Monthly Archives: December 2015

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The 1st Annual Halifax Chinese Business Showcase首届哈法华人商业展

December 22, 2015 2:36 pm ,

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By KATIE INGRAM
翻译:杨沁

Showing newcomers therearea variety of business opportunitiesin Nova Scotia was the goal behind a recent Chinese business and networking event in Halifax.

The Halifax Chinese Business Showcase was held at the Marriott Harbourfront Hotel on September 13. The event brought together 16 different Chinese businesses and featured a number of guest speakers and workshops designed to showcase how the Chinese business community in Nova Scotia has grown.

Event presenter Ken Chen of Quest Realty sayswhen he came to Nova Scotia in 2001 for school, he found many of his colleagues ended up leaving the province for work.

“I remember a lot of immigrants coming here and in the first couple months they liked living here, but sooner or later they couldn’t find any business opportunities,” said Chen. “So they went to places like Vancouver or Toronto.”

However, through the work of Chen and other entrepreneurs who stayed in the province, the Chinese business community is now more varied.

“Before you’d see a Chinese restaurant, another Chinese restaurant and another Chinese restaurant,” said Chen.“Here [at the showcase] we have a car dealership, afilm company, a realestate company and immigration consultant.” Read More →

Posted in: Business 商务, Feature Stories 特别报道

The ART OF CRAFTING AT Flowers of Spring春天工作室:你在哈法所未见过的手工花卉艺术

December 21, 2015 11:46 pm ,

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By KATIE INGRAM
翻译：杨沁

For Yidan Li flowers aren’t just nice to look at; there’s also a sense of beauty and craftsmanship in being able to make flowers by simply using nylon, thread and wire.

Li is the co-owner of Flowers of Spring with her husband Russ Gaudet, a boutique that specializes in nylon or ‘Tori’ flowers and Real-Touch flowers. Li, who first immigrated to Canada in 2005 and has lived in the country on a permanent basis since 2008, didn’t think of opening a business until a recent trip to China. While there she ordered supplies to make nylon flowers, but found herself left with 25 boxes of material she didn’t know what to do with.

“I looked at my husband and said ‘what are we going to do’ so we thought maybe we could do a little business,” says Li, who also found since making nylon flowers wasn’t common Nova Scotia, it was time to introduce them to the province.

Gaudet finds that nylon flowers fit in with other Nova Scotia-based craft industries because of how much detail and attention is given to each flower.

“Yidan sees the skill that is involved and the pride of workmanship in everything from crystal to pewter to quilts and homemade sailboats and canoes,” says Gaudet. “She gives each and every piece the same kind of meticulous detail and crafts her product with love and pride.” Read More →

Posted in: Business 商务, Cover Story 封面故事, Culture & Art 文化艺术, Feature Stories 特别报道, Immigrant 移民, Life 休闲

New immigration stream set to open for international graduates in 2016省提移民新政策将于2016年初对国际毕业生开放

December 21, 2015 10:02 pm ,

By Chris Muise
翻译：杨沁

Nova Scotia is home to a great deal of international students, who come from far and wide to study at any one of our numerous post-secondary institutions. But when those talented international students graduate, under the current Provincial Nominee Program, many of those who were not able to find employment in their fields had to go elsewhere. Given the current job market here in the province, that meant that we were sending a lot of talented, entrepreneurial graduates away each year.

“An international graduate had to be employed related to their field…before they could apply for permanent residency,” says Sherry Redden, manager of Business and Workforce Integration at ISANS. “If they have to have a job before they can apply for permanent residency, they have to go where that job is. That often took them outside the province.”

Beginning next year, international students who graduate from a Nova Scotian university or college will have a brand-new route to permanent residency – one that gives them a chance to create new work here at home.

Two new immigration stream pilot programs will be launched on January 1, both designed to spur economic growth in the province – the Entrepreneur Stream, and the International Graduate Entrepreneur Stream – the latter of which is poised to take advantage of the thousands of international students Nova Scotia attracts every year.

“We have 10 universities, and we have about 7,000 international students each year that come to the province,” says Rachel Henderson, the director of Strategic Policy & External Relations at the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration. “As a province, we’re very successful in attracting these graduates, and what we hear from both the graduates and from the universities is that a number of these students want to stay.”

Some of these students manage to find work in their fields here at home, but many aren’t so lucky. Those students might have to take the knowledge and skills they learned here elsewhere in order to become a permanent resident of Canada.

“If they have to have a job before they can apply for permanent residency, they have to go where that job is,” says Redden. “That often took them outside the province.” Read More →

Posted in: Feature Stories 特别报道, Immigrant 移民, University 大学