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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

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

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

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

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

The target beneficiary of the work of OLIP is the whole community. In this short period we have planted together important seeds for Ottawa’s development.

Dick Stewart
OLIP Council

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

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

In our city’s history, immigrants have always played an important role. They build our economic prosperity, diversify our culture, contribute to our social vitality.

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

Welcoming Ottawa Week

Welcoming Ottawa Week (WOW) is an annual, week-long series of dialogues, cultural and celebratory events, sports activities, documentary screenings, and other fun events designed to convey the genuine welcome and hospitality of Ottawans to newcomers, while providing opportunities for quality interactions between residents, old and new.

Recurring annually since 2013 on the last week of June, WOW was initiated by OLIP and proclaimed by the Mayor of Ottawa. WOW responds to the following two broad priorities of Ottawa’s Immigration Strategy (OIS), launched in June 2011:

To create multiple opportunities and pathways for all Ottawa residents to connect intellectually and socially in order to achieve a cohesive civic culture that draws on the creativity of all residents to create a diverse, vibrant, and cosmopolitan city.
To draw attention to Ottawa’s flourishing diversity in order to strengthen the City’s competitive advantage in attracting new residents and capital from around the world.

Read 2013 Proclamation of WOW by Ottawa’s Mayor Jim Watson

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