Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good afternoon. My name is Kristin Crane. I am with the Huron County Immigration Partnership. We are located on the shores of Lake Huron, northwest of London and west of Kitchener-Waterloo. Huron County has a population of just under 60,000 that's spread out over 3,400 square k

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I was very excited to see this pilot project launched. It's something I had been hoping for. Unfortunately, for our region, because of our population size, we were over the 50,000 mark. Then, when it came to the isolation factor, we were not quite isolated enough. At that point

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we're about 58,000 or 59,000.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I spoke with a lot of different colleagues in surrounding regions and areas, and they were not able to submit applications either because of those finer points of the criteria. However, from attending our conference and speaking to some colleagues in northern Ontario, I did

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I know that our population is sparse and that our number of newcomers sometimes isn't high enough in one concentrated area to really make the justification to have the level of services we need. If we could connect people via technology, we could increase English classes, for ins

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It does. One thing I did not mention is that I also work for Huron County Economic Development, so a portion of my time is spent with economic development issues. The immigration partnership looks at everything but the attraction piece for newcomers to the region, whereas econom

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is a huge issue in our region as well. We are an agricultural hub. The number of temporary foreign workers we have is unknown, but estimates are at about 500, at the very least, and they're unseen, other than on the occasional shopping trip in the area. I would like to see

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe so. I think the amount of process that needs to take place for an employer to bring in an employee from overseas and the dedication it takes for a temporary foreign worker to commit to an overseas position like that, leaving friends and family to come to a relatively is

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. In our region we don't have federally funded support, so it's provincial. It doesn't come with any child care support. Transportation and child care are the two things I hear about the most from service providers, namely, that these are detriments to people accessing the ser

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's one thing that has worked quite well. We're based out of the London regional office. We do come together on a regular basis. We are connected with Collège Boréal that way. I do know a colleague who could provide French-language services. What I have found really invaluab

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe so. I know that right now, through the local immigration partnership, there are approximately 80 across Canada. A proposal is going to be submitted to create a national group of local immigration partnerships to advocate for things on a more national level. That issue c

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It came about with a lot of nagging on my part and my saying, any time I was near the IRCC, “We need settlement services” and “we need settlement services”. Really, it was thanks to the IRCC. They stepped up and said, “Yes, we'll fund it, and we'll do it through a proven partner