds based on specific occupations in education, healthcare and veterinary care.

Health Authority and International Post-Graduate Streams - Qualifying candidates, such as those with a job offer from a public health authority or those who've graduated from selected programs at BC post-secondary institutions, can apply directly to the program without registering, obtaining a score and being invited to apply.

Entrepreneur Immigration: This stream, using a points-based invitation system, is for experienced entrepreneurs who wish to actively manage a business in BC. Applicants must create a minimum number of jobs, have the required personal net worth, and make a minimum level of eligible investment.

Entrepreneur Immigration – Regional Pilot: an option for entrepreneurs who wish to start a new business in participating regional communities across BC.

Entrepreneur Immigration – Base: an option for entrepreneurs who wish to acquire or start a new business in the province.

Strategic Projects: an option for international companies seeking to expand into BC, and who require permanent residency for key employees. 

Are you tired of waiting in the Express Entry Pool? Do you want quick Alternate Solutions? You can immigrate to Canada with fast processing times via PNP pathways. Call our experts at +91- 8375012389 or mail us at Daljeet.bhatia@lebizcanada.com

[kitchenhermit]

New York-Style Bagels

The New York-style bagel is truly iconic. When I lived in NYC I couldn’t get through a week without a few of these! When I moved out of the city, bagels were among the things I missed the most. Luckily, they are super simple to make at home.

Bagels were brought to NYC by Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland in the 1800s. Overtime, they became a widespread local staple, and they’re still a popular mainstay to this day. New York-style bagels are distinctive because they are boiled before baking. This is how the famous chewy texture is achieved.

I’ve included a recipe for “everything seasoning,” but these bagels are also great plain. As far as fillings, these bagels are perfect with just cream cheese and chives or with the addition of smoked salmon, capers, pickled onions, and dill. 

Ingredients:

Bagel dough:

 297 grams/320ml water 90F/32C

10 grams dry yeast 

23 grams white granulated sugar 

500 grams bread flour / Manitoba

6 grams/1 1/2 tsp salt 

1tbsp baking soda/malt syrup (optional)

Egg wash:

1 egg

1tsp cream/milk

Everything seasoning:

Makes 3/4 of a cup - so there’s some leftover!

2 Tbsp + 2 tsp white toasted sesame seeds

2tbsp black toasted sesame seeds

4 tsp Maldon sea salt flakes

2 tsp poppy seeds

2 tbsp dried minced onion

2 tbsp dried minced garlic 

Method

Whisk in the yeast and sugar to the warm water, and let it rest for about 10 minutes or until frothy. 

In a large bowl, whisk bread flour and salt together. Add in the yeast mixture and stir until the dough is shaggy. Once everything is well-combined, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and pliable. You can also do this in a mixer with the dough hook. 

Put the dough into a lightly-oiled bowl. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm place away from drafts (I use the oven with the light turned on), Let it ferment for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

Then, punch down the dough to deflate it and turn it out onto your bench. 

Before you move on to the next step, put on a pot of water to boil and pre-heat your oven to 218C/425F. You can add baking soda or malt syrup to your water, but this is optional. 

With a bench scraper, split the dough into eight pieces that are roughly the same size. I cut it in half, then quarters, then eighths. Pinch each piece to create a seam and then place it on an un-floured work surface (seam side down) and move your hand in a circular motion to tighten it into a ball. 

 Place the dough balls onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. Cover with a damp towel and let them rest for 10 minutes. 

When your water is boiling, pick up a ball with a floured hand and poke a finger straight through the middle. With two fingers in the hole, slowly turn the bagel to widen it. Then carefully drop the bagel into the water and boil for 1 minute on each side. Drain well and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. 

When all the bagels have been boiled, whisk the egg and the cream together and brush the bagels with the egg wash, covering the surface well. 

Sprinkle a generous amount of everything seasoning on top of the bagels. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the bagels are golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack. Enjoy with your favourite toppings!

Did you like the recipe? Let me know on Instagram! 

[aptechvisaglobalimmigration]

Manitoba Invited 507 candidates under its #176 Draw, which was conducted on April 20, 2023. Manitoba PNP issued 507 Letters of Advice (LAA) to Apply to Manitoba PNP,  Where 91 were those applicants who have a valid Express Entry profile number and job seeker code.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Unionized workers and other labour supporters marched through downtown Winnipeg on Monday morning to call for more sick days, equal rights for gig workers, access to health care regardless of immigration status and more.

Hundreds marched from Union Centre on Broadway to the Manitoba Legislature where union leaders made those demands of the provincial government at a rally for May Day, or International Workers' Day.

The day is used to celebrate gains made for workers around the world and to underscore areas of work that still need improvement, said Winnipeg Labour Council president Melissa Dvorak.

Dvorak thinks inflationary pressures and the current cost of living challenges are influencing more workers to consider joining unions. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

Manitoba PNP Draw Issues 308 New Nominations For PR

Today, Manitoba PNP draw (MPNP) sent 322 provincial nomination LAAs (Letters of Advice to Apply) under 3 different categories. As typical, Skilled Workers In Manitoba (SWM) category received most of the LAAs, 221. MPNP Expression of Interest (EOI) profiles having a score of 720 or above received the invitation. The cut off score only decreased by 6 points as compared to the last MPNP draw on…

[mariacallous]

You have heard of the wandering Jew, but have you heard of the wandering Jewish cookie?

As Jews move from country to country, they pick up recipes, spices, and dishes along the way. Sometimes, even after a Jewish community is no more, their food remains, an echo of a world that once was. Such is the case of the “Jewish cookie” from Iceland.

Recently, I learned of a cookbook, The Culinary Saga of New Iceland, Recipes From the Shores of Lake Winnipeg compiled by Kristin Olafson Jenkyns, a writer with forbearers from Iceland. Her book documents the history and culinary traditions of immigrants from Iceland who settled in North America at the end of the 19th century. Many of them moved to Manitoba, Canada on Lake Winnipeg, where they formed a community that came to be known as “New Iceland.” In the section of the book entitled “Cakes and Cookies,” following classic Icelandic foods like skyr, smoked fish, and brown bread, are recipes for cookies traditionally eaten on Christmas. Their name in Icelandic is gyðingakökur, which translates to “Jewish cookie.”

How did “Jewish” cookies end up in a cookbook filled with the food of Icelandic immigrants to the New World? You can be sure that there weren’t many, if any, Jews among those settlers 150 years ago. Yet there are three recipes for Jewish cookies nestled between other traditional sweets like Vinarterta and ginger cookies.

Olafson Jenkyns is not sure how they came to be part of the culinary canon of the New Icelanders. Her guess is that the Jewish cookies came to Iceland by way of Denmark. For hundreds of years, Iceland was closely tied to Denmark; traders and merchants, some of them Jewish, moved back and forth between the two countries. Perhaps the cookies came via that trade route.

And how did those “Jewish” cookies land in Denmark in the first place? According to Gil Marks, author of Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Jewish butter cookies originated in Holland. Many of the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries found a safe haven in Holland. There they merged, “…their Moorish-influenced Iberian fare with the local Scandinavian cuisine. Instead of olive oil, they used the butter found in great quantity in Dutch cookery to create small rich morsels, still called Joodse boterkoeke (Jewish butter cookie) in Holland.” Until today, Dutch Jews serve those cookies on Hanukkah and Shavuot and at other dairy meals.

From Holland, the cookies spread to Denmark where they became a traditional pre-Christmas treat.

As is the case with all immigrants, when the Icelanders left their homeland in 1875 for the New World and created the community of New Iceland in Canada, they brought their culinary traditions with them. Gyðingakökur were part of that tradition. “The cookies must have been popular for them to have made it from Denmark to Iceland to New Iceland,” said Olafson Jenkyns.

In scouring through old cookbooks from the New Iceland community, Olafson Jenkyns found these three recipes for Jewish cookies – slightly different one from the next but all most definitely known as “Jewish.” One recipe was from a cookbook, circa 1915, from Reykjavik, Iceland.  The other two came from community cookbooks from New Iceland from the middle of the 20th century. In Gil Marks’ book, the Jodekager or Jewish cookie recipe was attributed to Denmark. His recipe is very similar to the Icelandic ones — all have lots of butter, all are rolled out into a thin dough, and then cut into rounds. And all are topped with a wash and a sweetener that combines sugar and nuts.

Are the cookies Icelandic? Canadian? Dutch? Or Danish? No matter where you find them, the name is the same, hearkening back to a Jewish presence and the Jewish bakers who created them.

Try these cookies yourself using the recipe from Jenkyns’ book.

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These are the regions in Canada where low-wage LMIAs won’t be processed, as of January 2025.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is the Low-Wage Stream of the TFWP?

Regions Where LMIAs Will Not Be Processed

Current Ineligible CMAs (January 2025)

How to Determine if a Work Location is in a CMA

Options for Employers and Employees in Ineligible CMAs

Past CMA Updates

Understanding CMAs

Conclusion

Introduction

If you’re considering applying for Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) under the low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), recent updates might affect your eligibility. Wave Visas, a trusted name in immigration consulting, brings you the latest details on the regions where LMIAs under the low-wage stream will not be processed.

What is the Low-Wage Stream of the TFWP?

Canada’s TFWP enables employers to address labor shortages by hiring eligible foreign workers. Depending on the wage offered, the employer applies under either the high-wage or low-wage stream:

High-Wage Stream: For positions offering wages at or above the provincial/territorial median.

Low-Wage Stream: For positions offering wages below the provincial/territorial median.

As of November 8, 2024, the hourly wage for high-wage stream workers must be at least 20% higher than the median wage or equal to what similar workers earn for the same employer—whichever is higher. If the wage does not meet this threshold, employers must apply under the low-wage stream.

Regions Where LMIAs Will Not Be Processed

On August 26, 2024, the federal government announced that LMIAs under the low-wage stream would not be processed in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher. This measure aims to prioritize local workers in areas with high unemployment.

Current Ineligible CMAs (January 2025)

As of January 10, 2025, the following 15 CMAs have unemployment rates of 6% or higher, making them ineligible for low-wage stream LMIA applications:

Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)

Unemployment Rate

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador

6.0%

Saint John, New Brunswick

6.1%

Montréal, Quebec

6.2%

Oshawa, Ontario

7.5%

Toronto, Ontario

7.9%

Hamilton, Ontario

6.3%

St. Catharines-Niagara, Ontario

6.2%

Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ontario

7.3%

Guelph, Ontario

6.2%

London, Ontario

6.4%

Windsor, Ontario

8.8%

Barrie, Ontario

6.0%

Regina, Saskatchewan

6.1%

Calgary, Alberta

7.5%

Edmonton, Alberta

6.8%

This list is updated quarterly, with the next update scheduled for April 4, 2025.

How to Determine if a Work Location is in a CMA

To verify if your job’s location falls within one of these CMAs:

Enter the complete postal code of the work location on the Census of Population website.

On the search results page, check the "Census metropolitan area/ Census agglomeration" section to identify the CMA.

Options for Employers and Employees in Ineligible CMAs

Employers

Increase Wages: Consider raising the offered wage to meet the high-wage stream threshold.

Wait for Updates: Monitor CMA unemployment rates for potential changes in eligibility.

Employees

Explore Eligible CMAs: Focus job searches on CMAs where LMIAs are still being processed.

Request Wage Adjustments: Discuss with employers about increasing wages to qualify under the high-wage stream.

Maintain Legal Status: Workers whose permits cannot be extended may apply for a visitor record to stay in Canada legally.

Past CMA Updates

Between October 11, 2024, and January 9, 2025, several CMAs had unemployment rates of 6% or higher but are no longer on the list:

Trois-Rivières, Quebec (5.2%)

Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario/Quebec (5.4%)

Kingston, Ontario (5.7%)

Brantford, Ontario (4.2%)

Winnipeg, Manitoba (5.6%)

Abbotsford-Mission, British Columbia (5.4%)

Vancouver, British Columbia (5.9%)

Understanding CMAs

A CMA is a region comprising one or more municipalities around a core population center with at least 100,000 residents. Municipalities within a CMA demonstrate economic and social integration with the core, as indicated by commuting patterns. Once designated, a region retains its CMA status regardless of population changes.

Conclusion

Staying informed about LMIA processing criteria is essential for both employers and foreign workers. Wave Visas, the best immigration consultant in Delhi, can guide you through these changes, ensuring a seamless immigration process. Contact Wave Immigration Consultant today for expert advice tailored to your needs.

Corporate Office : 2nd Floor, Right Side, Building No. 5, Kehar Singh Estate Westend Marg, Lane No. 2, Saidulajab, Saket New Delhi 110030.

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New Canadian Open Work Permit Policy for PNP Candidates

The number of foreign workers applying to Canada's Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) hit a record high. Many workers' work permits expired before they received a ruling because of the lengthy processing timeframes for PNP determinations caused by the large volume of applications. Applicants frequently lose their eligibility for PNP nomination when this occurs. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) worked with three provinces—Alberta, Manitoba, and Yukon—to develop a temporary strategy to address this. While awaiting their PNP judgment, some PNP candidates are permitted to apply for an open work permit (OWP) under this regulation. They are able to continue working and remain lawfully in Canada thanks to the open work permit.

Eligibility Criteria:

To qualify for an open work permit under this policy, candidates must meet one of the following conditions:

Current Work Permit Holders:Possess a valid work permit.Have applied for a new work permit under section 200 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations.Provide a support letter from the provincial or territorial authority where they reside, confirming their placement in an Expression of Interest (EOI) pool or application inventory process under the PNP.Submit a letter of employment from their current employer.

Expired Work Permit Holders:Held a valid work permit on May 7, 2024, which has since expired.Applied for a new work permit and either an extension of their temporary resident status or restoration of status.Provide a support letter from the relevant provincial or territorial authority, as described above.Submit a letter of employment from their current employer.

Pending Work Permit Extension Applicants:Were authorized to work under paragraph 186(u) of the Regulations on May 7, 2024, with their work permit extension application pending or approved.Applied for a new work permit and an extension of their temporary resident status.Provide a support letter from the relevant provincial or territorial authority, as described above.Submit a letter of employment from their current employer.