Newmarket, Ontario

Thank you for that introduction, and good morning to you all. On behalf of the Government of Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, I am delighted to be here this morning.

To begin, I’d like to thank Social Enterprise for Canada and Job Skills Employment and Business Programs and Supports for welcoming us here today.
I want to talk about what the opening of this Welcome Centre will mean, and about the services it will provide. But before I do that, I want to reflect just a bit on how we got here. The opening of these four new Welcome Centre’s is the culmination of some truly terrific work done here in York Region.

As many of you will know, the idea for the Welcome Centre’s came out of York Region’s Inclusivity Plan.  I was going back over some of the history of the development of that plan the other day, and I was struck by how broad-based the support for this idea was across the region.

I was struck by a community that wanted to do a better job of serving the growing number of newcomers in York Region. The numbers are eye-opening. More than 46,000 recent immigrants arrived in this region between 2001 and 2006.

I was struck by a community that organized itself for that purpose – to make it easier for those newcomers to settle in York Region. I was struck too by the notion of an Inclusivity Summit, which many of you in this room may have attended more than five years ago now.
There were many ideas discussed at that summit – including the importance of a gathering place for new immigrants. The outcome of all that good work, and all that forward thinking can be seen today...a one-stop shop for immigrant services here in Newmarket.

And so, I offer to all of you who have been involved in this project from the beginning, my congratulations for helping to make it happen.
I want to say a few words too about what the Government of Canada contributed to the idea, and why we think it’s so important.
The Government of Canada is funding four new Welcome Centre’s in York Region. That’s on top of the Welcome Centre that’s been operating in Vaughn since June 2007.  The Welcome Centre there has helped more than 6,000 newcomers since it opened.  The Welcome Centres are intended to make it easier for newcomers to get the help they need to be successful.

This new centre here in Newmarket will enable newcomer to access a full range of services by pooling the resources of several community-based agencies under one roof. In addition to services offered by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Settlement Program, such as language classes, and job search counselling, this Welcome Centre will also host a variety of organizations offering things like family counselling, public health information, and legal services.

The Welcome Centres provide an innovative way to deliver settlement services by allowing agencies like Social Enterprise for Canada here in Newmarket to use a coordinated approach to settlement services, one that is tailored to the individual needs of newcomers. This Welcome Centre will be an important gathering place, not only for newcomers, but for those who want to help them find a place in Canadian society.

That’s why the Government of Canada committed funding of 24.7 million dollars for the Welcome Centres through the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement. 
The Government of Canada is also providing funding for a mobile unit to provide settlement services to newcomers located in smaller communities in York Region.
We are committed to helping newcomers integrate into their new communities more quickly, and giving them more opportunities to find jobs. This Welcome Centre will help them do just that.  Congratulations again to all those who helped make it happen.