Human Resources committee  I think what we're saying is that there are a number of challenges to them that we have to be aware of. We're just suggesting that one has to be I think very cautious in jumping on a bandwagon and saying that these are going to be a model that is going to provide solutions for pr

Human Resources committee  SIBs were very much part of Big Society in the U.K., which was about downloading responsibilities onto local levels of government, cutting various types of social programs, and then expecting philanthropy, local governments, and non-profit organizations to fill some of those gaps

Human Resources committee  A fifth area has to do with SIBs and program evaluation. The thing around program evaluation with SIBs is that it tends to be quite complex. This involves a lot of costs if it's going to be done right. In addition, there's often no guarantee that the results will be accurate. Pr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would agree that online services do provide an avenue to enhance supports, so I think they're going to be really critical. However, the human touch is still very much necessary. In smaller communities, there's evidence to suggest that newcomers who are coming to smaller communi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it's critical. Certainly, in terms of accessing the services, somebody has to take care of the children. If the children are not being cared for, then they're not going to be able to access the services, so this really becomes a critical type of issue.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with what the other speakers have said. I think one of the big challenges is accessing services by women who sort of run out of time and are not able to access especially language training. That's really critical in terms of integrating into Canadian society and the labou

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we've long had challenges around labour market information. The thing to remember is that national data is useful, but labour markets are local, essentially, so we need to get that information at the local level. I agree with the point that was made that we need all part

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We need to know how many jobs in particular sectors are available within a particular region, with a profile of the population that is within those jobs, where the potential gaps are emerging, and age profiles. Ideally, we need fairly detailed information regarding that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the evidence suggests that there are some gaps in that regard. Having greater information available that is easier to access from overseas would help with that. To some degree there is a large amount of information on the Internet, but sometimes it's a bit overwhelming.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Of course, measurement is always a little tricky because of variables that come in to determine success. If you have a recession, obviously the outcomes are going to be very different from during a period where there's job expansion and so forth. I guess I would start by saying t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The literature also identifies the diverse backgrounds of immigrant entrepreneurs and those who are self-employed. Self-employment among ethno-cultural communities is also positively associated with organizational density as measured by non-profit organizations serving them. The

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to thank the standing committee for the invitation to appear today to address the topic of promoting economic integration through settlement services. It's an area of great interest to Canadians. My brief opening remarks are largely derived from this recent research syn