Canada has been shaped by people who came from all over the world to build this country. WOW offers a platform for us to celebrate this history and the future it will help…

Alex Munter, Chair of the OLIP Council and President and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre
My nomination is an indication that our hard work in building Canada is recognized. All we do is to serve the community in return for embracing us when we needed it.  

Mehdi Mahdavi
Ottawa Immigrant Entrepreneurship Awards Nominee
I was happy to see integration to Algonquin territory and indigenous culture related programming in 2014 WOW. Please continue to involve local Aboriginal organisations and…

Linda Manning
WOW 2014 participant, Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa
We are very pleased to have done the “Opportunity Cost of Not Investing in Interpretation” report – it is so important to have clarity on these challenges and…

Hindia Mohamoud, Director, OLIP
The City of Ottawa will continue to play a lead role in the implementation of the Ottawa Immigration Strategy, just as we did in the founding of OLIP.

Steve Desroches
City Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Ottawa
The work and expertise that OLIP brings to our community is so important as it helps us to build bridges and break down silos.  I look forward to our continued work together. 

Jim Watson, Mayor of Ottawa
OLIP helps to unite and share scarce resources for greater impact by working together in the field of student education.

Walter Piovesan
Associate Director of Education, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre is so happy to have joined the OLIP Health and Wellbeing Sector Table. It is clear that OLIP cares about immigrants and refugees and…

Wendy Tang, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre
The OLIP Council is committed to leadership.  In only a few years, we have a common vision and priorities, and are up to the task of implementing the Ottawa Immigration Strategy.

Salimatou Diallo
OLIP Council Vice Chair, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
All the WOW events that I went to were great – WOW does give a sense of a community trying to improve its attraction and retention!

Caroline Andrew
Professor, University of Ottawa

Acknowledgements

January 10, 2018

We truly appreciate the valuable insights of the forum’s speakers: Mayor Jim Watson; Alex Munter, Chair, OLIP Council and President and CEO, CHEO and Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre; Ian Faris, President and CEO, Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and Executive Member, Local Employment Planning Council; Chantale LeClerc, CEO, Champlain Local Health Integration Network, Dr. Valerie Preston, Department of Geography, York University and Principal Investigator, Migration and Resilience in Urban Canada; Yvonne Ferrer, Director, Refugee Settlement Unit, Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration; Wendy Vuyk, Associate Director and Coordinator, Eastern Ontario Region, Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation and Dr. Josephine Etowa, Professor, University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

We also wish to recognize the contribution of our skilled facilitators: Ingrid Argyle, Program Manager, Ottawa Employment Hub, Kelly McGahey, Senior Manager, Stakeholder Relations, Hire Immigrants Ottawa, Jennifer Ditchburn, Editor-in Chief, Policy Options and Lynne Tyler, Catalyst Research and Communications.

We also wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to organizations that contributed to the forum: Champlain Local Health Integration Network, Local Employment Planning Council, University of Ottawa’s Centre on Governance, Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and Royal Bank of Canada for their contributions and sponsorship of today’s forum. Without their support, the 4th Biennial Ottawa Immigration Forum would not have been possible.

Hosting our forum involved a great deal of hard work in the background, so we wish to Joycelyn Glover, our event planner and OLIP staff Denise Deby, Hodan Egale and Suzanne Charest, along with Hawo Suleiman, Liliose Umubyeyi and Abeer Alqaisi  who volunteered at the forum.

It’s only because of your time, engagement and commitment, that we were able to have this wonderful rendez-vous, which we have every two years. All of this will ultimately help strengthen our common understanding in support of local planning and actions for newcomers, as we chart the way forward in building the foundation for a stronger and more diverse Ottawa.