Keynote Speech by Gerry Clement
July 18, 2013The forum keynote speech was delivered by Gerry Clement, former Assistant Deputy Minister of Manitoba Labour and Immigration; and one of the principal architects of Manitoba’s highly successful strategy for attracting and retaining newcomers.
The speech, named after the Forum theme: “The Building Blocks of a Welcoming Community: The Manitoba Blueprint- Shared experiences” focused attention on the relationship between the quality of the welcome that a community extends to newcomers, and its projected future as an exciting, innovative, cosmopolitan, and prosperous place.
Drawing from the Manitoba experience, which has successfully quadrupled its immigration levels between 2000 to 2011, Clement highlighted the importance of inter-jurisdictional collaboration and integrated community efforts to welcome and help newcomers integrate in their new country. The Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) have evolved from this rationale and have a crucial role in catalyzing horizontal and vertical partnerships, through bottom–up planning and leadership development.
The Forum audience was highly engaged with the presentation made by the Keynote Speaker, and posed good questions aimed to find out more on replicable best practices of Manitoba to enhance immigrant attraction and integration work in Ottawa.
View here Gerry Clement’s presentation at the 2nd Annual Ottawa Immigration Forum.
The full coverage of Clement’s speech and Question & Answers with the audience are provided in the following videos.