Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me just jump to some of the impacts on clients. Clients that benefit the most from one-on-one support, such as those from stigmatized populations, would be the most affected. Clients referred to the nearest agency may not receive service in their own language because differ

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning. Since early December 2010, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, OCASI, has been working with its CIC-funded members and other funders on strategies to mitigate, as much as possible, the impact of the significant reduction in funds to the Ontario reg

Human Resources committee  In Ontario, the investment in language training has been maintained, although our current national administration has just removed $90 million from the sector in Ontario. We're most likely not going to see that money come back. Part of the challenge is the timing. It's not enough

Human Resources committee  Yes, it's not only about self-employment; it's also about supporting small and medium-sized businesses. We know they are the largest employers in the country. Micro-financing is an idea that we should be looking at as government and encouraging in our financing institutions. It w

Human Resources committee  That has been the growth in Peel, and it will continue to be the growth in Peel.

Human Resources committee  We're working with multiculturalism right now because it has been placed within the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. Our challenge is to ensure that multiculturalism sees itself more broadly than immigration.

Human Resources committee  I actually think it's a good idea that they're located there. I have some concerns that they will lose their larger focus and that they will begin to see multiculturalism as a newcomer issue as opposed to a larger Canadian issue.

Human Resources committee  Yes, and so we are paying attention to it. We are a bit concerned that it has been eight years and we've yet to implement it. Only now has there been any sort of money, called the welcoming communities initiative. This is a problem that we're just now beginning to look at and dev

Human Resources committee  Seniors.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I was surprised when I saw that I was one of the last speakers, so it's a good thing I was late. We support many of the issues that have been raised by my colleagues around the table. I'm actually speaking to a joint submission from the Colour of Poverty Campaign. O

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We show up and have conversations like this--and hope that you are really listening, that these will be brought forward as recommendations, and that our governing parties are listening.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are a number of issues here in terms of the temporary workers program. We know that we have a number of undocumented people here in Canada. Let's look at a regularization system. Let me take a step back. I think we all agree that we need to revisit IRPA, right? There are

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We're not against temporary workers, we're against Canada's immigration policy shifting towards “privileging” temporary workers as opposed to permanent residents, family reunification, and protection. That's the cornerstone. That's what our immigration policy really should be abo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Let me give you an example of how we're defining abuse. We have a large agricultural migrant population in Leamington. One concern that OCASI has had, and one clarification that we've sought from the provincial government, is that everyone who works in Ontario should have acces

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. I know we were here yesterday, but on a different issue. We wanted to thank you for hearing us on the temporary workers program. We believe, as OCASI, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, that this is a real change in the direction of Canada's immigra