Alberta cancels foreign worker recruitment trip to United Arab Emirates EDMONTON — The Alberta government says it has pulled the plug on a foreign worker recruitment mission in the United Arab Emirates scheduled for early next year. Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press Dec 9, 2024 1:11 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism Muhammad Yaseen is sworn into cabinet, in Edmonton, Friday, June 9, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson EDMONTON — The Alberta government says it has pulled the plug on a foreign worker recruitment mission in the United Arab Emirates scheduled for early next year. Documents show the mission was part of the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program, which works to fast-track the permanent residency process for workers in sought after sectors like health care, technology and law enforcement. The program, which is jointly run by both the provincial and federal government, is how Alberta works to manage its federally allocated economic immigrant targets each year. In 2024, it was 9,750. Provincial Immigration Minister Muhammad Yaseen says he decided to cancel the trip after reviewing its purpose. "We became aware that a potential recruitment mission to the UAE was being considered and that planning was underway by officials within the department of Immigration and Multiculturalism," Yaseen said in a statement Sunday. "I have reviewed the mission purpose and at this time have decided not to pursue it further." An itinerary for the three-day trip says government resources were to be used to facilitate interviews with workers and Alberta-based employers who signed up. Employers were to pay their travel costs. Alberta isn't unique in organizing such recruiting trips. It's a practice employed by provinces including New Brunswick, Manitoba and Quebec to try and address labour shortages in key sectors. Quebec announced last month that it was temporarily halting all international recruitment trips until at least next summer, as the government works to re-evaluate its immigration strategy and clear out the backlog of applicants to its economic migrant program. United Arab Emirates was also the destination for a 2022 recruitment trip for Prince Edward Island government staff and trucking and health care industry representatives. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said increased immigration and population growth is partly responsible for issues plaguing the province, such as housing shortages and health-care capacity strains. Yaseen said Alberta has experienced "unsustainable levels of immigration" as a result of federal policy but didn't say whether the United Arab Emirates trip was cancelled over those concerns. Between July 2023 and July of this year, Alberta's population grew by 4.4 per cent, or about 204,000 people. A government population report from September says about 60,000 of those new Albertans were immigrants, while 91,000 were temporary foreign workers, international students, refugees and asylum seekers. "It is our belief that Ottawa’s priority should be on reducing the number of temporary foreign workers, international students and asylum seekers — not on reducing provincially selected economic migrants," Yaseen said. In October, the federal government reduced immigration targets for the next three years by about 20 per cent, with much of the reduction to future permanent resident admissions. Much of the decrease is to provincial nominee programs like the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program. The provincial program limit was set at 120,000 per year for all provinces combined in 2025 and 2026 prior to the target reduction, which dropped the total to 55,000 in each of the next three years. Yaseen's press secretary Neil Singh did not respond to multiple inquiries over the past week about the Alberta program and how many international recruiting trips the government has organized over the last few years. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2024. Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Alberta News Métis National Council elects new president after months of internal turmoil Dec 9, 2024 1:56 PM QB Tre Ford approaches upcoming CFL season armed with Elks' vote of confidence Dec 9, 2024 1:28 PM Canadian Western Bank says legal claim is the reason it delayed earnings release Dec 9, 2024 8:31 AM

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CONWAY, Ark. (AP) — Elias Cato scored 23 points as Central Arkansas beat UNC Asheville 92-83 in double overtime on Sunday. Jordan Morris made two free throws with one second left for UNC Asheville (2-3) to force overtime tied at 71. Fletcher Abee's 3-pointer with 33 seconds left in the first overtime tied the game at 79 and led to the second extra period.JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced its stake in iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF ( NYSEARCA:EPP – Free Report ) by 6.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,770,424 shares of the company’s stock after selling 609,113 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.20% of iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF worth $428,348,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EPP. Resolute Advisors LLC grew its holdings in iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF by 1.6% during the second quarter. Resolute Advisors LLC now owns 20,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $874,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the period. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new position in shares of iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,790,000. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 98,323 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,228,000 after purchasing an additional 5,844 shares in the last quarter. 74.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF Stock Performance Shares of NYSEARCA:EPP opened at $44.13 on Friday. iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF has a 1-year low of $40.22 and a 1-year high of $49.29. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $46.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.46. iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF Profile iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ET (the Fund), formerly iShares MSCI Pacific ex-Japan Index Fund, is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Fund seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded securities in the aggregate in the Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore markets, as measured by the MSCI Pacific ex-Japan Index (the Index). Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding EPP? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF ( NYSEARCA:EPP – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .How to make healthy Oats Palak Chilla for a kid's tiffin 10 best Fried Chicken dishes from around the world 10 ways to use turmeric in winters ​10 animals not allowed as pets in India​ 10 types of Dosa and how they are made Animals and their favourite foods 9 nuts to eat daily for hair growth in winters How to make South Indian Podi Dosa at home From tigers to cheetahs: India’s big cats and where to find them Weekend Special: How to make Multigrain Thaalipeeth

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Chinese robot masters massage techniques, pinches, vibrates with human-like handsWhen baseball historian Bill Humber first heard about the golden at-bat idea that Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred floated on a recent podcast, he was a little taken aback. "I kind of laughed, actually," Humber said Wednesday. "I thought it was one of the stupidest ideas I'd ever heard." MLB has seen its share of change of late, but the thought of a team using one at-bat each game to send any hitter it wants to the plate — even if it's not their turn in the batting order — was quite a curveball. "This can’t be real," former Blue Jays pitcher and seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens posted on social media. Wild-card playoff tinkering, pitch clocks, shift rules and automatic runners are some of the more significant changes to the game in recent years. All had varying levels of detractors and the golden at-bat discussion is no different. Critics are eyeing it like a meatball thrown across the middle of the plate. "It doesn't really fit within the logic of the game in my mind," said Humber, a Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer. "I look upon it quite askance to be honest with you. I don't see the point of it in a way. "I mean to some extent, the magic of baseball is those unheralded batters who arrive at a situation that one wouldn't have thought that they would ever have been in, and allowing them to bat in place." Humber cited a number of grand baseball moments that might not have happened if a golden at-bat rule were in effect. "One can imagine when Bobby Thomson hit his famous home run against the (Brooklyn) Dodgers in 1951, Willie Mays was on deck," he said of the 'Shot Heard 'Round the World' that gave the New York Giants the National League pennant. "What if they had a golden at-bat and put Mays at bat, maybe he would have struck out or popped up or hit into a double-play or who knows what. There's lots of situations like that." What about the two famous World Series-winning walkoffs? Would the skippers have used a golden at-bat to get their best pure hitter to the plate? Bill Mazeroski went deep to give Pittsburgh the Fall Classic in 1960 and Joe Carter's walkoff blast in 1993 gave the Blue Jays their second straight World Series title. Mazeroski's power numbers were middling while Carter, who led the Blue Jays in homers and RBIs that year, had a mediocre batting average. "I think the magic of the game are those moments that are unpredictable and yet kind of create some of the joy of the game in our memories," Humber said. " I think this kind of runs afoul of that tradition. "I'm not a fan, let me say that. But that's not to say it won't happen." Manfred first mentioned the golden at-bat idea publicly in an interview with John Ourand on Puck's "The Varsity" podcast. The commissioner said the subject came up at a recent owners' meeting. Retired sportswriter Dave Perkins, who covered the Blue Jays for years over his long career at the Toronto Star, said use of a golden at-bat would be "a travesty." "On the surface I say it's absolutely stupid and ridiculous," he said. "But a lot of other things I thought were stupid and ridiculous worked their way into the games and they're even OK with me now." The subject of potential rule changes like the golden at-bat came up when Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins met with the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America earlier this week. "It's interesting to me because we went through so much change over the last couple of years," he said. "Getting to that change was a scratch and a claw and a climb. And then once the change happened, everyone — for the most part — thought, 'OK, that went OK and it seems like there's a better product on the field.' "So now the dialogue around change is with a much more open mind whether it be players, staff, the exchanges, the ideas, even if they seem very difficult to wrap your head around. They're not getting stiff-armed as much as they were the first go-round." Scott Crawford, operations director of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, said he prefers a traditional setup where any player can be a hero at any time. "I like the team aspect of the game where you get your shot," he said. "You can be a No. 8 hitter and you can come up with a big hit and win a World Series and (a superstar like Shohei) Ohtani can strike out." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024. Follow @GregoryStrongCP on X. Gregory Strong, The Canadian PressNone