Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 19th, 2015

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

We are now in public session.

Welcome to the 38th meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Today, we begin our study on promoting economic prosperity through settlement services.

Over the two hours of the meeting, we will be hearing from witnesses from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

Thank you all for joining us today. We are pleased to welcome you.

We have with us Ms. Tapley, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy; Ms. Pateman, Acting Director General, Integration and Foreign Credentials Referral Office; Mr. Gionet, Acting Director General, Refugee Affairs; Mr. Mansour, Acting Director, Horizontal Policy and Programs, Integration - Foreign Credentials Referral Office; and Ms. Primeau, Director General, Integration Program Management Branch. Welcome everyone.

You will start with the opening remarks, after which we will continue with questions from the members of the committee.

The floor is yours.

[Catrina Tapley, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic and Program Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

As you've introduced, my name is Catrina Tapley, and I am the assistant deputy minister for strategic and program policy at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

My colleagues and I are pleased to appear before your committee. We hope that our testimony today will be helpful as you undertake your study on promoting economic prosperity through settlement services. This, of course, is an issue we are intently focused on within our department, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to outline the opportunities and challenges we have encountered, as well as some of the actions we've undertaken in this area.

As we formulate our policies and practices at CIC, we do so with the prevailing understanding that the work of immigration doesn’t end after we identify and select the immigrants we need.

We know we must also make sure that immigrants can then actually put their skills to use in our labour market as soon as possible after they arrive so they can fully participate in the economic, social, cultural, and civic life in Canada. Canada is recognized as an international leader in the settlement and integration of newcomers. This reputation has been built over time through positive immigrant outcomes and high public support for immigration.

Indeed, the success of our immigration system depends on ensuring that the hundreds of thousands of newcomers who arrive in Canada each year are welcomed, integrated into the Canadian family, and encouraged and supported so they can contribute fully to Canadian society.

As you know, this year we will have the highest planned annual level of immigration admissions in recent Canadian history. We plan to welcome between 260,000 and 285,000 new permanent residents, which is a notable increase from the planning range of 240,000 to 265,000 that we had in place since 2007. As well, almost 65% of overall admissions in 2015 will be in the economic immigration class, which reflects our focus on ensuring that the immigration system contributes to Canada's future prosperity.

At the same time, we are continuing our long-standing humanitarian tradition of protecting refugees. As you know, on January 7, 2015, Minister Alexander announced that Canada would resettle an additional 10,000 Syrians over the next three years and an additional 30,000 Iraqis in 2015.

Canada remains one of the most attractive places for people around the world seeking to build new lives for themselves in a new country.

Naturally, this high level of interest in Canada as a destination for immigrants creates challenges, but it has also opened up the opportunity to improve our integration and settlement systems. One expression of the improvements we have made is the fact that settlement funding has remained at record levels in recent years. Over the last decade, the government has tripled funding for newcomers' settlement services in jurisdictions outside Quebec, from less than $200 million in 2005-06, to almost $600 million in 2015-16.

Unprecedented steps have also been taken to facilitate the recognition of foreign credentials, as well as ensure that immigrants have access to microloans to allow them to bring their education and official language skills up to the Canadian standard.

Of course, we measure the true success of our settlement program in the outcomes we achieve in promoting and fostering integration and building welcoming communities. Let me talk briefly about the kinds of outcomes we look for at each stage of the immigration program.

We want newcomers to achieve economic success in Canada. We want them to thrive in our labour market, and in so doing, to contribute to Canada's future prosperity. We want them to develop a sense of belonging to Canadian society. We want them to become active citizens who make positive contributions to their communities and to our country as a whole. Whatever their background and personal history are, we want them to understand and respect our core Canadian values.

We want these successful outcomes for all immigrants, but of course we need to ensure that integration and settlement services are best targeted to those most in need. For example, refugees have specific settlement needs based on their pre-migration and migration experiences, and they are among the top users of these services. We recognize that resettled refugees in particular face complex needs that set them apart from other immigrants requiring specialized supports.

In Canada, resettled refugees are supported by private sponsors or the resettlement assistance program, RAP, which provides eligible refugees with immediate and essential services as well as income support when they first arrive in Canada.

Further, the Government of Canada supports settlement interventions that demonstrate the potential to effectively improve refugee outcomes, including services delivered pre-arrival or through a case management approach to provide more intensive long-term support.

Through the settlement program, the Government of Canada provides funding to a variety of organizations that offer programs and services that respond to the specific needs of permanent residents.

In 2012-13 more than 200,000 people used CIC settlement services. In a large number of these cases, service provider organizations were the first contact both pre- and post-arrival providing newcomers with culturally sensitive supports and links to community and social services.

Our settlement services are flexible and are designed to meet the needs of a diverse society. Information sessions, employment support, assessment of foreign education credentials, and referral services pre-arrival and in Canada are examples of interventions that help newcomers better use their skills and credentials in the Canadian workforce and prepare them for early integration into Canadian society.

My colleagues and I will be happy to speak in detail about any of these services in response to committee members' questions following the opening remarks. Of course it's important to talk about these services in the context of the many significant reforms to the immigration system in recent years to ensure that as we welcome newcomers to our country, we are also meeting Canada's economic and labour market needs.

As you know, the most notable and recent change we made was the introduction last month of express entry, our new application management system, which will enable us to select the most qualified candidates for economic immigration from a pool we have already confirmed as eligible to apply.

Express Entry will now help us to identify those potential immigrants who have the greatest chances to succeed in our labour market. This, of course, has many implications for our settlement and integration programs.

In selecting newcomers with the human capital that will maximize their long-term potential in Canada and become our future citizens, we expect to see more newcomers achieve great success and make positive contributions to Canadian society.

We also know that early settlement outcomes are best for newcomers who already have a job offer and are proficient in English or French.

We know the best way to integrate into Canadian society is to find a job for which one is qualified. With express entry, we expect that more newcomers will come to Canada with jobs, which means they will likely transition into their new life sooner and integrate more quickly and successfully. Consequently, we're in the process of determining how our integration and settlement services across the country can best adapt to this new reality. However, considering express entry was only implemented in January, more time will be needed to appropriately determine its impacts on the settlement needs of economic immigrants and their families.

We believe that a critical piece of this puzzle lies in the area of pre-arrival services, those that are delivered before an immigrant even gets to Canada. When we begin the settlement process for immigrants prior to their arrival in Canada, we help ensure that they arrive here better equipped for success and better prepared to begin contributing to our society and our economy. With that in mind, we recently launched a call for proposals for pre-arrival services targeting economic and family class immigrants, as well as refugees. This is the first step toward ensuring that a greater number of newcomers have access to such services either in person or online when possible, no matter where in the world they are originating. Through our settlement program we aim to help newcomers of all skill levels overcome integration barriers through services that provide general settlement information, language skills, employment-related supports, and support to build professional and personal networks within their new communities.

Finally, we continue to see settlement services playing a critical role in fostering effective integration to assist immigrants in fully participating in Canada's economy and society as this is key to our nation's ongoing prosperity.

My colleagues and I are happy to talk in more detail about any of these opening remarks or to answer any questions you may have on settlement and integration.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

Thank you very much, Madam Tapley, for your opening remarks.

I'll now give the floor to Mr. Menegakis for seven minutes for questions.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

A big thank you to our officials from CIC for joining us today and for that quite thorough presentation.

You mentioned in your presentation that this government has increased settlement funding from almost $200 million to about $600 million today. I wonder if you could elaborate on that a little for us, and perhaps enlighten us on what has been the focus of that increase.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, as we've noted, the government increased settlement funding in 2005-06 to about $600 million. This year we will spend, I believe, $584.5 million on settlement and integration services, so about $600 million. With the increase in funding, we have been able to focus in clear detail on the three primary needs in the settlement and integration services. I'd recommend the following priority in terms of the biggest barriers to achieving good integration outcomes in Canada.

The first is knowledge of an official language, knowledge of English or French. When immigrants arrive and they have difficulty communicating in English or French, it is the biggest single barrier to effective integration both in the community and certainly within the workforce. I should pause there for a moment. As you'll see, we spend about 45% of our budget on language training and supports around language training.

Another area we focus on or we talk about in effective integration relate to the recognition of foreign work experience. There are difficulties in employers recognizing foreign work experience, so programming that's focused on employment-related supports or community connections help to overcome some of that.

Finally, the last barrier to integration would be the problems of having foreign credentials recognized, certainly in regulated occupations.

That increase in funding has allowed us to focus more fully on those three big barriers to successful integration, and also on the breadth of our services across the country.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

You mentioned in your presentation the tabling in the House by the government with respect to the 2015 immigration levels. Of course, they range from 260,000 to 285,000 people, which you correctly note is a record number for planned immigration for the year.

Can you explain how settlement services will adapt to accommodate these changing conditions? If I'm not mistaken, on the high side that's about 25,000 more people this year than in previous years. It represents about 0.8% of our population.

We're delighted that people from all around the world want to come to our great country, but I wonder if you could explain how you plan to adapt settlement services to accommodate this changing phenomenon.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, one of the things that's happening in conjunction with the increased number of new arrivals expected this year with an increased level plan is that we're also seeing an increase in skills on the side of skilled workers who are coming. So there's a certain offset that happens between those two things.

As I believe the committee is well aware, we've made a number of changes in recent years that focus on skilled workers. There are increased language levels before people get here, so part of the process is around that. There's a focus on younger immigrants, and a focus on more points in our system around experience and other factors that are there. It has a bit of a compensating effect, I think, in terms of how our settlement services are run.

The other thing I would note about settlement services is we tend to follow very closely where immigrants settle in Canada. We allocate our funds internally across our three domestic regions: Ontario, the eastern region, which includes the four Atlantic provinces for settlement services, and the western provinces and the territories. We allocate funds based on a formula of where immigrants settle. We look at a three-year rolling average of where immigrants have settled when they come into Canada. We give extra weight or we overweight the formula for refugees to recognize their settlement needs. So we adjust funding based on where immigrants are going. What we've seen in recent years is more funds being spent in western Canada, where we're seeing more immigrants coming.

Then within years, we're able to adjust even within regions on where immigrants are actually settling to make sure that we have a number of services in particular areas where we're seeing new arrivals come. I would say that's part of where we're able to adjust.

Also—we can get into this later; I don't mean to mix too many things—we're on the verge of a national call for proposals on settlement services, which will happen later this spring. That will help to set the tone for settlement services for the next few years, to have programming in place that meets the needs of these levels by April 1, 2016.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

Thank you, Mr. Menegakis.

Mr. Sandhu, you have seven minutes.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Thank you for being here this morning.

There are many factors when it comes to integrating new immigrants into Canadian society. One of the things that I often hear in my riding and in various cities across this country is the idea of credentialling, ensuring that people have their foreign qualifications recognized here. I see that we have an office in the immigration department that helps with that.

Could you briefly talk about what that office does and how it helps people get their qualifications upgraded or evaluated here?

[Natasha Pateman, Acting Director General, Integration and Foreign Credentials Referral Office, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Madam Chair, yes, we do have the foreign credential referral office. There is a difference; many of you might notice in the documentation credentials versus qualifications. In the federal government, we use credential, which typically refers more to an education level; whereas qualification is a broader range of credentials, experience, and skill level. That's just the difference there, but it's interchangeable; the provinces and territories prefer qualifications and we use credential.

In the office, we provide information to newcomers beginning pre-arrival. We also provide pathfinding and referral services. We collaborate with Service Canada. They deliver services through the Service Canada offices all across the country as well as through the 1-800 number and their website. We will refer an engineer, for example, planning on going to Ontario, and they will connect them to the professional engineers association in Ontario. Even before arrival, people can start to have their credentials assessed.

Many of the regulatory bodies we've been working with—we started with 14 initially under the pan-Canadian framework, and now we work with 24 in total—have improved their processes dramatically. Many have fabulous websites where people can do practice exams or actually even do credential exams now as part of the credential process pre-arrival. There has also been a faster, timely process in having credentials recognized.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

If I'm an engineer from a different country and I want to settle in British Columbia, would I be referred to the engineering college or where?

[Natasha Pateman]

That's right. You would be referred to the B.C. professional engineers association, and there's a website. The B.C. government also has competency profiles for all the professional designations. That person would be directly referred to the professional body. They would find out that there are online exams available. They would be able to find out the labour market information for engineers in B.C.

Through the B.C. government, and also through the federal government and the work we do collaboratively, you would also be able to get into bridging programs and find out where you can gain Canadian work experience. One of the pieces with credentials is that even after you have the paper-based credentials assessed and verified, there's also still a competency piece in order to know that people can actually do the job. There are work placements, or for doctors there are residency requirements.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

You mentioned doctors. I have a number of doctors who have come in over the year. Not only medical doctors but also veterinarian doctors have come to the province of British Columbia. What they find are obstacles that hinder them from furthering their education or getting certification from these bodies.

How are you finding interacting with these bodies? I hear from my constituents that, yes, they have these paper credentials that say they're an engineer and all that, but it is still very difficult to get into these clubs, if you want to call them that, for them to actually get the official certification and present it to employers.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, this is, I think, one of the toughest issues we deal with for a number of reasons. I'll just back up a little bit.

The process of credential recognition in regulated occupations is a tough one, in part because of jurisdictional issues. It's provincial jurisdiction, and then provinces have further subdelegated responsibility to the regulatory bodies themselves. There are probably more than 200 or 300 actors in the system in the credential recognition process, so getting everybody to steer in the same direction is not without its challenges.

Some regulated occupations, I think, are at a bit of a different stage, one with the other, in terms of how they've adapted, or in the services they're providing under the pan-Canadian framework in recognizing foreign qualifications. The 24 occupations that Ms. Pateman spoke about have all committed to assess a person's foreign qualifications within 12 months and to offer an answer back on whether or not credentials can be accepted and, more to the point, what the gaps are in terms of that credentialing process.

Some regulatory occupations have gone so far now as to use national bodies and to work on a more national system in where we are. We've seen great success that way. We're optimistic. Our sister department, Employment and Social Development Canada, recently launched a panel chaired by Nick Noorani, to look at some of the issues around credential recognition in employers. We're anxious to see the results of his work and the panel's work and to see about a bit of a path forward.

There are two other things that have helped a little bit. One is something called an education credential assessment that the federal government has put in place. What we require now of federal skilled workers who come in is something called an education credential assessment. It's not the same as having a licence to practise in a particular occupation, but it's an assessment of your education credential itself against a Canadian standard, which can often be helpful in terms of determining that credential recognition process.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe]

Sorry, I have to interrupt you. The seven minutes are over.

I now give the floor to Mr. Casey.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

The programs that you described are, I presume, delivered in some cases directly by the Government of Canada and in other cases by agencies that are funded through the Government of Canada. I wonder if you could explain the mix or the role in terms of what programs are directly delivered by CIC or the government.

[Catrina Tapley]

The federal government delivers almost none directly. They're delivered by service provider organizations. We work with about 700 service provider organizations that we choose, by and large, through call for proposals. This enables us to assess good value for money in terms of who we're funding and what services they're providing in their offering.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

When these service provider organizations win a call for proposals and start to deliver what they promise, the role of the bureaucrats, the role of your department, I presume, is to monitor and assess their performance against their promises.

[Catrina Tapley]

That's exactly right.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Is that done remotely? Is that done from Ottawa, or is that done from one of the regional centres? You talked about having three regions: Ontario, east of Ontario, and west of Ontario. Is the role of the bureaucrats centralized?

[Catrina Tapley]

We do both. Part of it is centralized in Ottawa, but a lot of the direct interaction with service provider organizations happens in the regions and in local offices.

Heather, do you want to expand on that?

[Heather Primeau, Director General, Integration Program Management Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Madam Chair, what we do from Ottawa is we basically provide the functional guidance to the regional offices for them to monitor and work with the service provider organizations. We do have a small number of agreements that we manage from Ottawa, mainly pilot projects and the pre-arrival services as well. For the most part, what we do is we provide the functional guidance, the tools, and the oversight to ensure that there's a consistent approach across the country.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Do you have a presence in every province?

[Catrina Tapley]

Yes.