Evidence of meeting #150 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Do you have recommendations as to what the government should do?
4:40 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
Well, it could support those kinds of programs, I suppose—
4:40 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
—but, no, I don't particularly....
Well, money, sure. Everything comes down to money.
4:40 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
But it's a question of where you're going to put your money, and that would be the recommendation.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
April 1st, 2019 / 4:40 p.m.
Hélène Laverdière Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank everyone for today's very insightful presentations.
Congratulations to Ms. Izzeddin on learning French and on her community involvement. That's very good, and I congratulate her.
My first question is for Ms. Gibbs, who mentioned that the—
Can you hear me?
Are you receiving the interpretation?
4:40 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
No, not right now.
I can understand a little bit, but—
4:40 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
If there's a problem with the interpretation, I can do it....
4:40 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
You talked about inherent difficulties with the experimental program you wanted to participate in, and a time limit of—
4:40 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
I cannot understand.
I'm so sorry.
4:40 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
I'll speak in English for time purposes.
You did mention this experimental program, this new program—I can't remember how to say it in English—with a time limit of 12 months, and the difficulties it presents to you. Could you explain a bit more what kind of challenges that time frame poses for you?
4:40 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
Yes. We are hoping to partner around our employment training programs for immigrant women, newcomer women, visible minorities in particular. We wanted to participate in this program, but it wasn't possible to put it in our budget. What we did with this proposal, which I hope will be successful, was to supplement with some additional enrichment to our base program, but we couldn't put it in for our base program operating budget because with one year of funding we can't really...and it starts now.
We already have that funding in place. That was the type of challenge we had with this particular call for proposals. It was to enrich the program. We can certainly use that enrichment by increasing our relationships with employers in particular. That's what we want to do, but again, we'll only have one year to do it, and it does take a while to build relationships. That's the type of challenge, but we're happy to accept it.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I must stop you for a moment, so that we can check whether the interpretation is working. It is absolutely necessary to have access to both languages during the committee's meetings.
4:45 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
Also, I'm not used to it, so....
Okay.
4:45 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
We know that the ability to predict and anticipate is absolutely necessary for doing a good job.
I have another question for both of you before I come back to the witnesses from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada, if I have time.
Do you provide child care services to the women who attend your training?
4:45 p.m.
Development Manager, New Circles Community Services
No. We have two types of training. The retail skills training is planned so that women can either drop their children at school or take them to day care. It's for a short time during the middle of the day, which is intentional for women when they have these free times because we do want people to use the other services that are available in the community. That's how we try to be flexible so that when women have.... We organize the training around the availability of our clients.
4:45 p.m.
Laurier—Sainte-Marie, NDP
Thank you very much.
Ms. Mooney, you welcome 12,000 young newcomers per year. I have two questions for you.
First, do refugees make up a large proportion of those newcomers? Second, are you also making a special effort to attract those young people?
I agree with you that integrating women and young people is a form of prevention. It is much more effective than taking action after the fact.
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada
I understood your question, but I would like to answer it in English.
4:45 p.m.
Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada
On a point of clarification, we're a boys and girls club, Repaires jeunesse du Canada, not necessarily scouts and guides. I just wanted to clarify that.