Top 10 Elementary Schools in Mississauga, Ontario

After immigrating to Canada you must be thinking on what school would be good for your child. This is a very valid point even before you think of renting or buying a dwelling. Your selection of school will determine your living place.

Unfortunately most of the families don't have the right knowledge as to where to find the school rating.  There's a resource online called Fraser Institute Report card which can be accessed by clicking here. What this organization does is provide information on schools based on scoring out  of 10 and uses EQAO test results for Primary and Secondary grades. Though not exhaustive, this report card provides a fair estimate of the school ranking in the area you are planning to settle down in. After all one of criteria of your move to Canada could be best education for your child so that they become better individuals and perform to perfection in their lives.

I recently found this resource online and thought of sharing. Many of you might be aware of its existence but anyways our joint endeavour is to spread knowledge of resource that can transform lives of our young minds.

Ten top elementary schools in Mississauga
School Board: Peel District School Board

Order	School  Name/Address	Rating 2010-11 Out of 2695	Fraser Institute Rating Out of 10	Average home prices Freehold: Semi-Det, Detached,Att/Row/Town
1	Kenollie Public School 1376 Glenwood Dr,  Mississauga, ON L5G2X1 Phone Number: 905-278-8991	44	9.4	$1.2M (Lowest: $777,000)
2	Plum Tree Park Public School 6855 Tenth Line W, Mississauga, ON L5N5R2 Phone Number: 905-824-0155	155	8.5	$504,000 (Lowest: $388,000)
3	Floradale Public School 210 Paisley Blvd W, Mississauga, ON L5B2A4 Phone Number: 905-275-1090	281	8.1	$561,000 (Lowest: $350,000)
4	Sheridan Park Public School 2280 Perran Dr, Mississauga, ON L5K1M1 Phone Number: 905-822-2401	313	8.0	$660,000 (lowest: $465,000)
5	Forest Avenue Public School 20 Forest Ave, Mississauga, ON L5G1K7 Phone Number: 905-278-2472	349	7.9	$700,000 (Lowest: $330,000)
6	Tecumseh Public School 1480 Chriseden Dr, Mississauga, ON L5H1V4 Phone Number: 905-278-5594	429	7.7	$1.1M (Lowest: $750,000)
7	Mineola Public School 145 Windy Oaks Dr, Mississauga, ON L5G1Z4 Phone Number: 905-278-3144	559	7.4	$630,000 (Lowest: $430,000)
8	Ellengale Public School 3480 Ellengale Dr, Mississauga, ON L5C1Z7 Phone Number: 905-279-1555	559	7.4	$400,000 (Lowest: $330,000)
9	Sawmill Valley Public School 3625 Sawmill Valley Dr, Mississauga, ON L5L2Z5 Phone Number: 905-820-2500	710	7.1	$900,000 (Lowest: $550,000)
10	Settler's Green Public School 5800 Montevideo Rd, Mississauga, ON L5N2S1 Phone Number: 905-826-4947	710	7.1	$400,000 (Lowest: $280,000)



 Disclaimer: Information believed to be correct but no warranty is implied. This is extracted from Fraser Report Cards and MLS(R) data.

Should you want more information on these areas of Mississauga, please write your comment in response to this post. I will try to provide the best answers for that.

Paul Cheema

Social Media Fraud- Must read this

With a 13% increase in identity fraud between 2010 and 2011, a study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research showed that consumers may be putting themselves at a higher risk for identity theft as a result of their increasingly intimate social media behaviors. Sixty-eight percent of people with public social media profiles on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter shared their birthday information with 45% of them getting into specifics about the exact month, day, and year. Sixty-three percent shared where exactly they attended high school. Eighteen percent shared their phone number and 12% shared their pet’s name. Not only are all of these details typically asked when verifying an identity, but people also frequently use them in passwords. The statistics are clear — people are giving away far too much personal information on social networking sites, allowing for fraudsters to easily steal their identities.

Source: Identity Theft 911 blog (http://s.tt/1bcsI)

Happy Canada Day

Identity theft

9 Alarming Statistics About Identity Theft (via Identity Theft 911 blog)

Identity theft is a serious problem worldwide. This crime flourishes when thieves are given access to your personal information, allowing them to commit crimes under your name or spend your money unbeknownst to you. You may be under the impression that identity theft could never happen to you. You…

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Protecting your privacy

Guard your information

Information on you is very important for many things in live like buying a home, creating a good credit profile, hunting for jobs etc. There are people in this world who find an adventure in stealing such an information. This probably satisfies the detective in them or the need to know for ulterior motives. The information may be stole for many reason: Fun sake, Making prank calls, or any other ulterior motives. As per the data published by Canadian Anti-fraud centre and mass marketing fraud (ref.below) the loss in September 2011 was close to $3.275 Millions

Most of the people are unaware on how to make sure their privacy is kept under guard. The result; some unscurpulous elements take advantage of this ignorance. We are in an era of internet marketing and commerce, where we have to leave our information for the vendor or service provider to know that he is interacting with a live human being and not with a robotic program. When you are submitting information online, be careful to read the privacy regulations of the information seeking page and make sure you are not submitting your data to a spam site or a phising website. The spam site floods your mail inbox with all those silly messages from pharmacies, surveys, product informations, and much more while the phising websites are designed to steal your personal information to be used either for hacking your computer system, or operate your accounts for their own ulterior motives. This doesn't mean that you stay scared and obstruct your online business.  Use of a reputed internet monitoring program and anti-virus is a solution to such spam and phising websites.  I have been using a program that effectively removes all such online threats and I am enjoying all net commerce and share information online.

Apart from online privacy protection here are a few tips to keep your self safe:

Remove and damage sticker
with your information on it

1. Don't throw out any letter or envelope with your addess on it. Try shredding all such matter.
2. Don't discard used prescription containers without removing your information on the stickers. Remember, these stickers carry your patient ID/your date of birth and medication. These can be used for getting some fake cards/debits cards or unimaginable motives.
3. When you receive a call from an agency you never heard of before, be cautious. Don't disclose your vital information over the phone. If they say that they are calling from reputed companies like Rogers, Bell, Telus, or any other service provider you have an account with, ask for their associate number and telephone number. It is better to call them back so that you are sure you are speaking with a bonafide person or customer service representative.
4. Password protect your cellphone. A friend of mine suggested me that I change the contact for my home to something different so that if it goes in some bad hands they can't trace your home. some people use like Ghar or base or ground zero.  It could be any thing unidentifiable.  Also it is not wise to have your family members appear as contact with their relations like, Spouse, or better half, or my love etc. Please keep it indescript.
5. Faxing your credit card information to a service provider is better than emailing it or saying it over the phone.
6. Always check for encryption or make sure the server is secured when you divulge your information. The encryption and securd server scramble your information which is not readable in transit.

The list is endless and not exclusive in any sense.

Example telephonic spamming 

Someone calls you and pretends to be calling from a credit card company saying that a suspicious activity has taken place on your card. You are given all information and you have only to say yes or no to that question. This is how the convo goes on:

Caller: Hello sir, am I speaking with Mr. human being?
You: Yes
Caller: Do you remember having shopped within last 2 hours?
You: yes/no
Caller: <if yes> Did you shop for over $800? <if no> We suspect a fraudulent transaction has taken place sir.
You: Yes/no
Caller: To make sure you are not charged for this expense and that we do proper investigation let me verify a few things with you sir. Sir, my name is _________________ and my associate number is 123456 (whatever). Should you need to call me again or if the call drops you can call me at 123-456-7890. Your call will be recorded for quality purpose (to make it look authentic). Are you okay to go ahead now?
You: Yes, yes (eager to get out of this issue)
Caller: Is your name Mr. human being?
You:Yes
Caller: Do you have a visa with CIBC?
You: yes
Caller: Are the last four digits 9999? (Can be from stolen card statement from your mailbox)
You: yes
Caller: Expiry date: 01/13?
You: No it is 01/14
Caller: Thanks. That was intentional sir. Now to maker sure you have the card in your possession, can you read out the last three digits on the other side beside the magnetic strip?
You:123
Caller: Thank you sir. Your credentials have been verified and we will proceed with our investigation. You will soon hear from us. Good bye.

And that's when you see something purchased on your card for $900. As far as I know, no investigation is launched if the theft is less than $1,000 (sick)!


Hope this helps you understand how your innocence or ignorance could be taken advantage of. Therefore the keyword is: BEWARE! BEWARE! & BEWARE!

Important links:

1. Tougher Law targetting Identity Thefts
2. RCMP- Identity theft
3. Safely buy and sell homes
4. Statistics of Mass Marketing Frauds and Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

For more information or discussion you can always call me or email me.

Thanks for your time.

Housing affordability dips slightly in the first quarter of 2012

It became a little tougher, budget-wise, for many Canadians to carry the costs of owning a home in the first quarter of 2012, according to the Housing Trends and Affordability Report from RBC Economics. This dip in affordability was an effect of vigorous housing demand in the early stages of 2012, rather than the cause of any kind of slowdown in the market and was largely taken in stride by homebuyers.

Mild winter weather in most of Canada and time-limited mortgage rate ‘sales’ by financial institutions likely motivated homebuyers. Because the mortgage sales took place during only a few weeks, however, average mortgage rates during the entire first quarter fell just slightly, thereby providing only a small direct benefit to affordability for the second straight quarter.

All housing types saw a small erosion in affordability
At the national level, housing affordability eroded modestly for all three categories that we track. The RBC® Housing Affordability Measures rose by 0.8 percentage points to 43.1% for detached bungalows, by 0.5 percentage points to 48.7% for two-storey homes, and by 0.3 percentage points to 28.8% for condominium apartments (an increase represents a deterioration in affordability). The measures stand slightly above historical averages in all cases, indicating that there is only modest affordability stress being exerted on Canadian homebuyers at the moment.

Rising interest rates will pose further affordability challenges
Looking ahead, further challenges on the housing affordability front in Canada are expected once the Bank of Canada begins returning interest rates to more “normal” levels in the fourth quarter of this year, assuming that the European situation does not become more problematic.
RBC mortgage specialists understand the challenge of balancing lifestyle needs and housing affordability. Whatever your client’s specific circumstances or concerns, I provide tailored advice on all aspects of financing a home purchase and will give your clients the confidence to take the next step in their goal of home ownership.

Bank of Canada - Overnight rate remains unchanged

Today was a scheduled BoC "Rate Review Day." The news is, BoC left the Key Lending Rate flat. This is in stark contrast to 6 weeks ago - where the rhetoric was "rates are going up, and soon."
But since then, the ongoing economic turmoil in Europe and weaker than expected U.S. employment numbers, have added up to renewed Global uncertainty. So what began as a quiet whisper, just days ago, is now a growing opinion that the BoC may even trim the Key Rate - down.
The other side of the coin - low mortgage rates continue to be a plus for homeowners, homebuyers, and sellers too. And according to reports from the Big Five and BoC - Consumer debt is beginning to correct too.
On another note, OSFI is about to announce a major set of guidelines for Federally Regulated Lenders that will affect mortgage lending and reach renewals too. Some of the ideas they have floated in public have raised eyebrows - more to come as the facts become known.
The next scheduled date for announcing the overnight rate target is 17 July 2012. A full update of the Bank’s outlook for the economy and inflation, including risks to the projection, will be published in the MPR on 18 July 2012.