Speaking Notes - Transcript of Minister Solberg, Brampton Multicultural Centre

Brampton, Ontario, December 15, 2006

Hon. Monte Solberg: Well, thank you very much, Najma. And thank you to your entire family. You have your whole family here and it’s wonderful. Ladies and gentlemen, the reason we’re here today, of course, is because over the last number of years, while we’ve seen more and more newcomers come to Canada, the funding for settlement services simply has not kept up. In fact, in the last 10 years, something like well over two million newcomers have come to this country, but settlement funding was essentially frozen for many, many years, and the result was that newcomers were not doing as well as they had in the past. Without the access to language, literacy and career training, we saw incomes, average incomes for newcomers, falling like a stone. And that’s unacceptable.

So, I was thrilled when my prime minister made it a priority to fund the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement and, of course, that’s why we’re here today. And it’s a pleasure to be here with my colleague and friend, Mike Colle, because I think it is absolutely true that this is a partnership not just between federal and provincial governments but, of course, with settlement agencies, as well those who do such extraordinary work to deliver these services, and I know the settlement workers don’t exactly get rich doing this. And many people, of course, come and volunteer and I know I feel tremendous confidence as a minister and as a taxpayer knowing that these services are delivered through settlement agencies like this one because we get extraordinary value for the dollar.

The impact, of course, in Ontario is that by the end of the year, we will see funding flowing to Ontario to the tune of $182 million — a 60 percent increase in one year. And that’s going to have a tremendous impact. For the ISAP program here, it goes from $154,000 to $340,000 in one year, which will I think make a great impact.

So it really is a great pleasure to be here today and be a part of this tremendous ceremony to honour this agreement and to be here with partners like this settlement agency and with our friends from Ontario. A $920 million agreement over five years, and $307 million country-wide over the next two years, $230 million destined for Ontario alone. So I think it’s a great day.

But, again, let me just conclude by saying how much I appreciate the efforts of the people in this room. It’s fine for me and my colleagues at Citizenship and Immigration Canada to talk about how important immigration is, but it’s people at the settlement agencies, the field level, who make a tremendous difference in people’s lives. And I can tell you how gratifying it is for me as the minister, but also as a Canadian, to see the impact that you have and the difference it makes to people, helping them get on their feet, get established in this country that they’ve chosen so that they can go and realize the Canadian dream like so many of us have had the chance to do. So, please accept my congratulations for what you do and what an honour it is for me to be here today with you to make this announcement along with my colleague, Mike Colle.