OTTAWA, June 8 /CNW Telbec/ - More than 2.8 million Canadians living and working overseas will have access to a new coalition offering online social networking, specialized education, resource referrals and governmental advocacy support. Called ExpatCanada, the new organization will help expats and their families live and work better, and improve the overseas performances of Canadian companies and their relocated employees and contractors.
Founded by a group of current and former expats, ExpatCanada is a not-for-profit organization working in partnership with the Canadian Expat Association (CEA). The CEA and its membership groups around the world will be the main beneficiaries of ExpatCanada's services and resources.
Canadian expats equal eight per cent of Canada's total population, one of the highest in the world.
"Canadian expats are the frontline foreign ambassadors for Canada," said Peter Allard, founding ExpatCanada President. "There is a huge demand for offshore networking and education for expats. These resources are needed to prepare and support the global workforces of Canadian companies. They will help Canadian companies secure competitive cultural and economic advantage, and assist individuals and their accompanying families to live and work more effectively, improving their lives and the lives of their overseas hosts."
Allan Nichols, CEA President and an ExpatCanada founding member, emphasized "Canadian expats metaphorically constitute a Canadian province, and that Province is now the fifth largest, ranking just after Alberta by population and workforce. Their productivity has not been measured. With robust social networking and other resources Canadians spread around the globe can develop their unique potential as citizen-diplomats and citizen-journalists, over and above their day-to-day corporate roles."
"Canada's expats also implement Canadian-funded humanitarian, social and environmental missions - much of it philanthropic. We believe expats can bring far more benefits to their host countries than they do now, and provide valuable insights on what is actually occurring overseas and how it affects Canadians," added Allard.
"Expats cannot take for granted even the smallest details, such as acceptable social and professional mannerisms, where to buy food, how to obtain medical care, or how to manage personal security. Nor can they overlook deep cultural differences naturally encountered every day. And Canadian companies with overseas operations need to have a healthy, stable, well-prepared workforce functioning abroad at the top of their game. ExpatCanada will provide personnel assessment tools, collaborative e-learning, private counseling and mentoring programs, all of which will greatly improve individual and corporate performance."
ExpatCanada will provide formal and informal online networks enabling expats to talk more amongst themselves and collaborate better, not only professionally, but socially as well. "It's about Canada realizing the results of getting together millions of Canadian expats located strategically around the world, each enriching and learning more from their individual and shared foreign experiences", said Allard. "And it's about making them even more Canadian."
Founding ExpatCanada members also include returned Canadian expats Rod Duncan, a Canadian Expat Association Vice-President and Senior Intercultural Training and Mentoring Consultant, and International Business Advisor Steven Fry.
For further information: Rod Duncan, Director, Email: [email protected], www.expatcanada.org, ExpatCanada, One Yonge St., Suite 1801, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5E 1W7, Telephone: (416) 214-7742
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