Citizenship and Immigration committee  One fairly common phenomenon among new immigrants is that they travel back to their original country once or twice a year at least, because they need to visit their parents. So they take a lot of Canadian dollars outside Canada. I think that's another phenomenon that has some economic implications, on top of Amy's point that the parents and grandparents play a very important role in helping their family get together.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Of course we don't have any empirical data; we haven't done any research on it. But from our observations, many of the principal applicants want to sponsor their parents mostly just so that they can come to visit them, stay with them for a while, and take care of the children. My gut feeling is that at least one third or half of the parents do not have very strong intentions to stay permanently.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can share with you my personal experience. My mother came 15 years ago; I sponsored her to come. Then after a couple of years she returned, back to Hong Kong. She stayed there in Hong Kong and doesn't want to come back. Both of my parents-in-law came, again under sponsorship, 12 or 13 years ago just to visit and know what was happening here and what the lifestyle was, and they returned.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's what I had in my first presentation. I appreciate the existing government's consultation process. It has been a very good exercise for a community to participate in, not only the level of immigration but also the composition, different classes among newcomers. I totally agree that the level of immigration depends on the capacity, as I think some of the members mentioned.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. I think it's always our position that parents and grandparents have a very significant economic role to play to support the family. That's what I mentioned in my presentation. Of course, you know, admitting parents and grandparents, not just focusing on economic variables....

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to see that tried out, at least to solve the immediate backlogs and also to help a lot of families who are in need of a caretaker at home.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I also support that the number of incoming immigrants has to match the capacity of the country. One percent is a good reference. When we look at the distribution of new immigrants, ten years ago 90% of new immigrants settled in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, but the recent figure shows that it's down to 70%.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For over a hundred years Canada has been admitting parents and grandparents for our older citizens, for our older generation, and they contribute to our national development. Again, I agree, I wonder if this is another type of head tax when we implement these amounts at this moment in time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the standing committee. I am Thomas Tam, from SUCCESS, which is a multicultural organization that serves new immigrants in British Columbia. We serve over 180,000 people through over 20 offices in greater Vancouver and Fort St. John--that's in northern B.C.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It means “successful”.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, the funding is under ISAP, the immigration settlement and adaptation program. This framework is agreed on by CIC and the B.C. government, in consultation with the service providers. At this moment, we have three streams of service. Stream one is a general information and orientation service for newcomers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry, can you repeat the last part of the question?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, we were already a large partnership structure in our community. We were in partnership with other service providers as well as various government departments and NGOs. And we also use a lot of volunteers. We always tell the B.C. government that they give us $1 and we produce $3 or $4 in value of service by leveraging community participation, volunteer participation, and working with other organizations.