Immigration Matters

'If city planners are working with the wrong numbers, it obviously affects the most pressing issue of the day, which is housing'

'I have attended only one citizenship ceremony, and it was back when Jay Aspin was our Member of Parliament. I was invited, as the then executive director of the North Bay & District Multicultural Centre, to sit with the dignitaries (who? me?) and then congratulate each new Canadian after they became citizens'

'There would be howls of protests from all 11 communities if RNIP were to end next year. Politicians don’t like howls of protest'

'I don’t know the answer. I have been involved in immigration for decades and I have seen nothing that can prove we are a welcoming community. It’s time to find out.'

'If you ask people what percentage of Canadians are immigrants, some will get it pretty close. The answer, according to the 2021 census, is 23 per cent. I prefer the figure 95 per cent'

‘My Filipino clients are predominantly in the health care field, and the ones from India are more focused on business careers'

“Page-turner,” “gripping,” “hard-hitting,” are words used often to describe good books, and they all apply to this one.

'Of the 2,615 newcomers, 2,245 are visible minorities'

'Let’s hope sanity prevails and they don’t use the lure of unlimited hours of work to become workers instead of students'

'It’s really a no-brainer. Pilots by their very nature are built to test the waters and see what works and what doesn’t work. RNIP is working, so the natural progression is from pilot to permanent'