Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. One of the programs that we did, particularly after the killing of George Floyd and the emergence of Black Lives Matter.... In Halifax, we have quite a strong and historic African Nova Scotian community that was also impacted by this. We set up opportunities for people to gather, particularly mothers and parents who were very concerned about their children.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd also like to add that one of the things the settlement sector has been very clear about is the fact that we're not funded by the IRCC unless you already have PR status. So, for us, if we were able to work with international students and refugee claimants and migrant workers, that would open up a huge opportunity for them to access the considerable services, expertise and staff that we have to support them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It was great to hear about the secretariat of the federal government and its work, and understanding also what provincial governments are doing, but I think the very big thing is for all of us to understand our role and responsibility. There are many, many actions that need to be taking place.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I just got off a phone call in which there was a discussion on anti-racism with the National Settlement Council. It was an amazing conversation. It was historic for us as a settlement community that was assisted by the settlement agencies and IRCC, so I'm very excited to see the potential resources from that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That would be fabulous, absolutely. Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Because we had experience with delivering programs virtually, we were able to pivot fairly quickly, and it was amazing that many of our programs were able to move in that direction. We developed specific programs for people who had low digital literacy skills and low literacy skills generally, with specific training for them to be able to understand how to use computers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Help would come in a couple of ways. Number one, we really appreciated having critical health information that's accessible, using infographics in plain language and in translation. At the Public Health Agency, that was not available at the beginning, but both the provincial and federal government became much better about that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for the invitation to speak to the committee today. I'm also speaking from Mi'kma'ki and would like to recognize that I am on the unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people. I am the CEO of the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia. We're a full-service delivery agency that offers settlement services, language training, employment services, business development, employer support and many wonderful community integration programs.