Not a good time to be in poultry business

It’s not a good time to be in the chicken business, even in Canada. A few weeks back, chickens in a Matsqui farm were destroyed. Then, avian flu was discovered in a poultry farm near Fraser River. Eventually, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered the destruction of 365,000 birds in Fraser Valley where the first avian flu was discovered.

Fortunately, the 17 poultry farms within the supposedly hot zone are free of the disease. The federal government and poultry farm owners are still taking the necessary measures to detect and prevent the spread of the flu.

The 2004 federal budget has tripled its funding of the language training programs to $15 million next year. It’s about time! I have observed that many Filipino and Chinese Immigrants who have lived in Canada for nearly 20 years still don’t know how to converse in English. It must be the backlash of the multiculturalism theory which has been totally misinterpreted and implemented. Multiculturalism actually segregated the various ethnic communities instead of unifying them.

Hopefully, the new language training programs will help new Canadians in speaking the official English language and find work in their field. Around $5 million will be used toward studying how to recognize the credentials of foreign trained workers, many of whom are barred from their field in their adopted country.

According to Vancouver Sun, the near retirement rate (the share of the workforce within 10 years of the median retirement age) has risen dramatically over the last 15 years in British Columbia. The near retirement rate was 23.6 percent in 2002, more than double the rate in 1987 (11.3 percent). The median retirement age has dropped to 60.3 years old from 64.3 years during the period.

The popularity of the low-carb diet craze is booming in Canada, thanks to popular American culture. A new survey estimated that about one percent of Canadians are on low-carb diets. With the popularity of the "in" diet is the surge of food products that claim to be low-carb even if they are not. It is running out of control so Health Canada entered the picture to set product label standard.

Health Canada is proceeding with regulations to prevent manufacturers from making low-carb claims for their products. In Canada, manufacturers can make the claim if they contain no more than two grams of carb and draw 10 percent or less of their calories from carbohydrates.

The Philippines is known abroad for its caregivers and for several other things, but having two Filipinos in the world’s most corrupt former heads of government top ten list is something we should remember when we vote this coming May. Former President Marcos is second on the list after Indonesia’s Suharto. Marcos was credited for $5 to $10 billion which was accumulated from 1972-86. The Transparency International report then cited ex-actor Joseph Estrada on the number 10 list with something like $78 million to $80 million, from 1998 to 2001.

Going back to Canada, British Columbia has the highest art attendance rate in the country at 39.6 percent (Nova Scotia at 36.3 percent, Alberta at 32.6 percent). This means that British Columbians are intensely interested in visiting their local public art galleries and museums. Museums reach a larger proportion of Canadians in every income group than do popular music events, according to the study "Museums and Art Gallery Attendance in Canada and the Provinces." It was interesting to know that museum and art gallery attendance rates increase with education and that the visitors are active sports participants as well which breaks the myth about museum eggheads and intellectuals. Nearly one-half of museum and art gallery visitors participated regularly in sports, compared to about one-third who did not visit a museum or art gallery.

Ace Alvarez, managing editor of Toronto’s Manila Media Monitor newspaper told me that at the last Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC) meeting, the Philippines was not even mentioned during the three-day event. The focus were mostly on China and India. The business forum’s objective is to give Canadian investors an opportunity to explore possible areas of investments in the Asia Pacific region.