Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 19th, 2015

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Do I have time?

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

You have one-and-a-half minutes.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Yes.

In terms of cost, out of the $600 million, roughly what is your best guess of the amount that's dedicated to, say, a pre-arrival service in an offshore location?

[Catrina Tapley]

Overall, what we've spent on pre-arrival services is less than $20 million to date. We recently conducted a call for proposals for overseas services, where the contracts with those organizations were coming to an end. We're looking to expand our provision of pre-arrival services. The call for proposals is completed. We are assessing the bids that came in under that call for proposals in terms of being able to expand those overseas services to focus on some additional areas, and also to expand the outreach for the program.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Leung.

Mr. Sandhu, you have the floor.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I come from Surrey, and a lot of refugees settle in Surrey. It's a little more affordable compared to the rest of the Vancouver area. As the city of Surrey has pointed out a number of times to me—I've talked to the councillors and I've talked to a number of refugee families, especially the government-sponsored refugees; we've talked about a family of five coming in—often, government-sponsored refugees come from camps where they may have been for many years. When they arrive here, they have little or nothing at all besides what they're wearing. It is a burden for them when we give them a bill and say, “Okay, before you get here, here's a bill for your travel costs”. That is before they even have a chance to breathe in this country.

What is the justification for the Government of Canada or the Department of Citizenship and Immigration to give them this bill before they arrive? If we're trying to integrate these government-sponsored refugees, what justification is there for us to give them a bill before they even have a chance to figure out where they've arrived?

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, I think it's important to remember that the refugee assistance program provides a number of different supports for refugees as they arrive in Canada. For government-assisted refugees, it also provides income support for that first year, some settlement services, and housing. There are 23 refugee centres across the country that welcome refugees, provide them with an immediate place to stay, and help them integrate into society. There are small loans provided to refugees to cover the cost of travel to Canada. They are repayable loans over a specific period of time. The other parts of the refugee assistance program, such as the income and housing support that's offered for that first year, are not repayable. It's part of the refugee assistance program.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I still haven't received any justification. Why would the Government of Canada do this? On the one hand you may be giving them assistance in housing, or income assistance; on the other hand you're giving them a bill for their travel here. What is the justification?

What I'm trying to get to is that this provides hardship for refugees that have come here on government assistance. I think it creates an additional burden for them to integrate into society.

I'll move on to my next question.

We've had a number of colleges offer an English as a second language program, which has actually helped young immigrants upgrade their language skills to the level of a university course. I know that program has been cut in my community. Why was that done? Why has the funding for colleges which offered English as a second language, as sort of a bridge into university courses, been cut? I believe it has been moved over to other service providers.

[Catrina Tapley]

The Government of Canada resumed settlement services in British Columbia in the fiscal year 2014-15. As part of that provision of settlement services, we conducted a call for proposals in British Columbia to look at what settlement provider organizations were prepared to offer. There were some changes in terms of service providers as they came in. We still provide funding to some colleges in British Columbia for the provision of language services. The province also funds the provision of language services in some areas.

Madam Chair, as has been noted, there were some changes to service provider organizations that happened as a result of that call for proposals.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Those changes have actually resulted in funding cuts to colleges where new immigrants had been able to upgrade their language skills and maybe move on to other universities or colleges. That has been a result. I have talked to the college people who were very affected by that.

My next question is in regard to the funding allocation. As I said, there are many immigrants in my community, refugees who come and settle in Surrey, Abbotsford, Langley, south of the Fraser River. How does the department review funding allocations whether for somewhere in the north, where there are very few new immigrants coming in, or for an area like the one south of the Fraser River, where there is a huge concentration coming in?

How often do you make an adjustment as to where that money is going to be allocated, and how is that done?

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, we make adjustments annually regarding where settlement organizations are funded. We have an annual exercise during which we look at where immigrants are settling across the country. I spoke a little bit about the formula we use. It's based on where immigrants are settling in Canada. We have notional allocations for where we're spending the money within a particular province or a particular region. Those get adjusted annually. Also, within a particular province or a particular region we look again at the same things.

Part of this is caught up in where our service provider organization contracts are. As Ms. Primeau explained, some of them are on a three-year basis. Part of our conundrum is wanting to offer stability to service provider organizations for a longer term while maintaining some flexibility for ourselves to be able to adjust the areas in which services are provided according to where immigrants are settling.

This is an annual exercise we undertake to track where those services are needed.

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

Thank you. Sorry, but time is up.

Mr. Casey, you now have five minutes.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

In answer to Mr. Sandhu, you referenced loans advanced to immigrants to cover travel costs.

What are the interest and repayment terms of those loans?

[Catrina Tapley]

I'll turn that over to Mr. Gionet. I think he has more information than I do on this.

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

Madam Chair, the interest rate on the loans is set in accordance with the rate used by the Department of Finance for crown corporations. My information indicates that for 2014 the rate was 1.74%.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

What are the repayment terms?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

Repayment typically starts within 30 days of arrival, but there can be deferrals depending on the situation. I believe the deferrals can go up to 24 months. Interest-free time periods within that are possible, depending on the situation.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Thank you.

I would also like to thank Mr. Menegakis for referencing the Prince Edward Island Association for Newcomers to Canada. Craig Mackie and his team do excellent work there.

From time to time there's frustration with the lack of federal government presence, because if there are inquiries that are not within their mandate, they can direct people to a website or a 1-800 number, but there's no one within the government they can send anyone to.

But make no mistake: the work done by the Prince Edward Island Association for Newcomers to Canada is absolutely top-notch. It's money well spent. Trust me.

There is also some excellent work going on in my province by some other organizations in the settlement area. Study Abroad Canada is one. I'm not sure whether it's funded by the Government of Canada. The PEI Connectors program, which is run through the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, is another shining example. There is also the work that is done within our two educational institutions—the University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College—which do an outstanding job of attracting foreign students.

You pointed out the success of the provincial nominee program, which has been tremendously successful in getting people to Prince Edward Island, but one of the frustrations we have is that it has been a real challenge to get them to stay. There are a whole bunch of reasons that they leave. The lack of a federal government presence is, in fairness, a small part of that. There are bigger reasons. There's a critical mass in other places. There's a lack of economic opportunities.

Do you track where immigrants come in and where they end up?

[Catrina Tapley]

Yes, we do. We look at how successful individual areas are in terms of retaining immigrants and we also look at where immigrants are going. If they arrived in Prince Edward Island, for example, and they're not staying in Prince Edward Island, then where are those immigrants going?

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

In our part of the country, as I suppose in others, we have a demographic issue with people living longer and declining birth rates. We also have a seasonal economy and not as many good-paying, year-round jobs. The EI program has had a devastating effect on that. We see an exodus of young talent west to better-paying jobs.

My question for you is, in the course of developing your programs, is regional economic disparity an element in terms of developing the strategy or the delivery?

[Catrina Tapley]

I wouldn't say that regional economic disparity is part of how the programs are developed, but I would say that the programs offered by service provider organizations are particularly sensitive to regional needs and to the needs in local economies. I don't know a single service provider organization that doesn't try to work hard with the local employer community. Whether they're offering services around language training or whether it's more direct employment-related services through settlement provider organizations, they're trying to create a network within a community to make sure that those immigrants who have arrived and who are availing themselves of those services have a good link back into that employer community, and that there's a good sense of testing. Many service provider organizations provide mini job fairs and other matching services with employers.

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

Thank you, Mr. Casey.

Mr. Menegakis, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I want to touch a bit on refugees as well, since we're discussing it this morning.

As we know, Canada accepts one in ten of the world's resettled refugees. In fact, it's very welcome news that the minister announced at the beginning of January 10,000 additional Syrian refugees and 3,000 additional Iraqi refugees. Canadians are certainly very compassionate people and very welcoming people, and that is in keeping with what is the Canadian way.

I want to talk a little bit about the $600 million you mentioned for settlement services that everybody can avail themselves of. For the actual resettlement package, if you will, for refugees, are there additional funds for that? Am I correct in saying those funds...? Perhaps you could give us the number. I think it's about $55 million, but I'd like to hear it from you.

[Catrina Tapley]

That's correct, Madam Chair. It's about $55 million that's spent in refugee assistance programs.