I call this meeting to order. This is the 142nd meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Welcome, witnesses, as we begin our second meeting to study settlement services in Canada. Thank you for joining us.
Before we begin, I want to update the committee on a couple of meeting announcements. As members will remember from the last meeting, I undertook to schedule some meetings. We have just been able to finally get them scheduled. For your calendars, today and Thursday we will do our settlement services study. They will be the second and third meetings of this study, which will be a minimum of seven meetings, as per your motion. There is no meeting on Monday, February 18, as in Ontario that is Family Day. On February 20 we will have a meeting on supplementary estimates (B), which you have asked me to do.
I approached both Minister Hussen and Minister Blair and we tried to schedule meetings. Mr. Blair is being requested at public safety as well, and we have very limited days. As you will know, a number of opposition days are being called. The reporting back could happen even earlier than by the end of March, or we would be deemed as having received them. Both ministers have agreed to change schedules and be available on February 20. They will be given a short period of time to speak, five minutes each, to give the committee enough time to question them on supplementary estimates (B).
For your further noting, on February 25 and 27 we will return to the migration study. You have requested three more meetings on that. We will have one on the 25th and one on the 27th. As well, just to alert you, I will be trying to schedule a special meeting of the committee to accomplish the three meetings you have requested before we have the two-week break so that the analysts can continue working on the evidence and get ready for a meeting where you would give instructions for the writing of the report when we come back in March.
Again, February 4 and 6 will be settlement services; February 18 there is no meeting; February 20 will be two ministers for supplementary estimates (B); and February 25 and 27 will be back to the migration study, with probably a third meeting that week, which we will try to schedule with as few conflicts as possible.
Are there any questions?
Ms. Rempel.