Thank you for the question.
Concerning the innovative approach, Collège Boréal is fairly innovative in terms of the settlement services provided. We provide settlement services in a number of cities in Ontario, be it Windsor, Sarnia, Chatham, London, Mississauga, Sudbury or Timmins. The approach we use is not only based on basic needs, but also on economic integration planning, which takes into consideration newcomers' skills, know-how and experience before they even arrive in Canada.
The idea is to be able to support newcomers toward their chosen careers and sustainable employment. I am getting to the vision you are trying to implement within the federal government. Employment-related services will be essential for this economic independence, which is very important. The COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat destabilized settlement services. A number of those services were made available online very quickly. That was our case.
Since mid-October, we have come back with the hybrid model—in other words, we provide in-person services to people who do not have the technological equipment and those who do not have the ability to contact settlement services owing to a lack of connectivity, for instance. We have returned partially to give those people access to that service.
In terms of language training provided to newcomers, they can enrol in the language instruction for newcomers to Canada, or LINC, program. We have also transitioned 35 classes and 535 people attending those courses within a week.
Even before the pandemic, we were planning to implement self-paced and virtual training. That was developed last year, and this way of doing things is currently operational. It gives us an opportunity to offer this online approach to people with a job or other family obligations, taking into account their geographic zone. So that kind of an approach will help us go further and continue to provide those services efficiently.
