I think we have to understand that close to two million immigrants and refugees have come to Canada in the last decade, and the sector that has been at the front line for over 50 or 60 years in providing adequate support services has not seen any increase in its baseline funding. If we are serious about dealing with our aging population, our demographics, our declining birth rate, and the skilled labour shortage, accelerating the number of immigrants coming to this country can't happen without an investment in ensuring that the capacity and the infrastructure are in place to support them. We know from the research on increased poverty rates, declining outcomes, declining labour market attachment issues--these are serious concerns that speak to social cohesion and other issues of Canadian society--that funding is definitely one of the issues we're grappling with.
On September 26th, 2006. See this statement in context.