Issue 44 Vol II, July 31, 2007

T H I S  O U R  C A N A D A

A Gift to Canada
Khushwant Toor

ON July 22, 2007 several hundred Hindus living in the Greater Toronto Area joined Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Opposition Leader Stephane Dion, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Toronto Mayer David Miller, Consulate General of India in Canada and other notable dignitaries to inaugurate the  BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.

BAPS Sri Swaminarayan Mandir carrying a total price tag of $40 million is considered the largest Mandir in North America, first of its kind in Canada and a source of tremendous pride for the over 200,000 Hindu Community living in the GTA.

The temple extends over 95,000 square feet in area. The temple's ground floor houses a museum exploring the history and culture of Indo-Canadians. Over 2,000 volunteers helped over two years in building this architectural masterpiece which is like none other in Canada. It is Canada's first marble Hindu temple and the local Indian and South Asian community raised the money to build the temple.

'This whole thing has no nails, no steel. It's all put together through the sheer force of gravity and cement. Made of Turkish limestone and Italian marble, hundreds of artisans in India, trained in the ancient Vedic tradition, carved 24,000 pieces using a chisel and hammer.

Pieces were then shipped to Toronto and assembled on site. The building also does not have any sprinkler system installed for which a special exemption had to be obtained contrary to the Ontario Building Code.

In his speech, Harper praised India's efforts to alleviate tensions and reconcile interests within it's diverse population through democratic institutions. "Where far too many other countries have failed, India is succeeding," he said. He further said that the opening of the holy temple marks another step in Canada's quest to accommodate diversity, and that it stands as a testament to both Canada and India's traditions of pluralism.

Premier of Ontario  Dalton McGuinty praised Ontario's "large, vibrant Indo-Canadian community" and its "strong commitment to celebrating our diversity. "I know this Mandir will thrive here," McGuinty said. "I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to build this beautiful complex - it is a wonderful gift to Ontario and to Canada."

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Migration to Western Canada adds $2billion

Inter-provincial migration of workers at high speed currently being witnessed in a Canada, particularly from East to West had added about $2-billion to Canada's economy in 2006 alone. A study by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards shows it has boosted productivity at a national level, with significant gains in provinces with net in-migration, compared to slim gains for those provinces with net out-migration. Clearly western Canada has gained at the cost eastern parts.

But as the commodities boom took off in Alberta and British Columbia in the past couple of years, migration picked up, and so did the economic impact, the study shows. Migration boosted the country's gross domestic product by 5.8 per cent in 2006, compared with an average gain of just 2.6 per cent over the decade, the study shows.

Part of the economic gains comes from the fact that the migrants are young, well-educated, and are moving to find ways to put their skills to good use, the study says. It points to findings that inter provincial migrants saw their earnings rise by 9.4 per cent over two years, compared with a 4.8-per-cent raise for home-stickers.

By 2006, inter provincial migration was at a record high, with almost 380,000 people on the move in Canada, or 1.14 per cent of the population.

But after all the moving around was said and done, the only provinces that recorded positive net migration last year were Alberta and British Columbia.

Ontario, with its sagging manufacturing sector and rising unemployment rate, had the largest net outflow of migrants last year, losing 33,793 people.

That's the opposite of the migration picture of 1987, when low oil prices sent people fleeing to buoyant Ontario.

Economists and the Bank of Canada have often talked of migration as the best way for Canada to mitigate uneven regional growth, saying a flexible labour force is the best way to deal with a slow economy in the East and a boom in the West.

Alberta's economic output jumped by $4.6-billion in 2006, and British Columbia's output grew $238.4-million. Ontario saw migration out of the province drain more than $1.4-billion of economic output away.

Alberta has seen migration add to its economic output every year over the past decade, while British Columbia and Ontario have flitted back and forth between winning and losing from migration.

Similarly, provinces with net in-migration saw their productivity climb rapidly especially between 2004 and 2006, while provinces with net out-migration saw little in terms of productivity gain.

On average, B.C. and Alberta saw productivity gains worth $122,698 per net worker gained from migration. Provinces who lost population due to migration, however, saw average productivity gains of $82,955 per worker. That means there was a productivity gap of $39,743 between population-gainers and population-losers.

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Treatment for breast cancer

Launched last September, the Rapid Diagnostic Breast Clinic provides women with answers in one day, instead of weeks or months. Women referred to the clinic can have a physical exam, a mammogram, an ultrasound, even a tissue biopsy – and get the results from a surgeon, all on the same day.

Dr. David McCready, a surgical oncologist at Princess Margaret spearheaded the novel programme, which the hospital claims is unique in Canada. "It would very often take many weeks, if not months, for some women to be diagnosed once (a breast tissue) abnormality was discovered, whether they felt it or it was found in screening or by a family physician," he said.

That kind of waiting can create massive stress and worry for patients, especially when they have to wait days or weeks between appointments, ferry between family doctors, radiologists and oncologists. After listening to patients' repeated calls for a faster, more efficient diagnosis, McCready approached the committee that runs The Weekend to End Breast Cancer, the 60-kilometre annual fundraising walk for Princess Margaret. The committee immediately agreed to the funding request and gave him $1 million to start the clinic as a pilot project. McCready and other top cancer doctors at Princess Margaret will be going on the 2007 walk, Sept. 7-9. all should join in the noble venture.

While other hospitals are also trying to speed up diagnostic wait times – St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto has been offering a rapid assessment service for 35 years – Princess Margaret is the only one that can offer a one-day diagnosis because it is one of the few Canadian hospitals with an express tissue processor machine.

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