Status of Women committee  I want to thank all of you for this opportunity, and I commend you for taking the time to listen to our experiences here today. What I want to stress is that on the economic security of immigrant women, you cannot just look at it from a financial or even an employment standpoin

Status of Women committee  I'm not familiar with how the federal government prioritizes this problem, but I know in my organization abused women account for a large number of the immigrant women we see. Actually, in almost all of the cases they're coming because they have absolutely no idea how they're goi

Status of Women committee  Unfortunately, I have not been with my organization long enough to really speak to whether there has been an increase in the number of women we're seeing in the last ten-year period, but I can say that we are extremely busy. There is never a dull, open moment. We have a huge infl

Status of Women committee  That's right. Even simple things, such as in the airports—It's having more awareness as to what services are available. Again, I don't want to say there is nothing available for people.

Status of Women committee  There is a lot of help available. I think the immigrant women community is a hidden community. Somehow, they're not accessing the services we have.

Status of Women committee  On the basis of the clients I'm seeing, no. There is still a problem accessing child care. I don't believe an additional $100 a month solves the problem. There may need to be more spots created so there's not as long a waiting list. There may need to be more of an allowance given

Status of Women committee  Based on my experience of being a front-line worker and seeing people who have come into my centre requiring help, yes, there is definitely a feeling of being disheartened. Many of them come here as skilled workers, so they really do have the expectation that they're going to be

Status of Women committee  Upon getting here? Broadly speaking, people who come to our centre are unaware of the training that's available. They're unaware, so when we connect them with that—I don't want to paint a grim picture that there are no services available; there are some services, but I think the

Status of Women committee  That's exactly it.

Status of Women committee  I don't know. Perhaps information could be provided when they get here. I don't mean all the information on everything they'll need, but information about the settlement agencies. Then they would flow to us first and we can assess them. The problem is that they come here and th

Status of Women committee  That's right.

Status of Women committee  What I was trying to get across was that there are many faces of immigrant women. Some are citizens. Some are refugees. Some are permanent residents. The LINC program restricts access for the participation of some portion of the immigrant women population, so that's something tha

Status of Women committee  Right, and there are waiting lists as well, because it's in such high demand.

Status of Women committee  In my brief I go into an example of immigrant senior women who are coming here to help their families. Many people say, well, in that case, why do they need to learn language? They're just among their families; they're not really integrated into the society. But we come across a

Status of Women committee  What we know is that many immigrant women are employed in contingent or temporary seasonal types of work, so they're not eligible for the benefits and the training that are outlined in the employment insurance program. Additionally, I have come across this labour market partnersh