Citizenship and Immigration committee  We know, again from talking to front-line workers, that parents and grandparents provide a sense of stability, often a sense of continuity for young children as well as other members of their family. They also help to knit the community together. I'm sure many of you know from go

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. It raises another question, though, which is what the reason for the backlog is. I'm sure the people at the department know. We've heard some speculation, but it would be really good to look into the reasons, because there could be different reasons for it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. As Mr. Tam has already mentioned, the assumption is that parents and grandparents bring nothing or contribute nothing to Canada, and that is simply not true, and not fair to our sponsored relatives or refugees either. In the absence of a national child care strategy

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry; I cannot speculate on the number. I know that the number of people who apply for sponsorship simply because there's a visa requirement because of the country they're from is quite significant, from what front line workers say. It's really hard to say what that number w

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. It's a really good idea. I believe the proposal was also multiple-entry visitor visas that would extend for a period of at least ten years. I believe previous discussions have touched on the fact that it could be a way for parents and grandparents to be here while the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's also true that they would want to come here just to visit for a short period or a longer period. But for many the only way they can enter Canada is through the sponsorship process. So the multiple-entry visitor visa will open up opportunities for many more people and that wi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. We are deeply troubled by the trend to move towards temporary as opposed to permanent immigration. We can see it's going to have a long-term impact in our communities, in how we build the capacity for our communities, because we don't think that economics is the only

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Davies. We think this is one of the reasons that has contributed to the backlog. It's probably a diversion of resources in processing that has seen more resources put into processing temporary foreign worker applications. As I mentioned earlier fr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Can I respond?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are no studies that conclusively establish that parents and grandparents are either a drain or a benefit in the context of services, the economy, or health care. In the absence of that data, we are troubled by the assumption that parents and grandparents would use up the se

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sorry, I didn't catch the last part of your question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would like to go back to a bit of history. Between 1903 and 1913, Canada welcomed people that were in excess of 1% of the population. In fact, in 1913 it was a little over 5% of Canada's population. A number of them were refugees, a good number of them were dependent relatives,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm going to fast-forward to my recommendations. We will likely see an increase in family class sponsorship applications, particularly as Canada's foreign-born population increases. Family reunification has been credited as one of the reasons for Canada's success in attracting a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants--OCASI--is the umbrella organization for immigrant- and refugee-serving agencies in Ontario. OCASI is a registered charity founded in 1978. We are governed by a volunteer board of dire