To demonstrate about devolution and also what it meant to come to Canada, at the time I came here, I just had this bag. They said, “This bag is green” and “What colour is the big bag?” The green is the bag or the green is the material or the green is what...? A lot of immigrants come to Canada without really knowing what the nature is of a lot of the language here.
The resettlement programs come with a problem of devolution. Devolution is the federal government dumping money on a provincial government. In British Columbia, everything is ethnic; now, if you are a small community, you don't have access to the funding under resettlement counselling. When resettlement counselling comes to a community... If somebody comes to this country, where he goes is into the community, to find trust, because that community can tell him where to go. Also, there is the language. It is not only that people at the centres speak French, but how, because there are so many different kinds of French: Quebec French, Parisian French, African French, Congolese French, and Cameroon French, all of them. We need to decode, to tell the person what is the meaning of a lot of things so he can integrate in Canada.
An example is Canadian experience. You come to Canada and they ask you, “Do you have Canadian experience?” I don't have a job. How can I have Canadian experience? That's why I demonstrated this bag to you, to say that a lot of things about the time... They can explain to you about how to go and volunteer, Now, how are you going to volunteer and pay your rent? Some of us, like me, came from a refugee camp to Canada. I owe the money for transportation. Now, with the time I use to go to volunteer, how am I going to repay the money for transportation?
There are all those kinds of things. It's where the bad practice is. This is how I demonstrate the downloading of this resettlement money to the community, because if the money goes to the community, there's a resettlement counsellor there, and at least they understand that they can go to the big communities. If the small communities have no funding, there's no knowledge like in the big communities, and, for a lot of people, failure.
Thank you very much.