Thank you.
The members of the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance, also known as CISSA, represent 450 settlement agencies that provide direct services to refugees and immigrants in small communities and large cities across Canada. CISSA harnesses the expertise of the refugees and the immigrant settlement sector and is the sector's national voice to help build a Canadian society in which all immigrants and refugees are able to participate fully.
Thank you for the opportunity to present today. Our five delegates have been selected from 18 members of our board of directors who would have also welcomed the opportunity to be here today. However, as we only have in-person meetings once or twice a year, members of the board felt compelled to work on our strategy plan for the new fiscal year and beyond. That's why they are not here.
This September 2006, it is clear to our members and to the sector that we are embarking upon a new chapter in Canadian history. Not since the days of Clifford Sifton has Canada needed immigrants as we do today, to once again provide a new population and a critical workforce to stabilize Canada's effort to compete in an uncertain global economy.
The settlement sector is where the rubber hits the road, as they say in this country. In the past few decades we have experienced a wave of newcomers arriving at the doors of our agencies. We have shared their successes as well as their pain. As you know, the issues are many and complex: refugees arrive having suffered as victims of torture; highly educated doctors cannot get accreditation; families are separated because of long wait lists. I do not have to remind the learned members of this committee about the seemingly endless list. My task today and the task of the settlement sector is to make it all better. Within our agencies, within our communities, greater and greater needs and more and more groups want to partner with us to attract, retain, and integrate newcomers to our communities.
To do this well, and to do this effectively, the Canadian Settlement Sector Alliance needs your help--that's why we are here today. Out of the hundreds and possibly thousands of issues that we cope with every day, we believe that the Standing Committee on Immigration has to continue to be a leader for us to seek the knowledge that we require to successfully integrate the different categories of refugees and immigrants; to identify areas where government, regardless of which political party is in power, can support and enhance the work of the sector; and to be the committee that believes in the building of this great nation of ours.
At this time I would like to introduce my colleague, Mr. Birjandian, and he will give an update of the two reports that we have tabled with this committee.
Thank you.