Evidence of meeting #38 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Anyone can jump in here.
Mr. Tam has his hand up. Go ahead, sir.
9:50 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.
There are two ways that new immigrants can receive language training. The first one, of course, is through a government-funded program called ELSA, which is English language training for adults. It's a free program, but the limitation is that it only goes to level 4 or 5. That's up to everyday English. It's not up to the level that's usually needed for the workplace, which is supposedly level 6 or 7.
The second way they can receive language training is through our fee-paying services. We have English training for people who want to start a business. We have training to reduce their accents if they want to specialize in certain aspects of training, but in this aspect they may have to pay for their training.
9:50 a.m.
Director, Settlement Services, MOSAIC
Thomas talked more about the formal way. I can talk about some informal ways that we can help.
First, we have a really new way to forge ahead now. It's called the Internet café for seniors. Seniors come and learn how to use the Internet, to communicate, especially in their homes. They see many of their family members using the Internet and playing with the computer, so they want to be part of that and learn through the Internet and the computer. Through that they also learn English. That's one way we support them.
The other way is through conversation clubs. There are volunteers who set up conversation clubs or groups. They learn by talking. They learn by eating. They learn by going out to the community, and it becomes more natural. Many immigrants like it.
9:50 a.m.
Acting Senior Manager, Calgary Immigrant Educational Society
In Calgary we have two ways for newcomers to learn English. The first one is under CIC funding. It's called the LINC program, language instruction for newcomers. We have one assessment centre in Calgary. All newcomers go there to be tested and after that they refer them to any one of the 10 LINC-providing agencies in Calgary.
The second one we call the drop-in ESL. Our society is the pioneer of this program. Immigrants drop in. It's free of charge. It's funded by the Government of Alberta, and it's taught by volunteers, by Canadians. So it means you can come any day, any time, in the morning, in the afternoon or in the evening, and it's free of charge. You pay nothing.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Nina Grewal Conservative Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Could you please also tell us about the Canadian language benchmark system?
9:55 a.m.
Acting Senior Manager, Calgary Immigrant Educational Society
For our society, we have benchmarks from one to six. When newcomers come here, they have to go to the assessment centre for newcomers to be tested. They would be tested in four areas of language: writing, reading, listening, and speaking. If the newcomer has a 2, 2, and 2, it automatically goes to level 2.
In Calgary, we have the centre. Each city's CIC has one centre or a main centre and there are specialists for these students in the four areas. If he's good in English, he may go to level 4, 5 or 6, and it goes on. After level 6 or 7, they can go to colleges or universities. At level 1 or 2, they still have to learn more English.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Thank you.
One of the reasons that all three of you have been invited here is because there is a level of confidence in the quality of the services that you obviously provide as service deliverers for us. It's fair to assume that not every service-providing agency actually does the same quality of work as the organizations you represent.
What we're also looking for, as much as the positive side and what are the best practices, is what would you suggest are some of the services that we should not be providing, are not very well served, or are not, in a way, both from a funding perspective, on the one hand, but probably more importantly from an actual results-based focus...? What are some of the practices that we should consider not funding or that we should consider revisiting because they just aren't working anymore?
9:55 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.
In fact, we have been working with the provincial government very closely in evaluating the programs and services we've been providing. On an annual basis, and also every contract term, we have had a very comprehensive discussion and done an evaluation with the funders, the partners, and also with the centre.
I think we are running a very good evaluation and monitoring process at this moment. Whenever we think we have to improve in terms of our service delivery, we've been very quick and efficient to do that.
I think what we are doing is very efficient and effective. I don't think there should be some further improvement or further expansion of the framework.
9:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Tam. That concludes the first round of questioning.
Mr. Bevilacqua.
December 3rd, 2009 / 9:55 a.m.
Liberal
Maurizio Bevilacqua Liberal Vaughan, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to express to the interveners my gratitude for their presentations, some of which I unfortunately missed. I want to let you in on something we do in this committee. We are motivated largely by our desire to bring about positive change to the lives of new Canadians. We use the means, whether financial or otherwise, to achieve that.
I want to give you a unique opportunity to perhaps go through and contribute and experience what we as members of Parliament experience. After we hear what you and other panellists have to say, we often write reports. This is a unique opportunity, because I'm going to ask you to summarize what your three best practices would be from your organization and your experience in the field so that we may benefit from the wisdom you've acquired over the many years that you have, I'm sure, successfully helped immigrants adjust to the new Canadian realities.
That's what we need to do. After we listen to everybody, we summarize, and then we have to agree as to what are in fact the best practices. If you would like your organization to be represented in the best practices of the best practices, this is your chance.
Go ahead.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—La Prairie, QC
Mr. Chair, could I find out why the bells are still ringing?
10 a.m.
Conservative
10 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.
I would like to emphasize what I was talking about during my presentation.
The first one of course is the business and economic integration program, which now is not funded by the settlement funding framework. We see its success over the country as one of the best practices. It's not only serving new immigrants, it's serving the local communities, the local economies. This is a very important demonstration that new immigrants can be contributing members to our society, through their participation in business and economic activities.
The second one I would like to emphasize is our pre-landing services in overseas offices. Again, when they are already here, a lot of new immigrants don't have the time, money, and energy to be retrained or go through a lot of steps to get back to their own professions.
We see this as a very good opportunity to help them before they come to Canada, especially in the two areas of Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan. We also have had a very good experience in working with prospective business immigrants in Shanghai, through our office there.
The pre-landing service should be a top priority for the government to consider continuing and expanding. We will save a lot of money and enhance the effectiveness of the settlement process. Prospective immigrants will be more willing to receive training, to listen to us, and to learn English in their own countries. The pre-landing service is a very cost-effective program amongst all existing programs.
The third one, of course, is the partnership with industry sectors. We have found it very successful to work with industry sectors, such as energy and environment, so we can develop joint training programs to bridge the gap between the foreign training qualifications and the Canadian working experience requirements. This is another area we would like you to include in your report.
10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Tilson
Mr. Tam, we've run out of time.
Do I have consent from the committee to allow the other two to comment? Silence?
Okay, Mr. Bouissoukrane.
10 a.m.
Acting Senior Manager, Calgary Immigrant Educational Society
For our agency, the best practice remains teaching newcomers how to learn a language, either French or English. They came here at level 1, or below level 1, and you can see the progress; by the end of the year, they manage to speak either French or English very well. For our society, that's the best practice, the first best practice being English.
Number two is to continue supporting the employment training. Once they learn English they need to get a job, so training them for employment remains very, very important.
The third one, I will say again, is the soft skills.
The fourth one is to develop a kind of cooperation/collaboration among immigrant service agencies all over Canada with agencies like CIC.