1. Metropolis Seminar Ottawa An Immigration Strategy: The Municipal Perspective 1 [Date YEAR] Presentation by Joshua Bates

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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 4

5. What Immigrants Want Housing Employment Language instruction Access to public services

6. Housing Key to a newcomers sense of stability Constrained by affordability and sometimes discrimination Newcomers more likely to be renters Challenges lessen over time

7. 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

8. Employment Better educated, lower employment rate Failure to recognize foreign credentials Local governments taking the lead in developing collaborative partnerships with employers

9. 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

10. Funding Federal funding flows through the provinces Funding tied to initial landing location This creates significant challenges in secondary migration

11. 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