Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, meeting number 38, on Thursday, December 3, 2009. The orders of the day, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), are the study of best practices in the settlement services.

There are two issues I'd like to discuss with you before we introduce our guests. First, there are votes at 10:45 and the bells will start ringing at 10:15. We will not come back after the vote because we'd only be here for a few minutes. So I need guidance from the committee on when you'd like to adjourn the meeting.

Mr. Dykstra.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I'm not going to take much time. I know we have witnesses here for a specific purpose, Mr. Chair, but I understand the difficulties you face. I submit that we conclude this meeting at 10:30.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

So 10:30 it is. I have explained to two of the witnesses what has happened.

There are also some motions today from Ms. Chow. There were three of them. She has withdrawn one, and I will ask her if she will agree to put it off until next week.

Monsieur St-Cyr.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

If I've understood correctly, the committee would continue to sit during the first 15 minutes of the bell ringing. Have I understood correctly?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

That's what I understand. It's been suggested that instead of ending at 11, the meeting will end at 10:30. The bells will start ringing at 10:15.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

All right. My only concern is what has already happened in the past, when the government whip and the opposition whip agree to proceed to the vote before the 30 minutes are up.

I simply want the parliamentary secretary to give us his assurance that his whip will allow the 30-minute bells to run out.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I know I'm not making any assurance. I'm asking for the guidance of the committee. So if we're all agreed, it will end at 10:30.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Very well.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

As I explained to two of you—I haven't explained it to Mr. Tam yet—this meeting normally goes to 11 o'clock. You've now heard that it will go to 10:30 because there are going to be votes in the House. When that happens the committee has to adjourn. So you will each have 10 minutes to make presentations. Then committee members will have rounds.

We have with us today Mr. Bouissoukrane, the Acting Senior Manager of the Calgary Immigrant Education Society. We have Mr. Chan from MOSAIC. He's the Director of Settlement Services. We have Thomas Tam, the Chief Operating Officer of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.

On behalf of the committee, I'd like to welcome you this morning.

We'll start with Mr. Chan, please.

Good morning to you.

[Sherman Chan, Director, Settlement Services, MOSAIC]

Good morning to everyone. Thank you, Mr. Chair and the committee, for giving me the opportunity to come here to speak about best practices in settlement services.

I will try to stick to my notes, so it could be more like reading it out. But I'm open to any questions from the committee. My presentation will focus on three areas.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

There will be questions from the committee, at least I expect there will, after you make your presentations.

[Sherman Chan]

Thank you. My presentation will be on the best practices and standards, the integrated service delivery model, and the settlement services sector history and development.

Before I start, I would like to make a summary statement. Best practices in settlement services aim to advance the achievement of the successful settlement and adaptation of new immigrants and refugees to Canada through an integrated service delivery model provided by well-resourced settlement organizations and trained workers.

What is meant by best practices and standards? Best practices are offered in order to enhance efforts at improvement, share information and experience, and encourage discussion and conversation. For us, standards that can be developed from best practices are generally agreed upon minimum norms for programs and services. Best practices constitute an ideal to which an organization or service can strive.

The establishment of best practices and standards for and in settlement services is crucial in providing immigrants and refugees with a supportive environment that assists with their settlement and integration into society. It builds upon the importance of working together to ensure a welcoming and supportive community and service network to accomplish this goal. It also identifies a need or gap in consistent settlement training and practice, and seeks to further develop a number of strategies aimed at building capacity in settlement organizations.

In the context of the shared responsibilities of governments, settlement organizations, and host societies regarding the successful integration of immigrants and refugees, best practices and standards are geared toward ensuring that immigrants and refugees are served according to their needs and rights by qualified workers who have been trained; communities can count on settled and integrated newcomers who are able to contribute to and participate in society to their full potential; in the context of a demanding job, the needs of workers are met and adequate compensation for their work is provided; settlement organizations can improve governance and infrastructure; settlement organizations are adequately resourced to fulfill their mandates and missions; the uniqueness, legitimacy, and value of settlement services in Canada are reaffirmed, widely recognized, and supported; and governments and those who fund are getting better return for their social investments.

Best practices and standards of settlement services also clarify an accountability framework for measuring settlement outcomes, and they include definitions of key results-based management terminology.

Considering the current state of settlement services, a dialogue on best practices and standards will serve to create a commitment to common values and practices, a common vocabulary, and overall greater coherence in the sector. It appears most appropriate for best practices and standards to be adopted on a voluntary basis or used as a tool to gradually enhance the operations of settlement organizations, as well as create a common language and greater consistency in the provision of settlement services.

Concrete recommendations were made within the 2003 second national conference working group IV discussion paper on national settlement service and standards framework, which has been undertaken by federal and provincial governments along with the settlement service sector and relevant organizations. They include establishing immediate, medium-term and long-term outcome indicators of the settlement process for measurement and evaluation; discussing and implementing the training, human resource, and financial implications of establishing minimum core competencies for organizations and settlement workers; identifying common priorities, links, and directions for actions that will lead to increased accountability, greater recognition, and better understanding of settlement services across Canada; and highlighting inter-organizational collaboration to address the enhancement of the settlement sector's capacity to provide improved settlement services across Canada.

When we talk about the integrated service delivery model, what is meant is that the integrated service delivery model aims to remove the artificial barriers between traditional settlement programs. It aims to provide an opportunity for an innovative, responsive, and holistic approach to helping immigrants and refugees achieve successful settlement and adaptation.

Under an integrated service delivery model, organizations support an immigrant or refugee client as a whole person rather than as simply a person looking for work, a student learning English, or a mother trying to find out how to get her children into school.

Further, every client is assigned a worker who is well versed in the various challenges immigrants and refugees face. That worker assesses the client's needs and offers him or her an array of options--including employment, language, family, and settlement programs and services options--to ease his or her settlement and adaptation into Canadian society. The worker remains with the immigrant or refugee until such time as his or her goals are achieved.

Services are offered across gender and age groups: males and females, singles and families. They also address the needs of children, youth, seniors, and other vulnerable populations. From MOSAIC's experience, it is about organizing our work systematically so that it meets the primary needs of immigrants and refugees.

At a macro level, it calls on the stakeholders, particularly settlement organizations, government funders, and employers, to work together by breaking existing silos.

I am going to talk to you about the history of the settlement service sector and its development.

The settlement service sector is part of the social service sector that has the specific mandate and expertise to serve immigrants and refugees. Here are some highlights of the history and development of the settlement services sector in Canada.

After the First World War, in 1922, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society was formed. It was the first settlement organization in Canada. After the Second World War, in the 1940s, CSAI, with their Thursday suppers, and the Manitoba Interfaith Immigrant Council were formed. Then in 1952, there was Italian Immigrant Aid Toronto. In 1961 we had COSTI; in the 1970s, MOSAIC; and in 1978, the Canadian Council for Refugees.

Then, of course, the federal government launched programs. In 1974 there was ISAP, the immigrant settlement and adaptation program; in 1990, the LINC program, language instruction for newcomers; and in 1991, the host program.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Chan, you have one minute.

[Sherman Chan]

Thank you.

In short, we see the development of the settlement services sector as a subsector of social services. We request that the current capacity of settlement services be enhanced to achieve the best practices in settlement services, which will help immigrants and refugees.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Chan.

We'll go to Mr. Bouissoukrane. Thanks for coming.

[Noureddine Bouissoukrane, Acting Senior Manager, Calgary Immigrant Educational Society]

You're welcome.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Noureddine Bouissoukrane. I come from Calgary. I work for the Calgary Immigrant Educational Society.

First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me. It's an honour for me to be here.

The Calgary Immigrant Educational Society was established in 1988 by Mr. Salim Sindhu, who has been in the sector for 25 years. He was supposed to be here today, but he sends his regrets due to his pre-arranged commitments, so I'm representing our society here.

Just to build on what my colleague says, first I would like to thank CIAC for welcoming and supporting newcomers to Canada from all over the world.

Second, I don't want to explain the practices. I came with some recommendations from my own experience of one and a half years with newcomers in Calgary.

The first is that we see a lot of soft skills. A lot of new immigrants have a lot of technical skills. However, most of them lack soft skills like business communication, Canadian culture, Canadian corporate culture, and so on. So I would suggest, if it's possible, for the CIAC to come up with programs like soft skills, business communication, how to talk, the way of doing business in Canada, and Canadian culture. I know some of it is already included in LINC programs.

The second is that CIAC has some programs, a lot of proposals, but most of them go year to year, which is really not sustainable. If it's possible to have multi-year funding programs, the employees will feel secure in their job, will perform more, and the outcome will be higher, I believe.

The third is salary. This is my own opinion. The salaries in the agencies serving immigrants—I'm talking about Calgary—are a bit lower than in other sectors, so we have a high turnover in our society. They stay two or three months and then they get better offers, so they leave us.

The fourth is to have more local immigrant services in communities. In Calgary, we have three or four, and all of them offer all those settlement programs, which are employment, language, family, youth, women, and so on. Small and medium ones offer only one or two programs.

For some reason, the big organizations go to settlement programs right away. They submit a proposal and somehow it's accepted. Newcomers usually come to new communities. If we try to build up more small agencies, it would really help newcomers.

The fifth is international students. A lot of international students come to us. They are already here in Canada and they've learned the language; they are already integrated. They know our culture here in Canada, so they ask if it's possible to reduce the time to become a permanent resident. In some provinces it takes them up to 24 months. Is it possible to do something about the timing?

The last recommendation I have is on family reunification. Either the husband or wife comes here, and in some provinces they have to wait between a year and two years. If it's possible, I would recommend doing something about the timing processing for immigration. Family reunification would play a crucial role in performance.

Thank you. I'll be happy to answer questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, Mr. Bouissoukrane.

Mr. Tam, you can make your presentation now.

[Thomas Tam, Chief Operating Officer, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.]

Good morning. My name is Thomas Tam and I'm the Chief Operating Officer of S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a multicultural social service organization serving new Canadians since 1974. Our mission is to build bridges, harvest diversity, and foster integration through different services and advocacy programs.

Last year, we served over 170,000 clients with diverse cultural backgrounds speaking over 20 different languages, namely Chinese, Punjabi, Korean, Vietnamese, and Farsi. Over half of our clients are new immigrants.

Through our 26 service locations in the greater Vancouver area, the Fraser Valley, northern B.C., and three overseas offices in Seoul, Taipei, and Shanghai, we provide a wide range of services that includes settlement, employment, family and youth, health care, housing, and business development.

It is my pleasure today to present our recommendations for policy and programs of the settlement service in Canada. Drawing from our experience, there are seven major areas.

One is a national policy framework. We find there is a great need for a national standard or policy framework for immigrant settlement programs, similar to what we have in the provision of health care. Both are within the provincial mandate but funded federally. The level of language and skills training for new immigrants is an example of where there is a lack of consistency across provincial jurisdictions.

Second is English training. In eastern Canada I think you call it LINC, but in British Columbia we call it ELSA. We believe that the English language is critical for new immigrants to integrate into Canadian society as well as the local labour market; however, the current level of training in British Columbia is inadequate for them to succeed in the workplace. We recommend an expansion of English training to levels 6 and 7 in order to provide new immigrants with the proper English skills for the workplace. We know levels 6 and 7 have been offered in other provinces, such as Ontario, but not in British Columbia.

Third is employment. The recent expansion of settlement services to include introductory employment services designed to improve and accelerate newcomers' access to in-depth employment services has proven to be a very successful initiative. Further to that, we recommend the government open up an EI training fund for new immigrants, especially for the professional immigrants. They need training supports to get back to their original professions.

We also recommend continuing to fund projects that enhance employers' capacity to hire new immigrants. We have been receiving some project funding from the government to help employers enhance their capacity to understand immigrant culture and how to recruit and retain a diversified labour force.

We also recommend continuing to support partnership projects between immigrant-serving agencies and the industrial sector with courses for internationally trained professionals that allow them to bridge their training abroad with Canadian standards.

Fourth is self-employment and business start-up supports. Sixteen per cent of new immigrants are in the business class, and there is a significant number of skilled immigrants who want to start their own initiatives and be self-employed as an alternative career development path. They receive very little support from the mainstream settlement programs at this time.

In 1995, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. opened the first business and economic development centre in Vancouver, aiming to foster economic integration between local business communities and new immigrants. However, we never received any mainstream funding from the settlement funding framework until 2002, when we received funding from Western Economic Diversification Canada to support our two most popular programs, Business Links for New Immigrants and the Gateway to Asia project. However, the funding will end by next March, and we are told that Western Economic Diversification will no longer support these projects.

Our recommendation is that the settlement funding framework should expand to provide self-employment and business start-up support for new immigrants. Business also enhances the local economy, especially in the smaller communities. This would include counseling and training on how to start a new business, English language training in the business sector, business mentoring, access to the local business community network, and the matching of business owners ready to retire with newly arrived business immigrants. This is important for the succession strategy for our business community.

Fifth is regional immigration. Most new immigrants are concentrated in three Canadian urban centres—Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. The dispersion of new immigrants among smaller nearby communities may provide them with new employment and business opportunities. It would also provide smaller communities with new economic resources. This is a win-win situation for both the new immigrants and the host communities.

In partnership with the energy sector and the B.C. government, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. in 2008 established the first outreach office in Fort St. John in the North Peace region. The office assists new immigrants in Vancouver with finding employment and relocation. S.U.C.C.E.S.S. has also been working with other regional economic development agencies in the Okanagan, Nanaimo, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon in formulating strategies to attract new immigrants.

We recommend that the government continue to support initiatives encouraging new immigrants to relocate to smaller communities. We also recommend that the government encourage partnerships between smaller industrialized communities and immigrant-serving agencies in urban centres.

Sixth is foreign workers and international students. Within the current settlement funding framework, we cannot provide settlement services to temporary foreign workers and international students. In the past several years, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. has used its own resources to provide urgent support and assistance to these two target groups.

We recommend providing more settlement services to temporary foreign workers and foreign students attending tertiary educational institutions, given that it is probable that these individuals may become landed immigrants through the new Canadian experience class category.

Seventh is pre-landing services. Thanks to the funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. is providing pre-landing services at Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan. In April of this year, supported by the private sector, we also opened an office in Shanghai serving prospective business immigrants from China.

We recommend that the government continue to provide more opportunities, in addition to direct funding, to settlement service organizations with pre-landing services in countries that are a major source of immigrants. Government funding bodies should allow service providers to solicit private sector funding and to run fees-for-service training courses for prospective immigrants.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Perhaps you could wind up, Mr. Tam, please. Thank you.

[Thomas Tam]

This is the last point. We also recommend that the government encourage Canadian educational institutions to work with local NGOs to develop curriculums for skill shortages in top immigrant source countries such as China and the Philippines.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you very much, sir.

Colleagues, for those of you who are late, the committee has agreed that notwithstanding that the bells will ring at 10:15, this meeting will end at 10:30.

Ms. Chow, I'm going to ask you to consent to putting your motions off until next week.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

That's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Mendes, you have the floor.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chan, Mr. Bouissoukrane, and Mr. Tam, thank you very much for being here.

First, I hear myself through your words. I spent 15 years in an NGO settlement agency, so I share your concerns and your reasons for offering us so many recommendations. But one of the reasons we invited you was to hear about what have been successes throughout Canada in the settlement agencies, so that we could perhaps share among the different agencies better ways of using the funding that is there and the strategies we have to better settle newcomers.

I don't know if you're aware, but in fact I am from Quebec and we do have a totally different funding system. The Quebec government is totally responsible for the settlement programs. I heard your concerns about staff turnover because you can't necessarily pay the better salaries and keep them. You spend the time training them—and it requires a lot of specialized training to offer services to newcomers—and then you lose them very quickly, as soon as they can get a better job with a better salary. That has always been a concern of mine, and I totally agree with you.

I will share with you one best practice in Quebec. Mr. Tam mentioned it a bit, with the private sector being able to support some of the NGOs. The Government of Quebec has allowed settlement organizations to offer for pay—they are being paid to do this—services that are also provided by the Government of Quebec.

I'll give you an example: licence bureaus, for car and driver's licences. The organization to which I have belonged for many years is the mandataire. They are given a mandate from the Government of Quebec to operate an office where licences and licence plates are renewed, and for each transaction the organization is paid x amount of money.

That has become through the years—it has now been 15 years—their main source of stable financing, meaning they can pay their salaries from there, and then everything else that the Government of Quebec provides for services is directed to the services only and not necessarily to salary.

I don't know if this is possible in other provinces, but I'd like to hear you on the subject. Do you think it could be something that would help you in maintaining the quality of staff that you need to provide the services? They do gain the experience and the best practices.

Perhaps, Mr. Bouissoukrane, you could start with that, since you mentioned it.