Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is to stop the discrimination between immigration levels, between temporary residents and refugee claimants versus permanent residents, because with our funding we are allowed to serve only permanent residents, and that does not help us along the entire spectrum.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. They should do this, 100%. This is one of our biggest recommendations. We fully support this, with the caveat that people cannot be coming in as temporary residents without the opportunity to very quickly transition into permanent residents once they are here. Without that, currently, IRCC will not provide us the funding to support people who are not permanent residents.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can add to that. I think before we even get to that piece, it's about what the intent is. One piece that is consistently baffling to many of us is that if we know we don't have enough people to thrive as Canadians, then what's the reason that we are putting so many barriers on people who actually want to live here and work here and create lives here?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. Absolutely. I'm in agreement with that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you so much for speaking to that, because I think that is one of the problems. Often in polite society we will talk about unconscious bias. We will talk about cultural competency. We will say all of these kinds of words that we make sound very nice and very flowery but really what we are experiencing and what we have seen and what the Polaris report has stated and what we have heard in incidental conversations with IRCC staff and other colleagues is that there is real racism.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can begin. Just very quickly, in terms of recurring barriers, one of the things we saw, of course, recurring through COVID, was really around a disconnect among the multiple levels of government. Whenever we have anything coming from IRCC, because of the way our system is built in terms of the federation, there needs to be a really big connection with the provincial governments as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you so much. I really appreciate being here today from the traditional land of Treaty No. 7 in Calgary, Alberta, whose Blackfoot name is Mohkinstsis. I am the president and chief executive officer at the Centre for Newcomers. I have five points that I want to bring up in relation to racism, discrimination and systemic barriers in terms of IRCC.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To add to the point, it's really important, as you're doing research—because the financial piece and that economic burden are so important—to really look at these cases, where parents are able to work and work longer hours and potentially able to better themselves and progress, and how much it is impacting their ability to earn that they have parents at home who can take care of their children and can be there and serve that role.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, and if we take into account also that most of these people who are wanting to bring their parents over are also supporting their parents back home, where they are coming from, then lowering that threshold and enabling those family members to come here would mean that money would actually stay in the country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I just want to reiterate what the previous witness was saying. I think the way that we're going to best combat any of these assumptions will be based on research and based on fact. I think the more that we talk about it.... It is really up to our leaders, all of you in government, to be able to talk about those numbers, to be able to utilize those numbers, and to be able to say that when we do talk about it, it is a family unit.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I guess my statement to that, Ms. Kwan, is that if Canada wants to continue to attract the best and the brightest immigrants in the world, we can't do that by looking at them as individuals. We have to do that by looking at what is going to make them happy and fulfilled, and want to come to this country.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. My name is Anila Lee Yuen. I am the chief executive officer of the Centre for Newcomers, and with me here today Dr. Admasu Tachble, our director of settlement and career services. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak before you. The Centre for Newcomers is a settlement agency located here in Calgary, Alberta.