Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 19th, 2015

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

I have two questions. First, what are the actual numbers? Can you give me those?

Second, there's a problem that has arisen in my office and we don't know how to resolve it, with immigrants who have lost their landing documents. They are no longer receiving a SIN card, and when they go to get provincial ID, they take their VOS, verification of status, with them. Citizenship will give them a VOS, but the Province of Ontario refuses to recognize it. They can't scan it. These people are really caught in a bind

I wonder if you could respond to both those questions, please.

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, let me respond to the second question. We're happy to work with the member to provide information on the offices where people can go to have their documents replaced. I would be happy to provide additional information on that.

In terms of the numbers, I'm not sure I understood correctly, and I apologize. The number of resettled refugees in terms of the Syrian community is 10,000 over three years, with an additional 3,000 Iraqis for next year. If I can go to my handy-dandy cheat sheet for a moment, in terms of the admissions plan for 2015, for all categories of refugees, we can talk about the range. For government-assisted refugees overall it's between 5,800 and 6,500; for the blended visa office-referred refugees, which I spoke about, it's between 700 and 1,000; and for privately sponsored refugees it's between 4,500 and 6,500 refugees. That's our admissions plan for 2015.

I'm not sure if that's a correct—

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

How many have actually arrived? That's my question. How many are here now? I know it takes a number of years to get them all here, but what—

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

On a point of order, Madam Chair, I'm failing to see the relevance of that question in the context of this study. The number of refugees who are coming, and how many are here, how many are not here is not the purpose of this study. We're talking about settlement services.

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

Thank you for your comment. Perhaps Madam Mathyssen can connect her question. So far I haven't seen that it is so disconnected, as in the opening remarks we talked about some targets for welcoming Syrian refugees. The remarks are still connected to the opening remarks.

Madam Mathyssen.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

That's it precisely, Madam Chair.

I do believe, Mr. Menegakis, that I can ask the questions that I see fit.

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

Your time has expired, unfortunately. Sorry about that.

Before we continue, Madam Tapley, I just want to be sure we understand that you will send us some information that you mentioned earlier to the committee.

[Catrina Tapley]

Absolutely, Madam Chair. That's on replacement of documents.

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

Thank you very much.

Mr. Aspin, you now have the floor.

[Jay Aspin, Conservative, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Welcome to our guests.

I'd like to begin by complimenting you on the work your department provides for my riding. Your services are provided through North Bay; I've been very pleased with Immigration over the three and a half years that I've been a member.

We know that integration is the key to success in Canada. Many immigrants have come to Canada and found a career, started a family, and contributed to Canadian society.

Are there any programs now in which successful immigrants mentor new immigrants? If so, what mentoring programs and bridging programs are offered?

[Catrina Tapley]

Immigrants and new arrivals in Canada are quick to give back. We see in almost all our service provider organizations—I'll start there—that a number of successful graduates of their program come back, or new immigrants come back, and want to mentor and help those who have recently arrived.

In terms of formal mentoring programs and internship programs, I can speak about two that the government assists with.

One is called the federal internship program for newcomers. This is a program through which in Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, and Ottawa we work with immigrant-serving organizations. They pre-screen or pre-select groups of immigrants who are caught in the conundrum of having trouble finding a job because they don't have Canadian work experience and not having Canadian work experience because they're having trouble finding a job.

How do you help bridge that to give them Canadian work experience?

It's a program that started with the federal government, and we've expanded it to include private sector partners as well. Candidates are pre-screened and selected. They come in. They do a short stage or period inside the federal government. A lot of them move out into the private sector. It has about a 60% success rate in terms of people finding permanent employment after the program. I can tell you from personal experience that those hired through this program are incredible candidates who really just need a chance to develop that Canadian work experience, and they can then go from there.

In terms of a mentorship program, Ms. Pateman, do you want to speak to that?

[Natasha Pateman]

We also have a mentoring program within the public service. The public service is the largest employer in Canada, and we have, of course, many professional occupations. We are involved in providing mentorship as well as in helping newcomers with resumé writing, expanding their professional networks in the local community, and things like that.

The other thing I'd like to mention is that we have recently been piloting mentorship programs for refugees, working with refugees who have been in Canada quite a while and who have become quite successful. It's a bit like a speed-dating club, at which they will meet for a couple of hours. The new refugees move from table to table to find out about tips and tricks and things like that from refugees who have been in Canada for a while. We've piloted that in the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, and it has been quite successful so far. We're going to continue to try that across the country to see what the outcomes are.

[Jay Aspin, Conservative, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Education is another key element in the success of immigrants. Could you tell me how Citizenship and Immigration is working to assess education of foreign nationals?

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, that relates to an earlier question on credential recognition.

One of the things the federal government has done is it has instituted the education credential assessment program. Through a call for proposals, we work with five organizations that will assess education credentials before people arrive. As part of applying for a federal skilled worker program, we ask that you have your education credentials assessed against a Canadian standard. For example, is your engineering degree from a particular country equivalent to an engineering degree in Canada?

It's not a guarantee that you'll have success as part of the regulated occupation, but it's a pretty good understanding. In some countries, what would be known as an engineering degree is more like a trade certificate or an engineering technician certificate. So, having that education credential beforehand helps to really set expectations. It doesn't mean that you would not come to Canada, but it gives a better set of expectations around the hurdles in terms of education credentials. It's also some assurance for employers that this is an education credential that has been assessed or is understood in Canada.

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

Thank you.

Sorry, the time is up.

Mr. Eglinski, you have the floor.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Thank you all for coming today and being witnesses.

This is directed to Catrina. You mentioned express entry, the new application system designed to get people with the skills to succeed in Canada's economy faster than ever. This means that employers are playing a more direct role in selecting immigrants, but that is only one part of the integration process.

Can you expand on this and give me the other factors leading to success in Canada?

[Catrina Tapley]

Madam Chair, we're very excited about express entry. It is a brand new application management system or new program for us that has been in place since the first of January where employers and provinces have an opportunity to help select candidates, or help do a better match between labour market demand or jobs in the Canadian economy and new arrivals.

In addition to having a job, another barrier will be language. It's not just a case of coming with little knowledge of English or French, but also in some cases people arrive...or we'll say from our language benchmarking program that a person needs a language benchmark 7 to come in as a federal skilled worker, but really if they're going to be an engineer, they might require a 9 or 10 on the scale of language abilities. Part of our focus in our programming is really still how to get people from a good intermediate level to a more senior level in language training, which really helps improve their outcomes.

The other issues I spoke about earlier were around recognition of foreign work experience and credential recognition.

[Jim Eglinski, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Our government established a foreign credentials referral office in 2007. Can you please explain to this committee what its role is?

[Catrina Tapley]

Its role was and is to assist with credential recognition and the difficulties associated with that by working with provinces, territories, and regulatory bodies. The big piece of work that has been associated with that is the pan-Canadian assessment for the recognition of foreign qualifications, which involves working with the 24 regulatory bodies that Ms. Pateman spoke about in terms of what the standards are in assessing those credentials.

The other things the office does is it looks at things like alternative employment. If a person is trained in a particular field and there's a real barrier to getting the credential recognized in that regulated occupation, the office looks at whether there are alternative careers that the person might be well suited for that are an easier fit. That has been a very promising area to work with employers on and to work with others on, to open up different avenues under that. The other is also working with employers on developing employer tool kits and employer handbooks on hiring new arrivals, new immigrants to Canada who look at what's involved in terms of recognizing foreign work experience, credential recognition process.

The other part where I think we've had a great success with this office is the link between this and some of the work that we're doing pre-arrival or overseas. One of the programs is the CIIP, the Canadian immigrant integration program, which operates in four centres with bigger outreach overseas. It takes federal skilled workers and provincial nominees and brings them in for one-on-one tailored service. There's a general orientation day, but there's a second day—and this is all before they arrive—that is focused on their individual needs and on building a settlement plan that includes the recognition of foreign qualifications.

This is where we've seen some really promising results from two fronts on what this means. One is to understand well the challenges that will lie ahead in getting their credentials recognized in a regulated occupation and a path to do that, where to go, and what they can work on before they get here. Two, there is the need to understand the Canadian economy. The first response from many will be Toronto or Vancouver because they've heard of those cities, but I think the CIIP has been successful in telling people they may want to think about the hot economy in Alberta or Saskatchewan, or the particular need in a certain province or area around a key occupation.

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

Thank you, Mr. Eglinski. You don't have any more time. It's over. Thank you very much.

Mr. Sandhu, you now have the floor.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I don't think we got the answer in regard to how many Syrian refugees have settled here in the last year and what areas they have settled in, whether in British Columbia or Ontario. Could you provide us with those numbers?

[Catrina Tapley]

It's about 1,100, Madam Chair.

Mr. Gionet, do we have numbers where they've settled?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

Madam Chair, I don't have the information on where they've settled. We do know that there has been a lot of sponsorship applications out of Quebec because a large proportion of the Syrian population in Canada is in Quebec, but I don't have those figures in terms of in-Canada distribution.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Would you be able to provide those to the committee at a later date?

[Jean-Marc Gionet]

We can look into it, yes.