Immigration and Settlement

That the CCR:

1. Provide space at CCR conferences for refugee women, with a priority to outreach to informally organized refugee women;
2. Ensure refugee women as a priority in the nominations for positions to the CCR Executive and Working Group Chairs, similar to the refugee participation policy;
3. Identify better strategies in the promotion of the Refugee Participation Fund to include better methods of ensuring continuity, support and orientation for participants, e.g. mentoring;
4. Strongly encourage member agencies to facilitate support of the participation of refugee women through the Refugee Participation Fund and to provide resources and support to develop and maintain networks at local levels.

That the CCR encourage Citizenship and Immigration Canada to:

1. Develop the framework in a transparent, accountable manner by:
   a) engaging in meaningful two-way consultations;
   b) ensuring benefits from frontline and academic expertise in the provision of adult education, employment and settlement services;
   c) conducting business in an open and transparent manner, including posting on the internet such documents as, inter alia, studies, reports and meeting minutes; holding regional meetings with open invitations to contract holders; and reporting to all relevant umbrella groups;
2. Develop the framework in such a manner as to strengthen, facilitate and improve service delivery;
3. Develop the framework acknowledging the complexities of managing both large and small NGOs and with the intent of facilitating sound, efficient management thereof;
4. Clarify the distinctions and interconnections between: performance measurement/ program evaluation; outputs/outcomes and quantitative/qualitative indicators.

That the CCR seek funding to enable the National Settlement Services Standards Steering Committee to complete the following tasks:

1. Develop tools to assist workers and agencies in adopting and using the NSSS framework;
2. Research and develop a peer review support model for agencies using the NSSS framework;
3. Explore the concept of a national registry of settlement agencies having successfully completed a peer review process.

That the CCR call on CIC to be accountable to the service providers and newcomers by implementing timely application and approval target dates to ensure that new contribution agreements are signed and new year advances are released before existing contribution agreements end.

That the CCR:

1. Call on Metropolis Canada to amend their proposal to take account of a broader concept of settlement and integration of refugees and immigrants and include priorities concerning protection issues;
2. Establish an ad hoc task group to develop a common NGO position in response to the Metropolis proposal, notably on the terms of participation in Metropolis bodies and activities and reiterate our call to provide a mechanism and resources to facilitate the participation of community organizations serving immigrants and refugees.

That the CCR:

1. Call on CIC to do a survey of working conditions in the sector and act to improve funding levels to allow agencies to provide reasonable working conditions;
2. Investigate disparities in salary contributions in agreements with, inter alia, HRDC and Health Canada, with the objective of making a human rights complaint on discrimination in contracting.

That the CCR contact the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and urge that CIC be resourced to supply sufficient support staff to provide for expeditious processing of family reunification, private sponsorships and other matters that require avoidance of delays and backlogs which cause pain and anxiety to refugees.

That the CCR contact the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and request that families and individuals granted Minister ’s Permits for permanent admission to Canada be given equivalent benefits to resettled refugees and permanent residents.

That the CCR:

1. Verify with the Privacy Commissioner and the Canadian Human Rights Commission and seek independent legal advice on the ethics of:  (i) agencies releasing client information without explicit, voluntary, informed client consent.  (ii) having newcomers sign blanket release of information forms upon arrival, raising significant issues of informed, voluntary consent and raising issues of how agencies will be able to know which clients may have refused release of information;
2. Request that CIC do a cost-benefit analysis of moving from aggregate data collection to individual data collection;
3. Urge CIC to heed the suggestions in the Kathleen Stevenson report;
4. Urge CIC to enter into a discussion with the sector about the desired outcomes of settlement services and base the performance measurement and program evaluation framework on these outcomes.

That the CCR join the National Housing and Homelessness Network and the Urban Core Support Network to persuade federal, provincial and territorial governments to support the one percent solution which will create quality and affordable housing for all Canadians and that specific amounts of all new funding be identified for housing for newcomers.