Speaking points for the Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism to Address the Orientation Session at the Extended Canadian Immigration Integration Project (CIIP)

New Delhi, India, January 13, 2009

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Thank you for that kind introduction.

Na-Ma-STAY! (Hello!) Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, I want to thank you for joining me here today.

I would also like to thank Aaron Rosland and his staff at the Canadian Immigration Integration Project for hosting us today.

I have met with government officials and members of the business community, and I have enjoyed the opportunity to experience your culture and this beautiful country.

If New Delhi feels even a little familiar it’s probably because Canada and India share a heritage through the Commonwealth, through our parliamentary traditions, and through the diversity of our people.

I am grateful that this trip has finally allowed me to be here in person to celebrate the special bond between our two countries.

Our connection is not accidental. That’s because more than 700,000 people of Indian heritage call Canada home. And they’ve come to Canada not just directly from India, but also by way of the United Kingdom and East and South Africa.

In fact, my parliamentary colleague Deepak Obhrai, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as my good friend Rahim Jaffer, the former MP for Edmonton Strathcona, are both Indians who came to Canada after their families had spent several generations in East Africa.

Canada needs immigrants, ladies and gentlemen, and we need them to succeed.

We look for people with the abilities, innovative ideas, and the motivation that can translate into success in Canada.

Long before I became Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, I talked to newcomers to Canada whose stories were often the same.

Many newcomers found Canada to be a land of opportunity, where it was possible to integrate successfully, taking advantage of the best that Canada has to offer.

But there were challenges.

Chief among them was the difficulty skilled trades and professionals had in getting their credentials recognized once in Canada.

Many, many times I heard from newcomers to our country that if they had only better understood what qualifications they needed before they emigrated, they could have used the time they spent waiting to enter Canada informing themselves on how to have their credentials assessed in Canada.

This is why the Government of Canada invested in the Canadian Immigration Integration Project—or CIIP—here in India, as well as in China and the Philippines, three key source countries of immigrants to Canada.

I am extremely enthusiastic about the good work being carried out here under the Canadian Immigration Integration Project.

This exemplifies just what we are trying to accomplish in helping newcomers to settle in Canada.

I am proud that this government has taken real action to help immigrants settle in to Canada. We welcome newcomers and we want to help them make a contribution to our country.

Internationally trained immigrants need to know what Canadian employers expect. They need to know about the foreign credentials recognition processes and requirements that are put in place by our provincial and territorial regulatory bodies.

They need to know about services, information and resources available to help them quickly integrate into the Canadian labour market.

Most importantly, they need to know that they can begin preparing while they are waiting to come to Canada. It’s better for them and their families, and it’s better for Canada.

When the Government of Canada opened the new Foreign Credentials Referral Office in 2007, our goal really was quite simple.

We wanted to help internationally trained immigrants to integrate quickly and succeed in the Canadian labour market.

We made a commitment to help and we kept that commitment.

Since its launch on May 24, 2007, the Foreign Credentials Referral Office’s Web site has received more than 575,000 visits—67 percent of which accessed the site from outside of Canada.

This means we are reaching potential immigrants early in the immigration process.

And to help internationally trained individuals when they arrive in Canada, there are 330 Service Canada Centres across the country that provide in-person information and referral services.

Today I am pleased to see firsthand the results of the Government of Canada’s expanded orientation and counselling sessions—through our partnership with the Canadian Immigration Integration Project—where over 3,200 individuals have already graduated.

We are working in cooperation with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges and our federal partners at Human Resources and Social Development Canada.

Just like the sessions being offered in China and the Philippines, we are giving newcomers a head start on finding the information they need.

We believe that this expansion of services has given prospective immigrants the information they need to start preparing, while still abroad, for their integration into the Canadian labour market.

Many are optimistic that the detailed information we’re offering about foreign credential recognition and the Canadian labour market will help them, in the words of one particularly satisfied client, “reinvent themselves.”

To meet the demand, additional orientation sessions have been offered on an itinerant basis in the Punjab and Gujarat regions here in India, and in Beijing and Shanghai in China.

Welcoming newcomers is about more than economics—it’s an expression of our values as Canadians.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like thank you all for your warm and genuine hospitality.

I am enjoying my trip to India. This has been a fantastic experience.

Bo-hott Shok-ri-ya!