Mr. Chair, thank you.
Good afternoon. I want to start out by saying that my name is Chris Morrissey. I've come from Vancouver.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to actually speak here today rather than having to go back having not spoken.
I'm also very aware that what I'm going to speak about is very different from what the previous speakers spoke about, so I'm going to ask you to sort of twist your brains around a bit to look at something from a different perspective.
Besides being the co-founder of LEGIT, I'm also the co-founder of the Rainbow Refugee society, which is a society that supports and provides information to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered refugee claimants.
I'd like to start with a quote from Antonio Guterres, the UNHCR, who said recently that “2011 has been a year of displacement crises unlike any other I have seen in my time as High Commissioner”. I think we're all aware of what's happened globally and how important it is for us to take a look at life and people not just from a Canadian perspective, but also through a more global lens.
I read this morning in the Globe and Mail an article saying that the Canadian experience class has been introduced, has grown, and is growing, and that what we're doing is recruiting the best and the brightest people, who have come to Canada, having paid enormous tuitions, and who then stay in Canada. I would like to propose that if we indeed are recruiting the best and the brightest, we also need to take a look at the balance or the other side of that.
I know that this is about the backlog and I also believe it's very important to take into consideration the wait times, because there is an interconnectedness between both of them.
First of all, here is a little bit of a reality check. In March of 2010, the UNHCR statistics showed 43.3 million displaced persons and 16.8 million convention refugees. These are people who have already been through the UNHCR and have been recognized as convention refugees under the Geneva Convention for refugees. According to the UNHCR, approximately 80% of people from the global south do not even register with UNHCR. There are more than 35,000 government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees already on the wait list to come to Canada. The numbers, especially in Africa, are growing day by day.
Surely one way to view this is that this is a backlog and we must put a cap on it; however, the UNHCR estimates that 747,000 refugees would be in need of resettlement in 2010, but only around 79,000 places are offered annually by the resettlement states, of which Canada is one.
Given the realities of the global society today, it's untenable that countries with far fewer resources than we have—for example, Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, and Kenya—continue shouldering the responsibility of the lion's share of the world's refugees if we fail to meet our commitment to a mere 1%.
With regard to refugees granted permanent residence in Canada, between 2005 and 2009 there was a reduction of 13,803.
While people are coming to Canada as refugee claimants, they also end up becoming permanent residents of Canada and making enormous contributions. One of our early members who came through our society has gone to Osgoode Hall Law School and is currently in Toronto in her own law practice. She was a convention refugee from Malaysia. I think the assumption that refugees are a huge drain on the system needs another look.
So the government-assisted refugee program would be expanded over time up to 500 places, while a further 2,000 resettlement places would be added to the private sponsorship of refugees program. This was in a news release from Citizenship and Immigration Canada by Minister Kenney. This means that Canada would annually resettle as many as 14,500 refugees from refugee camps and urban slums.
Well, he's been talking about mathematics, and I've done a little of my own and the numbers just don't add up. In 2010, the number of refugees between the targets, the low and the high.... If I take a look at the high targets, between government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees there were 14,000; that's the potential even under the government's own targets, its own set targets. This year, the set targets amount to 14,000, so in fact if there's supposed to be an increase, there's only going to be an increase of 500, assuming the government provides all the resources in order to reach its high-end target.
So it's our perspective that a cap on refugee applications is simply wrong and contrary to what Canada's commitment is under the Geneva Convention. The solution? Remove the cap.
The minister established a blended sponsorship program for the sponsorship of Iraqi and LGBT refugees. We are very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this project over the next three years in our endeavour to support and bring to Canada those refugees who make their claims on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
But all of us who are working under that program have to partner--if we're not already a sponsorship agreement holder--with a sponsorship agreement holder. This is nationally across Canada. When we've approached the SAHs and asked them if they will partner with us, their first question to us was whether this will affect their cap--