I will try to be really brief. I'm going to start with my last point first.
One of the great benefits I saw after 18 years in the settlement sector is that many people in our community did not realize we were a refugee receiving community. That's always been left to the settlement agencies, to the reception houses, and other people were left out of that equation. This has been great with people understanding that it's a broader commitment. That brings with it the realization that the broader community wants to be involved in the decision-making about receiving refugees moving forward. That's been an interesting point in this exercise; our regional and municipal governments are going to be more interested in being involved.
It would be helpful to have a more comprehensive approach of a flow of information to PSRs as well as GARs. With PSRs we had a surge of well-being and goodness and desire to sponsor, but by groups that had very little experience in doing so. To ensure that those PSRs are attached to existing services, to settlement agencies, if there could be a comprehensive approach moving forward, everyone would benefit.
We saw great gains in our area of a realization by health care providers that trained interpreters were a necessary component to the medical assessment of our refugees, and that when family members or other people were used, we had inaccurate assessments. That growth of understanding was really important. It may need to be followed with funding to ensure that trained interpreters are available.
We have an innovative idea in our community of attaching a transition assistant to employment counsellors to help newcomers who want to access employment, but Employment Ontario cannot provide services in Arabic. We are really trying to remind people that the need to learn English is so important early on because if our employment providers and the community put stress on people to work, successful settlement will not happen in the long run.
I will end there and be open to questions.