Well, thank you for the question.
First of all, I've met with CESO a couple of times. Let me say about settlement agencies in general, I'm always impressed. The people who work in settlement agencies work there because they want to make a difference. They don't work there to make much money, because they don't. Many of them, of course, volunteer, and they do an outstanding job. I always feel that when we give them a dollar, we get $3 or $4 worth of value in return. They're great organizations.
The settlement funding was frozen when the previous government was dealing with the deficit issue. It was never really substantially raised after that. The result has been that there have been long line-ups for language training, long line-ups for career training and those kinds of things, and we've seen outcomes for newcomers drop dramatically. In 1980, the average newcomer, one year after arriving here, had an income 25% higher than the Canadian average. Today, they have an income 32% lower than the Canadian average. So we have to do more in terms of ensuring that they get the skills they need, the training they need, and that's what those settlement dollars will do.
There will be announcements very soon regarding how that money will be allocated, but it will mean dramatic increases for all provinces. I'm excited about that. I think this is a sector where people have toiled for a long time, again with scarce resources, trying to do the best they can, and now they'll have some money to really do what is their life's work and help people get the skills they need so they're not isolated, so they can integrate and get the jobs. That's exciting to me. So you can pass that message along.
Of course, in a province like Ontario, where we have a very substantial francophone community, francophone settlement agencies and groups will see a big increase in the funding they get. Actually, in Ontario, CIC has a very direct say in how funding is allocated, but we take input from settlement agencies and obviously from the Province of Ontario.
Yes, there will be substantial increases in funding for all settlement agencies.