Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I thank all the witnesses very much for joining us this afternoon.
My questioning is for Mr. McLauchlin.
First of all, thank you very much for being here. I'm going to say this at the outset, just so that my mother approves. She was born in Calgary. My grandparents, when they arrived in Canada, boarded a train in Halifax and made their way out to Alberta. Like many other newcomers, they made their way back to a large city—in their case, Montreal—which allows me to cheer for the Montreal Canadiens, so I'm fine with that.
That said, we're really looking at ideas, at ways in which the federal government—and all governments—can be more successful in ensuring that immigrants feel more welcome and are retained in the rural communities, which really need them for their prosperity and for so many other reasons.
I have two questions for you.
First, what role do municipalities have in ensuring that newcomers have supports and feel welcome and integrated, and what more can the federal government do in supporting them in that regard?
I'm going to leave all the remaining time for you to just share ideas. What's going on in Alberta, from an ideas perspective, that may be interesting and effective across the country?