Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 12th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Rempel.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'll be splitting my time with Mr. Tilson.

Ms. Edlund, to clarify, out of the Syrian refugee initiative, the government has brought in nine Yazidis.

[Dawn Edlund]

No, to clarify, we are currently working on nine cases of Yazidi families that were brought to our attention. As my colleague Mr. Manicom noted, we don't have a way of tracking that in our system to pull.... It's not a field that we track people by. As cases have been brought forward to us, we've been working on seeing where they are in the process, and we have nine cases that we're working on currently. I don't have the number of people that involves.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

How many cases have been processed, in total, as part of the Syrian refugee initiative?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

We've just said we don't track by—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'm asking, regardless of ethnicity, how many cases have been processed?

[Dawn Edlund]

I don't have that number in terms of cases because we've been tracking things by number of persons. For the Syrian movement, to date, from November 4 to May 9, we have just a titch over 27,000 Syrians who have been brought to Canada.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

What would the average family size be as part of one of those cases?

[Dawn Edlund]

Privately sponsored refugee family sizes tend to be smaller, so think of four or five people. The government-assisted refugee families are much larger, think of six, seven, or eight plus.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

My understanding is, with both government-sponsored and privately sponsored refugees, specifically Syrian refugees, that the assistance provided—we'll deal with the privately sponsored one—lasts a year. There's a commitment to help people, and it lasts a year. I'll ask you, Mr. Minister, then what happens?

For example, our communities right across the country have been very generous with providing housing, providing food and clothing, and all kinds of things, language training, etc., but that commitment, as I understand, ends after a year. So what happens then? I'm carrying on with the question that was asked by one of the government members. What happens, for example, Mr. Minister, specifically about jobs? What happens if they don't have jobs?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

They come in as permanent residents on arrival, and they receive support for a number of months. Government-assisted refugees receive support for one year—you're right—but they receive the other kinds of settlement services for 39 months, just over three years. Not everything is for one year.

If they don't have a job or other means of support after one year, they are like other Canadians in that situation. The official support for them in terms of income ends after one year, and after that they are in a situation like other Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

They go on social assistance.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Some of them will, yes.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Some of them will, which makes the question that one of the government members asked very important. What percentage of the people have jobs? I expect that many of them who come here, if not all, can't speak English or French, so the first thing they have to do is learn one of those languages. If they don't, they're going to have an awful time getting a job.

I think this issue is an important issue. We want them to become good citizens and become members of our society, but we want them to have jobs. If things aren't working out.... For example, in my community, a house could be leased. Well, a lease expires, and if they don't have any money, then what happens?

I guess that's where I'm going, Mr. Minister. After the one-year period, if they don't have jobs and they don't have enough money to pay their lease or their rent, or to buy food, what happens?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I agree with you that those are crucial questions. That is why I want to know how many have jobs, and that's why we are.... We don't have those numbers today, but we are working to develop those numbers. I don't think you'd expect all of them to have jobs after a short period after arrival, because they need time to learn the language, as you've said.

I know some employers who I think are very innovative. They've hired the refugees, but they spend half the day learning the language and half the day working in their jobs. I think there are ways to do it.

But in terms of the specific question you asked, it's what I said before. They get income support for one year. After that, they are in a situation just like other Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Zahid, please, for five minutes.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I know that it is hard for refugees with limited official language skills to find employment opportunities. In my riding of Scarborough Centre, several businesses, such as the Adonis supermarket and the landscaping company 3-D Exteriors, have provided Syrian refugees with employment opportunities despite their language issues.

However, large numbers of Syrian refugees are still struggling to find sustainable employment because of their lack of official language skills. In my meetings with many refugees who have moved into my riding, all of them have expressed their eagerness to begin working, to help contribute to Canadian society, and to build a better life for their families. At the ministry level, is the department doing something to help the Syrian refugees transition into the employment market?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

I think that is a big chunk of what the department does. We certainly work to help them find housing, but the language training, the training on how to apply for jobs, and the occupational matching that the department does—all of those things—are ultimately geared towards helping them get jobs.

Often, getting the jobs and learning the language can go together. It's not black and white. Sometimes they can have jobs and, for part of the time, do language training as well. That might be a better way to ease themselves into the situation.

Maybe one of the officials can comment more on that.

[Catrina Tapley]

Yes. I can just pick up on your answer.

Employment-related services are part of the package of services offered under settlement services in Canada, such as understanding workplace culture, links to employers, and bringing both of those communities together. In addition, we also do a number of things around community connections by connecting newcomers both to public institutions and to their communities but also creating that network that makes it easier to find a job.

We're also working actively with employers. We've seen a number of innovative practices. I'll use the example of the Leamington greenhouses that hired team leads who speak Arabic so that they can hire Syrian refugees to work on the team under them and then do the matching that the minister has talked about between on-the-job language training and some supervision that helps ease that transition into the labour market.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I personally visited the Adonis supermarket in my riding, and those who had some language skills were working at the cash, but many who didn't were making pita breads and working at the back.

I have another question. A key aspect of integration for the Syrian refugees' families is education for the children. Many Syrian children unfortunately carry serious mental scars as a result of the turmoil they have gone through. These can seriously impede a child's ability to learn and integrate successfully into Canada.

What is the department doing to ensure that appropriate counselling services are being offered to assist the children in this situation?

[Catrina Tapley]

One of the programs we have is called SWIS, or settlement workers in schools. Through our service provider organizations, we are working to put this program into place in all regions in the country where we have a high concentration of youth immigrants in schools.

Settlement workers work with the family, not just the children who are there. Working more directly with the children, as you know, is more a provincial responsibility. They really talk about the importance of education, about how homework is key, and about why extracurricular activities are important, and they really help bridge that gap between Canadian school culture and the place where the children have come from and its scarring effects, which you talked about. They work with a whole group of counsellors in schools and teachers in schools.

[Dawn Edlund]

We're also working with a couple of different organizations to deliver training programs for the staff and the service provider organizations so they can be sensitized to and more aware of symptoms or signs of mental illness or stress and then help steer people to the right levels of services in the provinces and territories to have that worked on.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Kwan, go ahead for three minutes, please.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Just to carry on with that, I wonder whether or not I could get the information on the budget for the SWIS program, how many workers there are, and what districts they have been allocated to so we can have a full understanding of how that's working. I understand you probably don't have those numbers there, but we can receive that at a later time.

I do want to raise this issue. Last April, many refugee families in Saskatoon waited some three weeks for funding. Many of them actually were in situations where they were risking being evicted.

This was asked of the minister in the House of Commons, and the minister's response was that these are hiccups. How many families has this occurred to? How long on average have these delays been? What is the longest wait time for any one family? Has there been a case of eviction as a result of these hiccups? What has the department done to prevent such situations from happening again?