Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have two examples. One is the social enterprise MOSAIC has been doing for the past 20 years, interpretation and translation. It's targeting corporations because governments and many corporations have to have their materials translated. We are using many translators to do that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, I still think that, yes, it's important to share best practices, giving organizations ways to learn from each other right now, because Canada is so big. We need opportunities for people to come together to share that. The second is about partnership and consortium b

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We also have concerns, because especially in B.C. we haven't seen it; the pilot project is not in B.C. The voucher could create agency instability because it is really based on a fee for service. It's not really providing good infrastructure for agencies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  People are coming here with different language skills. Some of them are skilled immigrants, some of them are family class, and I think our English language system is geared towards the lower end, those people who need survival English. They come to us. Because of that, if you loo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, for some people it may be because they're looking after their children at home or because they are working right away because they need money. However, as I say, when we look at the funding sources, when we look at the number of students we can take, many agencies meet that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I would say that I would still have some doubt about the voucher, unless we see a good result from the pilot project. From an agency perspective, we do have students who are on waiting lists to come to our service, so that means if we need more resources, we can still provid

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Through Metropolis BC and colleges, we have seen similar research in Toronto and Vancouver. As I mentioned earlier, new immigrants succeed if they are given opportunities by employers to get Canadian experience and receive some kind of mentoring. It also gives the employer the op

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For MOSAIC, there are three best practices. One is a consortium that we formed with S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and ISS of B.C., in Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster. We formed a consortium to provide all the settlement services in the three cities. That consortium can help in terms of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thomas talked more about the formal way. I can talk about some informal ways that we can help. First, we have a really new way to forge ahead now. It's called the Internet café for seniors. Seniors come and learn how to use the Internet, to communicate, especially in their homes

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's an innovative idea that we should try. In the process, I would suggest that we add into it a part for mentorship for those people who get selected, because what many immigrants are lacking is the Canadian experience. They could have a mentor who can really inform the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's a good idea to bring in private funding. In Vancouver, where MOSAIC is, we partner with our sister settlement organizations. We form consortiums. We standardize our wages, and then we can collectively talk to governments to negotiate a wage that the government feels

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. In short, we see the development of the settlement services sector as a subsector of social services. We request that the current capacity of settlement services be enhanced to achieve the best practices in settlement services, which will help immigrants and refugees.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning to everyone. Thank you, Mr. Chair and the committee, for giving me the opportunity to come here to speak about best practices in settlement services. I will try to stick to my notes, so it could be more like reading it out. But I'm open to any questions from the co

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. My presentation will be on the best practices and standards, the integrated service delivery model, and the settlement services sector history and development. Before I start, I would like to make a summary statement. Best practices in settlement services aim to advan