Thank you very much for your presentation.
It's certainly a pleasure to be in your province. I want you to know that we appreciate some of the volunteer work that goes on behind bringing newcomers to Canada, and refugees, and so on. Without you the system wouldn't be able to come close to what it's achieving presently. So we do want you to know we appreciate that. There's always room for improvement, so we do want to hear what you have to say. And to the extent we can, we should.
With respect to settlement funding and integration funding, I know we have in our budgets allocated $1.4 billion across the country to go to settlement agencies. I appreciate that you mentioned some difficulties with ISAP funding, and others, so absolutely we need to look into that and work through Citizenship and Immigration Canada to see what is available. Funding has been frozen for over a decade, and even though we want to bring in more newcomers and take more people in, we have to remember there needs to be the infrastructure there to help people succeed, and that includes English language provisions, counselling. When newcomers come in, simple tasks like banking, finding a place to stay, all those kinds of things we maybe take for granted, are necessary and important. When you come to a new culture, a new country, that even of itself can be challenging.
Certainly you're the front line in the face of the country, and we appreciate your efforts. I know it was with that in mind that you've allocated significant funds. Across the country, how they filter it down ultimately to the many organizations is another matter, and you can certainly pursue that.
It's good to hear from Mr. Power that we are dealing with a kind of moving bus situation. Some sectors or regions are doing well; others aren't. When one concludes here, another one starts there, so labour mobility is important. I know we've heard from other witnesses that we should try to make that more accommodating with some tax incentives and so on. So we do hear that. And I also hear the fact that consultation with the stakeholders and the parties involved is important to try to have a master strategic plan to take advantage of the people we have or to use the benefits of the people we have available in Canada--the young people, aboriginals, and other groups that are here, and those who have been displaced from their work because of one situation or another. I think we need to concentrate on finding out how to do that, for sure, and make a better effort.
Statistics seem to suggest to us that if you did all of that well, you still would have some shortages in some places. We need to find a way to be smart about it and not to pose impediments in your way. We need to find a route that makes sense and to open up those avenues. It's not always that easy, and I appreciate when you say there's a proven, justified shortage and we need to look elsewhere. I've heard a lot from a lot of the witnesses that if you have the skills and trades coming in, or temporary foreign workers, for instance, there are some base levels that we should set that can be met.
Am I summarizing your thoughts on that, Mr. Power?
I guess Barbara would like to make a comment too.
Maybe Mr. Power can go first.