I'm going to go back to the transition. I am quite concerned about how quickly it happens.
I am very familiar the agencies that work with immigrants. The people who work there are passionate people who do an incredible job, let's admit, often for laughable wages and in extremely risky conditions. If we want to continue to attract people to these areas, they must not get the impression that they are cheap labour or expendable, only to be tossed away once they are no longer needed, people whom we tell that their funding has ended, perhaps for good reason because needs have shifted elsewhere. In some cases, this results in the agency shutting down and everyone losing their jobs. So, new people need to be trained and encouraged to go where the needs are and start the cycle over again.
In my opinion, this constant turnover within the agencies is very costly for the community. And it's the same thing for all our agencies, whether they operate for the immigrants or for the rest of society.
The public service often uses ways to try to absorb these changes. We use attrition and limit the creation of new programs in some places until a balance is attained. However, these types of measures do not seem to be in place here.
But in your document, you say that, to minimize the burden associated with the transition imposed on agencies providing services to newcomers, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will continue to work closely with the agencies that were not retained.
What does that mean? What does "work closely with" mean? Will they be given interim funds?