I’m Stephan Reichhold, from the Quebec Coalition. I’d like to speak to you briefly about one of the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance’s projects.
As Chris mentioned earlier, I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that one of the greater challenges that we face in this sector throughout all of Canada is the problem of immigrant and refugee children and youth, whether they be first or second generation. We know that there are very few measures, and very few actions taken, within the reception and settlement services sector, that target this group even though a great many new immigrants are children and youth.
We plan to organize an important Canada-wide conference, probably during the spring of 2008, precisely to study this problem. We plan to have participants from within the settlement services sector, and also from all institutions and provinces, the private sector, every concerned group, to think about this question, to evaluate the present situation et to develop a national strategy for Canada to try to create services for this particular group of immigrants and adolescents.
We hope that the committee will support us in this important project.