The CERIS Management Board met at approximately eight-week intervals from September 1999 through to April 2000 (postponed from March 2000) to oversee the CERIS research program and provide direction on issues of policy and priorities.

New to the Management Board was Dr. Lucia Lo, a geographer and CERIS-affiliated researcher from York University. Dr. Marie Truelove from Ryerson Polytechnic University replaced outgoing Chair Carl Amrhein, currently the Dean of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto. A social evening was organized to thank Dr. Amrhein for his contributions over the past two years as Chair of the CERIS Management Board.

During the course of the year the Management Board decided to add a voting representative of the federal funders. This position was filled by Elizabeth Ruddick, the Director of Strategic Research and Review for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Among the most important issues dealt with by the Management Board during the course of the year were the allocation of 1999 RFP and MRI research funds, and the formulation of the 2000 RFP. Another major responsibility was participation in the SSHRC-Metropolis mid-term review process, including the hosting of the June 1999 Site Visit. Organization of the September 1999 Research Retreat also occupied the attention of the Management Board, as did formalization of policies concerning travel grants to both academic researchers and community partners.

Neither the Communications Committee nor the Major Research Initiatives Work Group met during the past year. Our major volunteer efforts at the Board level were devoted to preparation of the Fourth National Metropolis Conference, with the establishment of specialised working committees in the areas of Fundraising, Special Events and Media Liaison, and Program, as well as an overall Conference Coordination committee. Along with her general duties as Board Chair, Marie Truelove also acted as Chair of the Program Committee and Conference Coordination Committee for the Fourth National Metropolis Conference.

Of the long-term standing committees of the Management Board, the most active during the past year was the Data Committee. There have been some changes in the membership of the data committee since June, 2000. Marie Truelove and Lucia Lo have finished their terms. They have been replaced by Shuguang Wang, Ryerson Polytechnic University, and Valerie Preston, York University. Valerie Preston is serving as the Chair. University of Toronto is represented by William Magee since Eric Fong from University of Toronto has withdrawn from the committee during his sabbatical. The new representative for the City of Toronto is Bill Warren who replaces his predecessor, Steve Woodward, from the Planning Department. Finally, the committee welcomes Andy Mitchell who represents the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto. Korina Besednick from Statistics Canada and Ted Richmond are continuing to serve on the committee.

One of the main activities of the Data Committee during this past year was to publicize the new data sets donated to the Metropolis project for immigration research purposes. One of the highlights of these data acquisitions was the arrival early in the year of Longitudinal Immigration Data Base (IMDB) compendium tables. These have been compiled from the IMDB, a longitudinal database that links administrative records of immigrants at landing (from 1980 to 1995) with their subsequent tax files, which was created to respond to the need for detailed and reliable data on the performance and impact of the Immigration Program.

On Wednesday May 19, CERIS hosted a day-long data workshop to promote the use of Metropolis-license data. The morning session was dedicated to the Immigration Database (IMDB) compendium table, and the afternoon session focussed on the Landings Data (LIDS). Speakers at the two sessions were Craig Dougherty and Dan Jost from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The very informative sessions attracted over twenty people.

The Data Committee also engaged in extensive consultations within the Metropolis network concerning the details of the Core Tables based on 1996 Census data, and was rewarded with receipt of this data late in the year. These data sets were prepared by Statistics Canada as part of their contribution to the Metropolis project. Tables include profiles of immigrant groups and cross-tabulated data at the Census Metropolitan Area, Census Sub Division, census tract and enumeration area levels for the 8 cities involved in the Metropolis Project (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg).

Support to staff working on the MetaDatabase project was an ongoing responsibility of the members of the Data Committee, who helped celebrate the launch of this exciting project with a lunch for participants on January 27, 2000.

Throughout the year details of licensing agreements for Metropolis-license data products continued to be negotiated. Towards the end of the year the committee began consulting CERIS researchers and affiliates about the need for further training on Metropolis data products.

Leadership to the 2000 RFP research funding competition was a major responsibility of the Management Board during the past year. CERIS published its 2000 Request for Proposals in December 1999, with a deadline for proposals on January 14, 2000. The theme areas for projects in the 2000 competition were identified at CERIS’s annual retreat held on September 22, 1999. The retreat brought together 40 representatives from universities, government and community agencies to discuss a research agenda and funding priorities for CERIS in 2000. The following four themes emerged from the discussions, and the specific content evolved through follow-up discussions among the Directors and the Board of Management:

Societal Change

Access to Services

Settlement processes

Immigrant Children and the Children of Immigrants

CERIS received 23 applications in response to the 2000 RFP, and the adjudication process began after the Management Board meeting of February 4. Adjudication panels were organised by Research Domain, except that two domains (Education, Justice and Law) were combined because of a smaller number of submissions in each of the two. Each panel comprised five persons, three of whom (including the chair) were university-based researchers, with the remaining two community agencies or the municipal government. Two members from each of the domain panels sat on the Composite Committee, which is chaired the Management Board chairperson.

Selection of RFP finalists and the Management Board decisions on allocation of research funding continued into the following fiscal year.

The PAC met four times during the year. PAC's mandate is to enhance community participation in setting CERIS research goals in each of the domains. PAC actively seeks consultation with and advice from groups that are involved in the provision and/or planning of services for immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). With representatives from local and regional municipalities, inter-agency networks, and multi-service agencies, PAC assists in linking community groups (from health, housing, education, planning and labour sectors) with academics with similar research interests.

Recent activities of PAC include the development of the CERIS-PAC Training Project, recruitment of members in the education, housing and labour sectors, and participation in the 4th International Metropolis Conference in Washington, D.C., and in the 4^th National Metropolis Conference in Toronto.

PAC also reviewed its member representation in the areas of housing, education, and labour/business. Several members are actively recruiting in both community and academic settings to ensure a minimum of two representatives per sector. As a result, three new organizations joined PAC during the year: the Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres (OAYEC); Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees(UNITE); and the Working Skills Centre. These organizations are represented by Kay Eastman (Executive Director, OAYEC), Jonathan Eaton (Assistant to the Canadian Director, UNITE), and Minerva Hui (Executive Director, Working Skills).

There are some new faces on the PAC as well. Samuel Dunn, Research Consultant, is York Community Services' new representative to the PAC, replacing Dr. Kevin Pottie. We thank Kevin for his commitment to the PAC during his term and wish him the best in his new job. Thanks go to Henry Chong from the Department of Canadian Heritage for his valuable participation on the PAC. Henry has been replaced by Dean Lewis, Social Development Officer, Ontario Region of Canadian Heritage. Leaving the PAC after a number of years representing the Toronto District Health Council is Natalia Klimko. Sincere thanks go to Natalia for her contribution to the PAC and other CERIS committees. We welcome Iona Noah, Senior Health Planner, who will be replacing Natalia. Although Shamira Madhany from Access to Professions and Trades Unit, Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation, is not officially leaving the PAC, her workload is such that she will be represented by Susan MacDonald from her office. Welcome to Susan and all of the new PAC representatives.

The Executive Committee meets bi-weekly to implement Management Board decisions, to coordinate CERIS activities and to deal with issues that arise in between Board meetings.

The Executive Committee comprises Dr. Morton Beiser (CERIS Director), Dr. Kenise Murphy Kilbride and Dr. Paul Anisef (CERIS Associate Directors), Dr. Marie Truelove (Management Board chair), Ted Richmond (Administrative Coordinator) and Dr. Winston Husbands (Academic Coordinator).

Dr. Winston Husbands, the Academic Coordinator, joined CERIS in August. Winston is a geographer, who has taught at the University of Zambia and at Ryerson Polytechnic University. For the past three and a half years ago, Winston has been Research Director at the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto. Since he began at CERIS in late August, Winston has been involved in a whirlwind of planning and events, including the annual Research Retreat, the 2000 RFP, and CERIS’s seminar series.

Ted Richmond continues as Administrative Coordinator. For most of this year Ted has been occupied with organization the 4^th National Metropolis Conference and with the MetaDatabase project, in addition to his regular duties.

Administratively, CERIS has been very busy this year preparing the 4^th National Metropolis Conference. This work has included fundraising, media and special events, and program planning. Several part-time staff have been hired to coordinate and assist in running the conference.

We continue to administer a growing portfolio of research projects, which has increased the bookkeeping workload for our secretary Sue Ann Tru’o’ng. Other demands include maintaining an extensive communications infrastructure and managing the website and resource centre.

The University of Toronto continues to provide extensive material support to CERIS in the form of office space including utilities, telephone and fax connections, Internet connectivity, and access to centralized automated financial systems. In its fourth year of operations CERIS’ main offices continued to be located in the Faculty of Social Work building at the University of Toronto, with its recently renovated offices, large and small meeting rooms, and splendid downtown location easily accessible by subway.

York University continued to donate office space for the York CERIS office, and provided a Graduate Assistant to staff the CERIS York office. The Department of Urban Studies at York University provided a placement student who worked on organization of the Fourth National Metropolis Conference. Media outreach and liaison for the Fourth Canadian Metropolis Conference was organized by Sine MacKinnon, Senior Advisor and Director of Media Relations at York University.

Ryerson Polytechnic University provides local office space for CERIS’ activities and has provided a student research assistant to supply the necessary editorial production work in the development of the CERIS Working Paper Series.

All the universities which were founding partners in the CERIS project provide three members each to the CERIS Management Board. The time of the three directors, donated by the three universities, remains essential to the planning and coordination of our research program and dissemination activities. The demands far exceed the one-half time contributions of Dr. Beiser (University of Toronto) and the one-quarter time contributions of Dr. Kilbride (Ryerson Polytechnic University) and Dr. Anisef (York University).

Academics from all three founding universities also donate their time and energies to CERIS projects and work groups including domain responsibilities, adjudication, working committees and conference delegations. This past year has been particularly demanding with respect to volunteer contributions to our various conference planning committees.