Evidence of meeting #26 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Planning and Building, City of Burnaby
We have seven in Burnaby. It's not uncommon that you would see a refugee in the community room in a fetal position on a couch, just looking for a place for some relief.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
I'm going to have to be fairly strict on the time here to ensure each party gets seven minutes, and I know people like Mr. Telegdi want some brief questioning, as well. But I'll go to Madam Faille and then on to Mr. Siksay, and back here.
If we have time, we'll get you on, Mr. Telegdi.
Go ahead, Madam Faille.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
I would like to hear your comments on how refugees are integrated into the Burnaby community. Can you talk to us about the commitment made to welcoming these people and how the different communities interact?
Councillor, City of Burnaby
I'm sorry, I missed the first part of the question. I was trying to get myself adjusted to the translator.
One thing we did was have the community service providers--particularly non-profit organizations--come together, and they basically have been saying to the city that we have issues. What we did with the staff was bring them all together to ask what is going to immediately help--their needs in schools, their needs for health, their needs for accommodation.
One of the things they all came together on was that a multi-service hub, which they spoke of, could bring all kinds of people together and provide basic services in terms of translation, in terms of really basic health-related issues, and address cultural issues, address where to go--the kinds of things that they have already taken upon themselves to do through community schools or recreation centres, where they're trying to do these bits and pieces.
But really, they aren't covering everything, and we'd like to see these services provided through this multi-service hub facility.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
Within the refugee and immigrant population arriving in Burnaby, what is the percentage of francophones?
Public Health Nurse, Burnaby Health Promotion and Prevention, Fraser Health
I don't actually know off the top, but I do know that there are a lot of French-speaking refugees from the Congo and the former Belgian Congo.
We often find that we rely on French as the person's preferred language because we don't have access to Swahili interpreters, so people coming from Tanzania and Kenya are actually speaking that.
It's a real challenge. Many of these families are very isolated, and it's very difficult, obviously. Unfortunately, British Columbia only has .03% of the population speaking French, so in some respects some of the challenges facing these families are as much as any for any other language.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
What effort are you expending to provide services to that French-speaking population, which finds itself in a vulnerable situation?
Public Health Nurse, Burnaby Health Promotion and Prevention, Fraser Health
We've an inter-agency approach from parks and recreation in the city of Burnaby. We run a newcomers group once a week for two hours in which Fraser public health provides the translators. We run it in seven languages, as we're trying to also develop a sense of community cohesiveness.
So we do offer a French interpreter and we cover topics such as immunization, health, and parenting, which is a huge issue because the form of discipline for refugees is against the laws of the country of Canada--physical punishment isn't normal. So we explain that. But it is very challenging, because although they speak French, they don't actually read French. So many of the resources available are not usable for this population.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
What is the unemployment rate in Burnaby? More specifically, how many jobs are available to the refugees who arrive in Burnaby? How are you getting the major employers of the region involved? Perhaps you can also tell us if government offices are located in your city and what percentage of immigrants are employed in the public service.
Director, Planning and Building, City of Burnaby
Mr. Chair, we do not have any specific programs in terms of unemployment among the refugee group. In terms of the economy in B.C. now, the unemployment rate is fairly low, but I suspect among the refugee group, it's much higher. In terms of employment, it's certainly one of the issues that we see to get assistance on, because to have that economic stability in the family is very important in getting not only the parents, but the children, on the right path.
One interesting concept we have in Burnaby is a co-op that was started by an Afghani woman. They run it; it is very successful. They are in the basement of a medical building. What it also brings is a lot of confidence for them and a lot of socialization skills.
So certainly the whole aspect of jobs is extremely important to us.
Trustee, Burnaby School District
Also, in the school system, when we have children coming in at 15, 16, and 17 years of age and they're illiterate in their first language, we're trying to, in a very short period of time, provide them some basic literacy, basic numeracy, some job readiness skills, and then some opportunities for work experience. But because they have a very short period of time of maybe a year or two in which to learn all of that, it makes it very difficult to prepare them for a job experience afterwards.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
Quebec's territory is quite vast and people who decide to settle in remote areas encounter many difficulties in obtaining services from Citizenship and Immigration Canada nearby.
Is this the case in Burnaby? Does Citizenship and Immigration Canada provide services in Burnaby or in a area close by?
Councillor, City of Burnaby
I don't believe there is any. We don't know of any place where the refugees and immigrants can go directly right in Burnaby to seek any services. To my knowledge, there aren't any at all. The community services like non-profit organizations are trying to take the lead to help them.
Conservative
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Thank you, Chair.
It's great to have some fellow travellers from Burnaby here today, some company from Burnaby. It's good to see all of you. Thank you for your presentations and for your work in the community. I know it is a particular challenge, but it's also a community that's been very motivated to coordinate to the best of its ability the services that are provided to new residents of the community.
I also want to thank you for spending extra time getting here, with the challenges from the snow storm this past weekend.
Basil talked a little bit about the community school program and how that's one of the reasons that Burnaby is attractive to people. It's also one of the places where community services get focused in a particular neighbourhood. I wonder, Diana, if you can just tell us a bit more about that, particularly the Edmonds Community School and the Second Street Community School and their roles in the issue of refugee resettlement.
Trustee, Burnaby School District
The community schools provide a host of opportunities for families, and there is a community room within the school where parents can come in. There's food that can be brought in. There are community kitchens where they learn to cook the food that they find in our country that may be unfamiliar to them. There are quite often donations of clothing and other household items that they can pick up, as well. There's also the opportunity that we have a school coordinator who can connect them with the community services within our community. So it's a very vibrant area.
Also, in our community schools now we're developing family literacy centres where a parent or guardian can come in with their preschoolers and be involved in preschool activities--reading, playing games, and such. It starts to develop a literacy piece for the students, but it also gets the parents and the families more involved in our schools, so they'll feel more accepted when they get there at school age.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Many of us have found that often with refugee and immigrant populations the elementary school system is the only point of contact, in many ways, with the broader community, back and forth among the recent arrivals.
Diana, could you say a bit more about the problem around budgeting, where you don't know how many refugee students are going to be arriving in any given year, and with the September cut-off in terms of funding for the provincial government?
Trustee, Burnaby School District
Provincial funding is tabulated for the number of students who have arrived in our schools by September 30 of that school year. Any students who arrive after that, October 1 and on to the end of June, are not funded by our provincial system. Those students must be accommodated within our existing resources. That adds a real challenge, particularly when you're dealing with refugee students who are bringing in a multitude of special needs. We're trying to create new programs or alter current programs to accommodate them and that's a huge challenge for us. They're not being recognized when they come as having these issues, and so we end up with them and we need to help them be successful.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Karen, in your presentation you mentioned the inadequacies of the health coverage that refugees get, the difficulties around transportation and interpretation, and how there doesn't seem to be any particular support for those kinds of programs.
Could you tell us a bit more about the transportation issue, for instance? Burnaby is a suburban community, but many of the services that are available are delivered in Vancouver. Can you tell us a little about how that affects a refugee family as to how much time they would spend travelling, the distances involved?
Public Health Nurse, Burnaby Health Promotion and Prevention, Fraser Health
Sure. I think many of the refugee families are composed of six to eight children, and particularly, we're focusing on those most in need. We're taking families that need to seek specialist treatment in tropical diseases, HIV. So you're paying for three zones, where the actual funding for resettlement was only designed for one zone. So it can cost a family $25 to $30 to get to an appointment, which they have to go to, there's no other option. If you're living in Burnaby...in Vancouver. Basically, parents sometimes miss the appointments or they just don't have any food for that week. The amount of assistance is based on welfare, which is the lowest in the whole of Canada for British Columbia, but it is one of the most expensive provinces to live in. So that's why we're coming across this situation.
Also, the problem is that many of the communities don't have funding for translators. It was never designed to meet the needs of refugees. So unless a public health nurse attends with the client, with the interpreter from Fraser Health, the client doesn't get access to a translator. So that's another challenge facing us.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
You mentioned in an earlier meeting I had with you that there were no translators available. I think Dinka was the particular language. Could you say a bit more about that particular situation?
Public Health Nurse, Burnaby Health Promotion and Prevention, Fraser Health
I think the diversity of the different languages that we're seeing is particularly from the Sudan. There are 13 tribes in Sudan. They're nomadic tribes that speak very unusual languages. For the level of English to Dinka that we need, there is only one translator available, who works for the immigration settlement services. Often we find we are unable to provide translators for these clients, particularly from countries such as Uzbekistan, from some of the former Soviet Union that speak unusual dialects. It's a real challenge. And also the cost of this is astronomical. Just for Burnaby Public Health, it's $19,000 for Burnaby Preventive Services, which is without including any of the acute care or the maternity services.
With the ELSA level only being to grade three in British Columbia, and we know that grade six is for conversational, this is going to be an ongoing problem for many years.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Basil, you mentioned the Afghan Women's Co-op. It's a sewing co-op, I believe. I know that social enterprise was one of the criteria for the federal government in terms of the kinds of projects it wanted to support around immigrant and refugee settlement. Can you say a bit more about that? I know it was hard to find a location in the city that would accommodate that kind of enterprise and the hub proposal was looking towards being able to do that kind of thing.
Director, Planning and Building, City of Burnaby
Mr. Chair, the whole issue of social enterprise is quite important. One of the facets of the hub is to try to promote that. While I did mention that there was a sewing co-op and it is very successful, we are looking at other avenues. For example, catering is another one. Where people do have the skills and they can be marketed, it does make a big difference to the adults and to their whole situation.