Canada's Settlement Sector and the Case for AI as an Assistant, Not a Replacement

Canada's settlement system is large. In 2024–25, more than 550 partner organizations helped slightly more than 690,000 newcomers outside Québec alone. That work is often the first point of contact a newcomer has with housing, employment, language training and health care, which is why the question of automating any of it matters. Writing in The Conversation Canada, an immigration policy researcher argues that AI can help settlement agencies work faster and reach more people — but that it should support workers rather than replace them. It is a position about design, not about whether the tools arrive. The case for AI here is speed and reach; the case against treating it as a substitute is that the thing being delivered is care.