A woman in a library in Costa Rica clicks a computer mouse and almost instantly sees the average price for a home in Niagara, what it takes to get a driver's licence here, what education opportunities there are at Brock University and Niagara College, and the fact that, contrary to being a frozen wasteland, Niagara routinely warms up to well over 27 C in the summer months.

After two years of work, Niagara's regional government launched the new Niagara immigrant portal Nov. 13. It's a website officials say will be the lens through which the rest of the world will be able to learn about all things Niagara.

More than that, they hope the portal -- www.niagaraimmigration.ca -- will be a valuable tool to convince many newcomers to come here to live.

That's vital, said Pelham regional councillor Brian Baty, because it's expected Niagara will have a critical shortage of skilled workers within the next decade. Put simply, Niagarans and Canadians as whole aren't having enough babies to fill all the jobs that need filling, and Niagara is in fierce competition with other cities and regions in Ontario and Canada to lure immigrants.

"Many of the newcomers arriving in Niagara are very articulate, highly skilled and well-educated," Baty said at the launch of the portal at a ceremony at regional headquarters, where people dined on international dishes including spinach pie from Lebanon, hummus from Syria, baba ghanoosh from Armenia and stuffed grape leaves from Greece.

Niagara Falls riding MPP Kim Craitor said people started to clue into the fact about a decade ago that immigration will be key to Ontario's economy in the years to come. That's about the time he was director of the Niagara Falls Employment Help Centre, and he saw first-hand the impact that fragmented services for immigrants had on newcomers struggling to fit into a strange new culture.

"We realized they were falling through the cracks," said Craitor. "We started to realize how valuable these people are."

The region worked with numerous community agencies, such as the St. Catharines Folks Arts Council, the Welland Heritage Council, The Fort Erie Multicultural Centre, the Niagara Immigrant Employment Council and others to pull together services and information for newcomers so they can learn all about Niagara before they ever step foot in Canada. The portal was created with $235,000 from the province, which is encouraging other cities and regions in Ontario to create similar portals to attract more immigrants.

The Niagara portal contains information and numerous links on topics as diverse as the peninsula's cost of living, churches, mosques and synagogues, recreation and entertainment activities, and how to apply for an Ontario Health Card or bank account.

Brian Hutchings, commissioner of corporate services for the region, said costs to keep the portal updated will be minimal because existing staff at the region will administer it.