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If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you will have noticed that every day there are at least 2 or 3 articles regarding the legalization of marijuana soon in Canada. Marijuana company stocks are hitting all-time highs with no revenue/profit to be seen yet. How long will this last? Is this a good time to invest? Have you missed out already?

There are different opinions floating out there right now as to what is going to happen. Our opinion is that investing in marijuana stocks is like investing in a startup where you need to invest in several startups and hope one makes it big to recoup your other losses.

In the past, homeschooling was a form of learning for families that wanted to include a religious aspect to their child’s studies or if the families lived in the suburbs with no access to schools.

Today, homeschooling is a way for parents to get actively involved with their child’s learning activities and a way for the learning to be child driven.  There is a stigma out there today though that this form of learning will harm the child going forward due to the lack of socialization with other kids. However, with the Internet these days, it is easy to connect with other families who are pursuing the same learning journey and do it together.

Unschooling is modern day homeschooling, which just means there is no formal use of topics, subjects, testing, or anything. The idea is that the child is learning all the time, not only when he/she is sitting at a desk and having to listen or when being tested on something.  Learning should come naturally.

Rise of the home ‘unschoolers’ – where children learn only what they want to
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/11/unschool-children-monitor-home-schooling-education

Who has heard of a Robo Advisor? In simple terms, a computer manages your investments using mathematical rules and alogorithms.

For years, we have all invested in various equities using an Investment advisor and paid a premium on management expense ratios (MER) or have even worked on different techniques to try to predict the market, but have been unsuccessful. Cheers to the future of investing, comes along the Robo Advisor.

Robo Advisor promises lower fees as the software helps you manage more of your portfolio. Financial Advisors typically charge 1% of your portfolio to help you invest and charge that regardless of whether or not you make money. This usually includes mutual funds which means more fees on top of the 1%. Robo Advisor invests in ETF’s which makes you diversified and can charge as little as 0.50 percent which cuts your fees in half.

Slowly say bye bye to the Financial Advisor/Wealth Manager/Investment advisor!

We did our own internal analysis recently of purchasing properties around the world and believe it or not many third world countries do not allow foreign ownership. It is about time, first world countries catch up!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-31/new-zealand-to-slap-home-buying-ban-on-foreigners-to-ease-market

The number of Brazilian students visiting Canada has been increasing every year. Brazil represents around 2.5% of the international student’s population according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education – CBIE but it is one of the fastest to grow its numbers every year.

Brazilians see Canada as top study destination, but the decision to come and study in Canada is related to factors like the Canadian society, which is tolerant and not discriminatory, the strong reputation of Canada’s education system, country’s safety, the positive attitude towards international students and the position of Canadian educational institutions in international rankings.

However, there are a couple other reasons that come into play.
One of them is the increase in efforts from the Canadian government to maintain students here and get them to apply for permanent residence.
As the country has an ambitious plan to welcome nearly one million immigrants over the next three years, students are in an excellent position to develop their career in Canada and stay permanently. The general goal of the federal government is to bring Canada’s immigration to nearly one percent of the population by 2020.

International graduates may get a Post-Graduate Work Permit (PGWP) after completing their studies, giving them the opportunity to work in Canada for any employer. The work experience acquired while on a post-graduation work permit will significantly contribute towards an international graduate’s eligibility for federal and provincial permanent immigration programs. The success of this program is demonstrated in numbers. More than 30,000 former study permit holders became permanent residents in 2016, the majority of economic immigrants programs, like federal skilled workers, Canadian experience class or provincial nominees.

Another attractive point for Brazilians is the possibility to work part-time while a full-time student, enrolled in a program that leads to a degree, diploma or certificate for at least 6 months long. It allows Brazilians students to improve their English skills and help them to support their studies.

In addition, spouses or common-law partners of full-time students are eligible for open work permits, depending on certain conditions. Couples or young families can live in Canada as temporary residents and make sure they would adapt to the country, its culture, climate and labour market among everything else before considering a definitive move to permanent residency.
With all these attractions, the number of Brazilian students in Canada will certainly continue to increase.

The most popular places in Canada where immigrants traditionally settle are the three largest cities; Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. This trend continues, but according to the 2016 Census, more newcomers are settling in the Prairie provinces (a regional term that includes Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba).

1. Ontario (Toronto)
Ontario is the most populated Canadian province in which most of the country’s immigrants reside and its capital, Toronto, is the largest city in Canada. In 2016, 39% of recent immigrants lived there and newcomers consist of 46.1% of Toronto’s population. The absolute number of immigrants in the province is almost four million. However, the share of recent immigrants choosing Ontario decreased from 55.9% in 2001, which means more newcomers are choosing to settle in other provinces. I think it is because immigrating to Ontario has become harder than to other destinations. As many people prefer living in Ontario for employment opportunities and diverse ethnic communities. Thus, competition to get into the province is fierce.

2. Quebec (Montreal)
The next most popular province for recent immigrants is Quebec, of which the largest city is Montreal. In 2016, 17.8% of immigrants chose Quebec. This share is higher than 13.7% in 2001 and 17.5% in 2006. In Montreal, newcomers made up 23.4% of its population. Quebec’s official language is French. French skills are mandatory to immigrate here. Note that Quebec has their own immigration programs and regulations independently governed by the provinces government.

3. Alberta (Calgary & Edmonton)
A growing number of new immigrants settle in Alberta these days. The percentage of newcomers residing in the province increased from 6.9% in 2001 to 17.1% in 2016. It is even higher than in British Columbia (14.5%). One of the significant factors for this increased number of immigrants in Alberta is its growing economy. According to the Labour Force Survey, “Alberta had the largest employment growth from 2011 to 2016 (7.8%)”. The national average growth is only 5%. That is, recent immigrants choose cities such as Calgary and Edmonton for the employment opportunities. We shall see if this will remain even after the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) makes changes to its immigration streams strengthening English and/or French language and work experience requirements effective January 2, 2018.

4. British Columbia (Vancouver)
British Columbia is one of the recent immigrants’ favourite provinces in Canada to settle. As Vancouver, the largest city in the province, is ranked one of the most livable cities in the world, many people would like to immigrate to the city. The percentage of immigrants living in Vancouver is 40.8%. According to Statistics Canada, however, British Columbia received decreased proportions of the overall number of newcomers over the past 15 years, from 19.9% in 2001 to 14.5% in 2016. It can be seen partially due to the newly implemented BC Provincial Nominee Program since late 2015. The provincial program has adopted a points-based, relative ranking system which allows the BC government to select the highest scoring applicants in the pool like Express Entry, a federal skilled worker immigration system. Thus, only competitive applicants in terms of education level, language skills and work experience can immigrate to BC. It is expected to change next year as the cut-off scores are getting lower in every invitation round.

5. Manitoba (Winnipeg) & Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Regina)
Manitoba and Saskatchewan recently attracted more immigrants than before. In Manitoba, the share of recent immigrants increased from 1.8% in 2001 to 5.2% in 2016. 4.3% of newcomers moved into Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, between 2011 and 2016. Saskatchewan also saw an increased share from just under 1% in 2001 to 4% in 2016. According to Statistics Canada, it is largely driven by the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). Over half of recent immigrants residing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were accepted through this program while merely 16.4% of all new immigrants came to Canada under the PNP nationally.