This is really important. I think sometimes, from the public's point of view, we think the refugee journey ends when the plane lands at the airport.
Mr. Sidhu, you joined me recently at Pearson, when we saw a group who arrived from Tajikistan. For the people who arrived, it was the beginning of a new chapter and an entirely new life. That chapter only starts out on a positive note if people get the kind of support they need when they are here.
To the point of your question, to make sure that people are set up for success, we rely on an extraordinary network of settlement agencies across Canada, as well as a partnership with the Province of Quebec to provide settlement services to new arrivals, to see groups being able to provide language training and in some instances child care, and to give them those supports they need to know such as how to sign up for a bank account or apply for a job. In those early days, it matters immensely.
I'm finding that people find a lot of comfort in being part of a community when they arrive, when they have folks who may be from their own country of origin, may have access to the restaurants they enjoy and can have a bit of a home in the new community where they arrive.
Our settlement agencies are very good at working with groups to provide those kinds of experiences, but whether you're talking about the hard, essential supports, such as housing or income support, whether it's the training offered through settlement agencies or whether it's those soft supports at the community level, we do whatever we can to make sure that people receive a full suite of supports, because when they do well, we all do better as a result.