Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Chair and honourable members, for inviting me here. I'm on the CCR executive committee and I'm also a former co-chair of the immigration and settlement working group. In my day job I work at MOSAIC in Vancouver as the director of family and settlement services, and I've been working in settlement for the past 23 years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Seventh, settlement services are most effective when there are not excessive administrative requirements. We refer to the 2007 Blue Ribbon report recommending a change in the funding formula for the administration of funding contracts. We would recommend that CIC take another look at that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to add one point about immigrant women, and it's true across Canada. Many of them spend much of their time looking after their children or family, and when they want to access settlement services, their eligibility has expired because once they become a Canadian citizen, they can't get settlement services.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, for sure. I know that with CIC we have been, as a sector, addressing this issue through many venues, through the CCL consultations, and also through the National Settlement Council that we really are looking at. In the short term, yes, many refugees are vulnerable. They come to Canada without anything or even without good preparation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For me, I like the notion of telling stories. When we look at success, we're really looking at how individuals integrate and become part of Canada. We talked about the Vietnamese boat people many years ago, and nobody's talking about them now, because they are already in the community.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For immigrant women, we see that many of them may not access services in the beginning because they have many family responsibilities which they think are important for them to look after first. By the time they feel it's time to integrate, to become economically engaged in a job or language improvement, for example, they may be already at the end of their permanent resident status and they may become Canadian citizens.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would definitely say that there is always improvement, particularly for immigrant women, in terms of family reunification. We talked briefly about the child care provision for many government-assisted refugees. When they come here, they are attending the RAP, the resettlement assistance program.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I definitely see pre-arrival as really important. I came to Canada 27 years ago. I still remember the consulate telling me when I came here that my resumé would be at the bottom of the pile. I still remember him warning me that I would have to really survive, and I would have to do extra work to make myself successful.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My experience working in Vancouver with CIC is a good one. First of all, CIC returned to B.C. about a year ago and many of the staff are new. About 50 or 60 new staff members are working with us. They are really responsive. They are quick in replying to our queries. They visit agencies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for inviting me to the meeting today. I am an executive committee member of the CCR, and I also work as the director of family and settlement services for MOSAIC in Vancouver. I have been working with the sector for about 24 years. I am going to highlight some of our observations and recommendations for the committee study.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —and refugee children with developmental delays, so if IFHP can support them, I think that would be very good. The last point is about the non-Syrian refugees. We think that it is important that it's not just focused on Syrian refugees but looks at refugees from other countries as well.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  So far, in terms of the best practices that we are looking at, first of all, we definitely see a strong interest from the business community, or the corporate employers. Overall, they are interested in how they can support refugees. I think that's a shift not just in terms of looking at their skills but in terms of some compassion and the ways that they want to adjust the way they work.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I do have concern in terms of how we can strategize and make a better coordination effort within Canada, and of course with local communities, to have the infrastructure in place. When I say “infrastructure in place”, right now, through IRCC, we're welcoming community initiatives that have been engaging with some of the employers or the city people to look at housing and the coordination of services.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  From an individual perspective, I would say it's from the refugee, if they suffer from needing dental care, I think it's always important they have that opportunity to have a tooth extracted, or have an X-ray. We're not talking about major care. It is something that helps many refugees, if they are looking for a job and they don't have healthy teeth, or sometimes even for their mental health, when people feel shy or don't feel comfortable going out.