For those considering Canada, read on...

This was in today's news:

"The government is watching Canada's economy closely and won't hesitate, if necessary, to reduce the number of immigrants it lets into the country, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said yesterday..."

http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/cana...44556-sun.html

My brother is the foreman for a demolition company in Edmonton. Until recently he has had a lot of trouble finding day labourers who are capable and can do the jobs they're being paid for. Why? Because the economy was so hot that the only people lining up for day work were those who couldn't get hired anywhere else. Now, with the oil field slowdown and the impact it has on the rest of the economy of Alberta, there are more and more highly-qualified people lining up every day and his job has suddenly gotten much easier. I'm happy for him, he has always taken up the slack and worked 80 hours a week if necessary to make sure the company met its deadlines. Now he has the luxury of seeing the job done on time and can get home in time for supper some nights. But I'm not so happy for those people who thought they had stable, safe employment, who are now taking day labour to keep from losing their homes.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric is heating up. This story was in today's Edmonton Sun:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Albe...60441-sun.html
Nurses are not included in the usual list of temporary foreign worker categories in these stories, but if the nurse's spouse will be looking for work, there will be a huge impact on their plans. And as local nurses' other supporting family members lose their jobs or have their hours cut, the casual nurses will be applying for positions, the part-timers will start taking larger FTEs and the amount of overtime worked will continue to climb. We're really hoping that this recession is simply a speed bump and that soon things will be rolling smoothly again, but what will happen if that isn't the case?

I started this thread to help IENs make their plans so that they experience only the necessary discomfort of the process, and not to see themselves go through the whole process, spend a ton of money and then have no job to come to when it's all done. Please, please, pay attention to the news coming out of Canada and be prepared for things to change dramatically in a very short period of time.

I've just learned that Calgary Health Region in Alberta has placed a moratorium on hiring IENs due to the downturn in the economy. They cite reasons such as the increased interest of casual nurses for picking up shifts and part-time nurses who are now the primary breadwinners increasing their full-time equivalents, which is causing a significant decrease in vacancies. Given the fact that Alberta is less than 6 weeks away from the final amalgamation of the 9 different health regions into one giant super-region, it's quite likely that the rest of Alberta will also halt their overseas recruitment.

When the economy in Alberta is bad, it's worse in the rest of the country.

Absolutely!! Or at least certain politicians believe it is. The Alberta government provided huge grants to sustain the industry here for several years running, while refusing to even partially fund a summer respite program for school aged kids with severe handicaps. And now the feds are supporting it in Quebec. But I think I already said my piece earlier about that. The feds will give Quebec untold billions of $$ to keep them from taking their ball and going home. I say, "Here's your hat... what's your hurry?"