Metropolis SeminarOttawa

An Immigration Strategy: The Municipal Perspective

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[Date YEAR]

Presentation by Joshua Bates

About FCM

• Roots going back to 1901 • Mission is to foster sustainable

communities enjoying a high quality of life by promoting strong, effective and accountable municipal government

• FCM deals with the federal government on municipal policy and program matters within federal jurisdiction

About FCM

• Members: 1800 municipal members • Reach: Represents almost 90% of the

Canadian population• Diversity: Large, medium and small;

coast to coast to coast; virtually all large and medium sized municipalities

• Complex governance: Large, board of 74 elected municipal officials

• Strong, united membership: sector unity; aggregator and interlocutor; advocate

Introduction

•Federal/Provincial success tied to local government involvement

•All municipalities play a role in immigration settlement

•Key municipal issues:

• Meeting the needs of newcomers

• Governance

• Funding mechanisms

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What Immigrants Want

• Housing

• Employment

• Language instruction

• Access to public services

Housing

• Key to a newcomer’s sense of stability

• Constrained by affordability and sometimes discrimination

• Newcomers more likely to be renters

• Challenges lessen over time

Public Transit

• Newcomers much more likely to use public transit to commute to work

• Trend towards settling in smaller and suburban communities

• Transit is key to successful immigration settlement

Employment

• Better educated, lower employment rate

• Failure to recognize foreign credentials

• Local governments taking the lead in developing collaborative partnerships with employers

Governance

• Local government responsibilities less explicitly recognized than those of other orders of government

• Municipalities as “first responders” in immigration settlement

• Compelling reasons for local governments to be at the policy table

Funding

• Federal funding flows through the provinces

• Funding tied to initial landing location

• This creates significant challenges in “secondary migration”

Conclusions

• Communities big and small want newcomers

• Municipalities are working hard to attract and retain more immigrants

• Newcomers valued for their skills and the diversity they bring