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economist sunsuntribune business saturday aug 28 2004 15 job plan focuses on new canadian residents by roy green staff writer a recent immigrant to canada deepanne bopitiya found it diffi cult to land a job despite her mas ters degree in environmental sci ence and years of experience with projects in her native sri lanka its an example of just one of many problems facing newcomers here and one of the reasons york region is launching an ethno-cul- tural inclusivityplan finding a job that fits my quali fications is my biggest challenge ms bopitiya said employers are hesitant to hire unless you have some canadian work experience fortunately ms bopitiya is get ting that experience through an internship program called career bridge in fact she is interning in the regions human services area help ing implement a new project called the road to inclusivity an action plan for york region because about 40 per cent of the regions 850000 residents are for eign born its important to protect cultural roots and heritage but not at the expense of duplicating serv ices in different communities coalition partners police school boards hospitals social service agencies municipalities religious organizations and public health face the challenge of mak ing sure mainstream services are inclusive to all individuals regard less of origin said susan taylor director of the regions human serv ices planning coalition the plan will focus on three themes improving communica tion promoting ethnocultural rep resentation and creating ethnocul tural awareness ms taylor said the first stage is gathering input via a newly designed survey from human services providers cultural communities and residents public school board director bill hogarth who is also cochairper son of the coalition said there has been a tremendous change in the ethnic demographics of the region the public board has already established a reception centre in richmond hill a draft action plan developed from input from the survey is expected to be released in novem ber ms taylor said ibm hires 600 workers this year by patrick mangion staff writer hundreds of recent graduates and seasoned industry profes sionals are expected to join ibms markham software lab by the end of this year ibm canada ltd has hired 600 workers already this year with plans to bring on a total of 1200 new employees across canada by january the announcement repre sents a 50percent increase in ibm canada wrings from last year about 65 per cent of the wr ings will be in the toronto area 25 per cent in western canada and 5 per cent each in montreal and ottawa while declining to place a number on how many workers will be hired at the companys markham headquarters spokesperson mike quinn said the job openings will bring the total number of ibm employees in canada to more than 20000 by 2005 did we sign a mega deal no i would point to the evolution of ondemand business and on- demand computing and our efforts to meet the growing needs of our customers mr quinn said job openings at the hightech nology giant include finance ana lysts software sales software development systems integra tion specialists and technical sup port the openings coincide with the 200 million us invested globally at ibm sites for skills and development training and the majority of a 322million cana dian investment earmarked for research and development at the markham software lab along with professional level jobs such as management con sultants and project managers ibm anticipates onethird of the wrings will come from canadian university graduates in high- technology fields such as com puter science and engineering overall ibm plans to hire 19000 people tws year bringing its glob al workforce to about 330000 sup it gigf s jisf fas set sa ijillj now theres more m hexrismart fniestern bonnie stern is back with more heartsmart recipes theyre nutritious and delicious available at your local heart and stroke foundation office mow open w m m heart and 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