Hello, everybody. My name is Martin Mark Ill, and this is my colleague, Carolyn Vanderlip.
We are two of the representatives elected by 89 sponsorship agreement holder organizations, or SAHs, from across Canada to represent them on the NGO-Government Committee on Private Sponsorship of Refugees program.
The committee, which also includes representatives from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, was formed to allow for a productive exchange of ideas to improve the program's operation, to enhance communication and coordination, and to identify and recommend solutions.
The private sponsorship program is an amazing demonstration of sincere generosity and goodwill from a wide diversity of organizations: faith groups, ethno-specific organizations, development organizations, and human rights organizations right across Canada.
We resettle refugees to both small communities and large cities, and participation in the program is internationally well recognized as a factor in fostering hospitality and acceptance of newcomers among average Canadians, average citizens. It is multiculturalism at its best.
The program enhances Canada's humanitarian commitment toward refugees. Private sponsors in Canada resettle more refugees than the entire programs of many other resettlement countries together. Approximately $44 million is spent annually by private sponsors, while the cost to the government is minimal in this program.
But we believe that this wonderful program is in jeopardy and in crisis. A backlog of more than 14,000 or 15,000 people has resulted in processing times of three, four, or five years, or even longer. This is not effective protection for refugees who need a solution now.
Sponsoring groups are becoming extremely discouraged and can easily use their time and resources elsewhere for one of the many other worthy causes demanding their attention. Still, there is capacity and enthusiasm in the sponsoring community to do even more. The U.S. and the UNHCR have approached Canada to take more Iraqi and Palestinian refugees, and the government is looking to private sponsors for help.
Group processing will continue this year. We want to help, just as we have by responding to emergency requests and special programs such as those for Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and the Karen, but many of us already have our resources, both financial and human, committed to cases in the backlog. We don't know when, or even if, they will arrive, and if we overcommit ourselves, we risk a default in our sponsorship agreement.
Last year CIC asked sponsors to limit their undertakings to fewer than 4,000 persons per year for the next three years to allow them to clear the backlog. CIC committed to processing 6,000 or 7,000 persons, no different from previous years.
You know, asking humanitarian organizations to cut back on the number of people they are helping is an extremely difficult request, but for the future of the program, sponsors limited their submissions to even fewer than what was asked; CIC made final decisions on even more than they committed to. This should result in a decrease in the inventory.