Thanks, Marian.
Good morning, everybody.
One thing that sets Canada's immigration program apart from many other programs in the world is, as Marian highlighted, the front end. We spend a lot of time thinking about selection: who, how many and why we invite them to the country.
The other unique feature is the settlement program at the back end of the program. I thought I would highlight four things that set our settlement program apart. It is recognized internationally and was recently recognized by the OECD.
The first is the structure of the program. We have those two pillars. What's unique is that we calibrate the settlement program and the funding available to that program against the levels plan. If levels go up, then the size of the envelope available for settlement services across the country goes up as well.
With respect to funding, you'll see on slide 12 that in 2019-20, $779 million was available to distribute across the country. That funding does not flow to provinces; it is allocated to each provincial jurisdiction based on actual landings from the three previous years. The funding, however, flows to community-based organizations.
That's the other unique feature about the program, the delivery. It really is a partnership that exists between the Government of Canada, our provincial and territorial colleagues and civil society and community-based organizations. We fund approximately 500 organizations across the country, and they deliver the suite of services shown on the right-hand side of that slide, which I'd really break down into three areas.
The first is what I think of as enabling services, such as information, referral and orientation programs and getting people to the services they need so that they can be successful in their communities and the labour market.
The second grouping is direct services, such as language training and employment supports. That's the biggest part of the program.
The last is indirect or capacity-building supports. We fund a range of settlement organizations and umbrella organizations so that they can come together and represent the sector but also have conversations with government.
I should just note as well that with respect to Quebec there is a separate allocation, which is provided to Quebec under the Canada-Québec Accord. In 2019-20, $529 million was transferred. Quebec is solely responsible for both selection and settlement; the Government of Canada does not play in that space.
Finally, with respect to clients, all permanent residents and protected persons can access all settlement services for as long as they have that status as a protected person or a permanent resident. Once you become a citizen, you can no longer access settlement services.
In 2018-19, 520,000 unique clients accessed services. Many clients will access a number of different services; the term “unique client” counts the actual absolute number. This represented about a 14% increase from the previous year, which isn't a surprise, because we're bringing more people into the country.
I'll end just by giving you a sense of the breakdown of folks who are accessing those services.
Of those 520,000, 43% came through our economic programming. The majority of them are spouses and dependents, not the principal applicant—which makes sense, given our selection approach; some 29% are refugees, and they tend to be the longest users of settlement services; finally, 23% are sponsored family members.
I'll stop there. Of course, I am happy to answer questions.