Evidence of meeting #155 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 newcomers.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Mario Calla  Executive Director, COSTI Immigrant Services
Gemma Mendez-Smith  Executive Director, Four County Labour Market Planning Board
Christine Buuck  Associate Vice-President, Academic Administration and International Education, Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
John Shields  Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University, and Interim Director, Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement, As an Individual

4:20 p.m.

Executive Director, Four County Labour Market Planning Board

Gemma Mendez-Smith

On our funding level, we are funded to do our research at $280,000 a year, with three staff, and we have two training programs that we do for persons with disabilities and Ontario works, which is for people who need skills to enter the labour market, at about $500,000.

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC

People,

do they pay something? You're offering the service. Do they pay each time? Is it a free service?

4:20 p.m.

Executive Director, COSTI Immigrant Services

Mario Calla

It's a free service.

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC

Okay.

Madam Smith, I am going to switch to French. I have very limited time and I want to speak fast.

Are there not enough refugees and immigrants? Have you tried to get immigrants to come to your counties to look for work? Is that an approach you use? If not, is it simply a matter of jobs being available and immigrants coming to the area by sheer coincidence? How does it work? Have you used both approaches?

4:20 p.m.

Executive Director, Four County Labour Market Planning Board

Gemma Mendez-Smith

We have several approaches. One is we work with people who have moved to our region and they're already there, but our main goal is to grow the workforce so it will be a targeted approach to get people to move to the region who are looking for the type of work that we have available.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC

That's before they come to the country.

4:25 p.m.

Executive Director, Four County Labour Market Planning Board

Gemma Mendez-Smith

No, that's not before they come to the country.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC

Okay, that's one specific thing.

On your side, Mr. Calla, do you have any other approaches? Is it only people who are already in Canada?

4:25 p.m.

Executive Director, COSTI Immigrant Services

Mario Calla

Well, yes, except that we do have a pre-arrival service funded by the federal government, IRCC, so that there are offices in cities where there is a high number of immigrants who come to Canada, and so they give them our contact information. They connect with us via email, and we provide that service.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I'm afraid I need to stop you there. I'm sorry. I'm feeling very rude today.

That's going to end our first panel. I want to move as quickly as we can because we are expecting bells to ring at one point, so I'm going to ask our witnesses to leave, with our thanks. You have been very helpful. Thank you also for your work on the things that we care the most about.

4:25 p.m.

Executive Director, Four County Labour Market Planning Board

May 1st, 2019 / 4:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Before I suspend, I want to welcome students from Trinity Western University. When I notice a group come in, I always wonder who they are. It's delightful to have you here in Ottawa. Thank you for coming, and I hope this is an informative time for you.

We'll suspend for a moment while we get our witness on the video conference.

First, I would like to go over the schedule for the next week. I have my personal notes but they're in English only because I worked them out today with the clerk and the analysts. If anybody wants them, I can hand them out. I'll give them to Alex and anybody who wants them can take them.

We can meet on Monday, May 6, at our normal time at 3:30 to begin the consideration of division 15; that's the consultants point. However, the meeting will be booked for four hours. By the end, by the way, we will have met three times on division 15 and three times on division 16 for a total of eight hours each, which is the equivalent of eight meetings. The motion is for a minimum of six meetings, but we're meeting for the number of hours the NDP motion had requested.

It's four hours on May 6, from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The minister, officials and witnesses will be here for the first three hours. The last hour will be drafting instructions on this study, settlement services, so the analysts can start working on that. That's four hours on May 6.

There's a three-hour special meeting, on Tuesday, May 7, from 9 a.m. to noon on division 15, with three panels of witnesses.

There's a second meeting the same day, May 7, from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This will begin division 16, which is the IRPA amendments, with the minister, officials and then two panels of witnesses.

The next day, on May 8, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., there will be two panels on division 16.

Those four meetings, one on May 6, two on May 7 and one on May 8 will be the meetings to hear witnesses, ministers and officials.

On Friday of that week, May 10, there will be a noon deadline for amendments you would like considered on divisions 15 and 16, to submit them to Parliamentary Counsel. I would like them to come to us as well so we can use them for our meeting on the following Monday, with both Parliamentary Counsel and the Clerk.

As well that day, May 10, just so you know, we'll get the draft migration study report circulated to the committee for consideration.

The following week, on May 13, at the normal time, 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., we will consider the report for division 15, which will turn into a letter to the finance committee. This is an unusual process because we've taken on something from finance. On May 15, we will report consideration of division 16 at our normal time. We have two hours to deal with division 16 and the letter you want me to send to finance.

That will conclude divisions 15 and 16 of part 4 of the BIA.

Then we have a constituency week and we come back on May 27 and it looks as if we will then consider the main estimates at that meeting with the minister. The mains will be dealt with on May 27.

Did I get all that right?

After May 27, we'll be working on completing the settlement services study report and the migration report, after we finish divisions 15 and 16 and the mains.

The clerk will get that out. Nothing is official until you get your notice of meeting, however, because the ministers haven't confirmed their presence. I'm attempting to have them come to those meetings. We may need to mix and match. Those times will be good. The exact agenda may change a little.

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Can I get a clarification for May 10?

That's not an actual meeting date, is it?

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

No.

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

It's just a date for distribution of—

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

May 10 is not a meeting date. It's just a deadline for that.

The witnesses, by the way, on divisions 15 and 16, will be done mathematically, with 60% being witnesses selected by the Liberals, 30% by the Conservatives and 10% by the NDP.

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

All right.

Can you give us the numbers now? Instead of the three meetings, there will now be four meetings, right? So, there will be eight meetings in total.

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

I have that on another document.

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Can we get the numbers?

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

Yes.

4:30 p.m.

NDP

Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC

Thank you.

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

For division 15 there will be 12 witnesses; 7.2 Liberals, so seven witnesses Liberal; 3.6 or four Conservative, and one New Democrat for a total of 12. It's the same thing now. We've just increased it for division 16. There were going to be nine, but there will now be 12, so it will be seven, four and one witnesses.

There's going to be overlap. Frankly, if I were you, I'd talk to each other, if you want to do that. However, it's up to you to do that. It will be seven, four and one.

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB

Is that for both divisions?

4:30 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant

That's for both divisions, yes.

Ms. Buuck, welcome and thank you for coming.

4:30 p.m.

Christine Buuck Associate Vice-President, Academic Administration and International Education, Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

Thank you.