Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think we'll leave the numbers to those who can predict demographic and labour market shortages and those things. What you're saying is that regardless of the number being brought to Canada, they have to have proper services. We have to have the means not only to integrate them

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We appreciate the opportunity, and we are very much looking forward to continuing our work with this standing committee. Thank you very much.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Quickly, in terms of immigration and the way we feel about nation-building, nation-building is when people come and have vested interests in the future of this country. If you're talking about seasonal workers, that may again address some of the needs of companies and businesses.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of some of the problems, I have to say that we kind of joke about this. We used to say that most of the immigrants and refugees are going to MTV--Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver. Now it's CTV--Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver--and the larger cities have at least some kind of inf

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can characterize the meeting we had yesterday as being very fruitful. We understand that some of the agencies involved in our membership have 40 or 50 years of history, but CISSA was formally formed about six or seven months ago. We are there to just promote ideas that go beyon

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can respond to part of it, and then I'll let Chris talk about the other portion of it. For the past ten years, as Chris mentioned, our sector has grown and newcomers have come, but the base of the funding has never grown and we have not had a large share of the funding that ha

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have a response to the second one. In terms of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the way this actually has come about is that our sector has felt that even though we have grassroots knowledge about the problems and issues and challenges, we also have expertise to offer in ter

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can respond to at least one of the points in terms of the point system. Definitely there could be some improvement in the point system. One of the biggest problems we are seeing in terms of assigning points to people with expertise and experience is when somebody applies abroa

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have two. We have Ms. Bridget Foster and Mr. Reichhold.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, sorry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Good morning, and greetings from the settlement sector across Canada. My name is Reza Shahbazi. I am the chair of the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance. We will introduce ourselves, and then I'll start.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. The members of the Canadian Immigrant Settlement Sector Alliance, also known as CISSA, represent 450 settlement agencies that provide direct services to refugees and immigrants in small communities and large cities across Canada. CISSA harnesses the expertise of the r