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Read about why to choose Ottawa for Immigration
The capital city of Canada, Ottawa, located in eastern Ontario, just across the Ottawa river, is the fourth largest city of Canada. Being a capital city is not the only reason of attracting worldwide immigrants. The city is picturesque and safe cosmopolitan, still preserving the feel of a small town and is eminently affordable. The city was founded in 1855 and has evolved as a political and technological centre of Canada. It has come up as one of the most desired locations to immigrate to in Canada
Unlike many of Ontario's cities, Ottawa does not lie on the banks of Lake Ontario. Due to this, higher summer temperatures are observed in Ottawa and there is increased harshness of the winters. Winters in Ottawa are severe. Snow depths of greater than 1 cm are seen on about 120 days each year. Ottawa, like other cities in Ontario, enjoys a sunny climate. Summers usually have a generous number of warm or hot sunny days. However, winters are rather less sunny.
Modern Ottawa is made up of eleven historic townships, ten of which are from Carleton County and one from Russell. There are a number of rural communities that lie beyond the greenbelt but are administratively part of the Ottawa municipality. The Ottawa skyline has remained conservative in skyscraper height throughout the years due to skyscraper height restrictions.
Ottawa is much more of a walking city than may be anticipated. Car-dependency here is the lowest among major centers, and the transit use is among the highest. Ottawa is the only Canadian city without a subway where more than one-fifth of travelers use transit to go to work. Within the city, the highest rates of transit usage are in far flung localities served by rapid transit (Orleans, Alta Vista, Bay shore) and in areas with frequent transit service (Civic Hospital, Vanier, Hinton burg, Manor Park). Even though the city experiences cold weather, Ottawa leads the nation's large cities in bicycle commuting, but the percentages are not very high: 2% of employed people in Ottawa cycle to work. At the same time, Ottawa has the lowest percentage of people driving to work, that is, only 62.7% of people driving to work. This is more than 10% below the national average of 73.8%.
Ottawa is connected to the rest of the world through a number of airlines that fly into the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, as well as two main regional airports Gatineau-Ottawa Executive Airport, and Ottawa/Carp Airport. The city also has great inter-city passenger rail service – ‘Via Rail’, which operates through Ottawa Train Station, and inter-city bus service operating out of the Ottawa Bus Central Station.
Ottawa is the fourth largest city in Canada, with a total population of 774,072. Since the last Census in 1996, Ottawa has showed 7% population increase. Ottawa-Hull is the fourth largest Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in Canada. Population of the Greenbelt increased by 15,650 from 1996 to 2001 – this is a 90% increase over the previous five-year period's growth of 8,200. "Urban Centers" refer to the growth nodes located outside the Greenbelt. They are: Kanata, Stittsville, South Nepean (Barr haven), South Gloucester (Riverside South), and Orleans. Lei trim is also included here. In the Urban Centers, population increased by 33,700 between 1996 and 2001. The rural area covers 90% of land in Ottawa. The rural share of population growth was at its lowest level in the last 30 years, falling to 7% of total City of Ottawa population increase.
Both English and French are the official languages of Ottawa. 37% of the population speaks both languages, and thus it is the largest city in Canada with both English and French as co-official languages. More than half of the population uses English as their mother tongue, 14.9% use French and 21.6% use other languages other than English and French as their mother tongue.
Ottawa is a single-tier municipality, meaning it is in itself a census division and has no county or regional municipality government above it. Ottawa is governed by the 24-member Ottawa City Council consisting of 23 councilors each representing one ward and the mayor, currently Jim Watson, elected in a citywide vote. Ottawa is politically diverse in local politics. Most of the city has traditionally supported the Liberal Party. Perhaps the safest areas for the Liberals are the ones dominated by Francophone, especially in Vanier and central Gloucester. Central Ottawa is usually more left-leaning, and the New Democratic Party can win ridings there as government unions and activist groups are fairly strong.
Ottawa is known as one of the most educated cities in Canada, with over half the population having graduated from College and/or university. Ottawa has the highest per capita concentration of engineers, scientists, and residents with PhDs in Canada. The city has two main public universities Carleton University and University of Ottawa, and two main public colleges Algonquin College and La Cite collegial.
Immigrants come to Ottawa-Gatineau primarily for work-related reasons, and also to study. Economic immigrants are those whose specific reason for immigrating is career-related. Job market has traditionally been relatively stable, and this is not limited to the Canadian-born population. Immigrants who settled in Ottawa-Gatineau between 1991 and 1999 had a higher rate of full-time employment than any other major city except Toronto.
Business, finance, administration, and sales and service occupations rank high among types of occupations. The City of Ottawa is the second largest employer with over 15,000 employees. Ottawa is a host to 130 embassies at present.
There are three main daily local newspapers printed in Ottawa: two English newspapers and one French newspaper. A wide range of Canadian broadcast networks and systems are available in both English and French. CJOH, CTV 2, CHOT and TVA are amongst many channels. There are a wide range of radio stations that broadcast in both English and French.
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