Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 10th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Good morning. This is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. The orders of the day are pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), a study of the immigration settlement and adaptation program.

Ms. Chow has given me notice she wishes to speak.

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

Yes, during the last 15 minutes, at 10:30, I have a motion to submit for debate.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Chow, we did discuss that, although it has been pointed out to me now that we have a problem. For each of the two sessions there will be a teleconference. The second teleconference simply won't come on the line until 9:45. There's no other way of doing it until then.

So we have a choice. We can either do it at, I don't know, 9:30, or we can do it at 10:30.

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

Ten-thirty is fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

So that will mean the second group won't have as long. Is that okay with you?

Just so everyone agrees, Ms. Chow has given us notice of motion; it is within 48 hours, and it is on the topic of immigration settlement and adaptation services, so I rule that it is in order. We will proceed with Ms. Chow's motion at 10:30.

For the first round we have a number of guests, a number of witnesses, before us today. There are three groups. One of them is from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Association for New Canadians. They are here via teleconference. We have Bridget Foster, executive director, and Megan Morris, director of programs.

Are you there?

[Bridget Foster, Executive Director, Association for New Canadians]

Yes, we're here.

[Megan Morris, Director of Programs, Association for New Canadians]

We are.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay. We can hear you. I'm going to ask you, Ms. Foster and Ms. Morris, when you speak, because there are two of you, because you are not here on the television--you're on the telephone--to identify yourselves. So each time you speak, would you please say who's speaking? Do you understand?

[Bridget Foster]

Yes.

[Megan Morris]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

Our other guests are the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. Good morning to you. We have Debbie Douglas, who is the executive director, and Amy Casipullai, who is the coordinator of policy and public education. Good morning to you.

From the Afghan Association of Ontario, we have Jamal Kakar, executive director; Saber Fermand, vice-president; and Dost Yar, the treasurer. Good morning to all of you.

Each group will have up to seven minutes to speak, and then members of the committee will have questions for you.

We will start this morning with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.

Ms. Douglas.

[Debbie Douglas, Executive Director, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI)]

Good morning.

Since early December 2010, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, OCASI, has been working with its CIC-funded members and other funders on strategies to mitigate, as much as possible, the impact of the significant reduction in funds to the Ontario region.

The leadership of the council believes its priority in this situation has to be one of monetary impacts and being responsive to requests for support from members; providing accurate information to members, media, funders, and other stakeholders; and developing practical strategies to support the legal and other responsibilities of those members who find that they have been placed in this difficult situation.

We therefore thank you for this opportunity to present to you on the many issues facing the sector and to share with you some of the demands that, if accepted, will go a long way to minimizing the negative fallout from this unexpected situation.

This presentation by OCASI is informed by the experience of our member agencies over the past couple of months.

Funding for immigrant settlement services, including in Ontario, has remained stagnant for over a decade, during the period of 1993 through 2005. This chronic underfunding was particularly difficult for the Ontario sector, which experienced increasing service demands and a growing complexity of services needed. This unfair situation was acknowledged and remedied by the federal government through negotiation of the first Canada-Ontario immigration agreement, COIA.

The increase in overall funding for the national program and the significant increase in funding of $920 million over the life of the agreement for Ontario acknowledged the importance of immigrant settlement and integration services, acknowledged that the immigrant- and refugee-serving sector had been starved for resources for more than a decade, recognized that labour market integration was an important part of the settlement process, and acknowledged the historical trend in underfunding, particularly in real program delivery costs in areas such as overhead, program costs, and workers' salaries.

It also recognized the need to ensure increased accountability through building sector capacity. A strong and stable sector would lead to better programming, better accountability, and better outputs and outcomes.

In late August 2010, the provincial ministers of immigration and OCASI, among others, were informed by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration that it had undertaken a strategic review. The review resulted in a 5% reduction to the settlement and integration funding envelope across Canada. We were also told that this worked out to $53 million in 2011-12 and an additional $6 million to be cut in 2012-13. As we now know, more than 80% of the cuts, representing $43 million plus, came out of the Ontario allocation. At the same time, the decision was made to implement the new settlement allocation model, which is based on permanent resident landing numbers, with some acknowledgement of refugee numbers.

The leadership of OCASI discussed the potential impact of the cuts on the sector and communicated to CIC that every effort should be made to minimize the impact on direct services. CIC agreed with this approach. The council was operating under the following assumptions.

The Ontario allocation for 2010-11 was $428 million. This comes from $320 million allocated to the last year of the COIA agreement, plus $108 million, representing the base Ontario allocation for settlement and integration. We assumed the cuts would be taken from this total, and given that Ontario region had underspent by a cumulative $200 million or so, the council expected the impact of the cuts to be minimal.

However, Citizenship and Immigration Canada did not calculate the cuts on $428 million but on $388 million, which is $40 million less. By applying the cuts to a smaller funding envelope, there has been a much larger impact on programs and agencies, particularly in the Toronto area. We realize that the department, like all other federal departments, was being asked to find efficiencies amounting to 5% as part of the government's deficit reduction plan. However, we believed that the government would honour the funding commitment of year five of COIA.

For Ontario's immigrant- and refugee-serving sector, the depth of the cuts was completely unexpected. We were not unaware of the impact of the recession on the national budget, on our economy and our communities. In fact, our member agencies were seeing it first-hand in the work they did, trying to help immigrants and refugees to deal with job loss, cutbacks in hours, and cuts in wages.

In March of last year, CIC issued its first CFP under the new modernization approach in Ontario. The sector, in partnership with the department, had spent the previous three years consulting on the need for a new approach to better respond to the growing diversity and complexity of immigrant settlement and integration needs and greater accountability demands from government.

The CFP encouraged applicants to submit new and creative approaches to settlement programming. It was intended to do away with program silos, increase accountability, and adopt a holistic approach to programming. It recognized the scope and scale of effective settlement work through specific themes, including community connections and support services. The latter provided child-minding support, assistance for clients with disabilities, and more, which unfortunately were among the first areas to be lost as a result of the cuts.

The message from CIC at that time was that the department was responsive to the real experiences and challenges of settlement, and it signalled a willingness to work with agencies to arrive at the mutually desirable goal of building meaningful immigrant settlement outcomes.

We work together with CIC Ontario region to facilitate information sessions around the CFP where applications were able to ask and receive answers to questions about the modernized approach. Applicants heard that they should dream big; they should think outside the box.

In summary, potential applicants, including current agreement holders, went away with the assurance that immigrant settlement and integration remained an important priority for government, and they invested countless hours planning, coordinating with partners, writing and submitting proposals. There was a real sense of partnership with the department, a sense that we were all working together to build sector capacity, to strengthen accountability and program delivery.

I must say that we haven't lost hope that this will continue, despite recent events. There is absolutely no sense of impending funding cuts on the part of the sector and, we believe, on the part of departmental officials--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Perhaps you could wind up, Ms. Douglas, please.

[Debbie Douglas]

Let me just jump to some of the impacts on clients.

Clients that benefit the most from one-on-one support, such as those from stigmatized populations, would be the most affected. Clients referred to the nearest agency may not receive service in their own language because different locations have different language and cultural capacity. Clients are losing some supports such as transportation to access classes, child minding, resources for classroom materials, and learning enhancement.

Clients, particularly women from low-income populations, will be the most affected. Individuals in racialized communities are typically overrepresented in these populations. Clients will not be able to benefit from some of the highly specialized services currently available in the sector. For example, at least one of the agencies that will not have a contribution agreement in 2011-12, which represents a 100% cut, provided settlement services primarily to live-in caregivers and to a highly stigmatized population of immigrants, including sexual minorities and immigrants with HIV/AIDS, and their families.

There will 150 clients that will be affected by the loss of this service, which is located in one of Toronto's low-income neighbourhoods--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We're way over, Ms. Douglas.

I'm going to have to--

[Debbie Douglas]

Let me go to the conclusion.

We thank you for the opportunity, but we do want to end by letting you know what our demands are, which we believe will mitigate the cuts. We are asking for CIC to implement a review of the decisions and the decision-making process for local settlement allocations for 2011-12 and 2012-13 where decisions have been made.

We are asking that at a minimum, CIC delay the implementation of the settlement allocation model in Ontario in 2012-13, given the additional significant cuts that will result.

Finally, we're asking that where requested by an agency and where there are no concerns with program and accountability requirements, those agencies that are currently funded and that will not be funded next year be given a one-year extension of their current agreement, so that they and the affected individuals have more time to prepare for the transition of the organization--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Sorry, Ms. Douglas, to rush you. We do have your presentation in writing, and I thank you for that, but we'll have to move on.

[Gerard Kennedy, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Is there a French copy?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Kennedy, you've raised a good point. I have a copy, but it's strictly in English, so we'll have it translated and made available to members of the committee.

Thank you, Ms. Douglas.

We now have the Afghan Association of Ontario.

Mr. Kakar.

[Jamal Kakar, Executive Director, Afghan Association of Ontario]

Thank you.

First of all, on behalf of the board of directors and members of the Afghan Association of Ontario, I would like to thank you, the members of the committee, for providing this opportunity to express our concern and share our thoughts on the subject of CIC funding cuts.

The Afghan Association of Ontario was established in 1982 by a handful of volunteers, to serve and better integrate the ever-increasing number of new Afghan Canadians into the larger Canadian society. This association began its partnership with Citizenship and Immigration Canada in 1985. Since that time, it has provided CIC-sponsored settlement and integration services to thousands of new immigrants with services at a high level of quality and professionalism.

In addition to the provision of support services to newcomers, the Afghan Association of Ontario has been a sponsorship agreement holder since 1985. This has made immigration possible for thousands of Afghans who are seeking a home in Canada's peaceful nation.

The Afghan Association of Ontario has been providing settlement services in Toronto since 1986. During that time, it has garnered a reputation for its quality in service provision, sound financial management, and strong leadership. The Afghan Association of Ontario has made a positive difference in the lives of Afghans and other immigrants and refugees by assisting them with their basic settlement needs.

For the record, since 1999-2000, the Afghan Association of Ontario has served more than 1,000 newcomers from Afghanistan. Most of them are well-established and contributing to the economy.

The Afghan community in Toronto is a growing community, which is still considered a new community in relation to other immigrant communities. The majority of newcomers have settled in the greater Toronto area within the past 10 years. The Afghan community in the GTA and surrounding areas has reached close to 80,000. In addition, based on CIC letters communicated to the Afghan Association of Ontario, Canada receives about 2,000 new Afghans each year, most of whom settle in Ontario, particularly in the greater Toronto area.

It's worth noting that the Afghan Association of Ontario has been instrumental in the settlement of newcomers who have gone on to become professionals and contributors to Canadian society. We have lawyers, medical doctors, university professors, teachers, police officers, and businessmen.

Since it's not possible to get commercial leases for recurring 12-month periods, the Afghan Association of Ontario has entered into a contractual agreement that extended beyond the funding period. Based on CIC's insistence, the Afghan Association of Ontario signed the lease agreement for five years starting in April 2008, where CIC paid its first and last two months deposit. As per contractual agreement, the Afghan Association of Ontario must continue paying the monthly rent until the end of the lease agreement, which will add up to over $300,000. We feel that CIC is leaving us with a debt of over $300,000, where we have no means or possibility to pay this back.

The Afghan Association of Ontario will lose all its staff members with immediate termination and deprive more than 4,000 Afghan clients from receiving timely settlement services. These include recently arrived Afghan immigrants from Kandahar, who are fast-tracked by the government through its special immigration measures to begin a new life in Canada in safety. We welcome this special immigration program for these 1,500 Afghans and their families, who have risked their lives and served alongside our soldiers in Kandahar. The Afghan Association of Ontario is playing, and will play, a critical role in their socio-cultural adjustment, integration, and settlement in Canada.

Therefore, there will be an immediate impact on their settlement and future well-being in Canada.

There are more than 120,000 Afghan Canadians living throughout Canada whose relatives would most probably choose Ontario as their permanent home or starting point for their future residency in Canada.

The news of cutting funds and the closure of the Afghan Association of Ontario has had an already negative impact and reaction in so many ways. We would like to see full reinstatement of the current funding for the Afghan Association of Ontario so that there is no loss of services to new immigrants in our Afghan community.

Second, there would be a requirement that CIC consult with the provincial government and the sector to ensure that changes of this magnitude incorporate all relevant factors and perspectives and have advanced planning and clear communications.

In closing, I would like to mention that in addition to our settlement services, as a larger Afghan Canadian diaspora organization we have always supported Canada's engagement in Afghanistan in its efforts to bring peace and stability to the Afghan people and to the region. We have promoted Canada's mission, not only in the Afghan community but also to the larger population here and abroad. Our community representatives have engaged with the Government of Canada, federal ministers, and other government officials, including members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Kakar, you were right on time. Thank you very much.

We will now move to St. John's, the Association for New Canadians. Ms. Foster or Ms. Morris, do you hear me?

[Bridget Foster]

Yes, I'm here.

The others have actually left the room. I don't know if you've seen The King's Speech, but I feel a bit as though I'm here with a microphone and I'm talking to all of you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I don't know who's speaking, but we don't have a speech.

[Bridget Foster]

I'm Bridget Foster.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

The movie The King's Speech?