Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 12th, 2016

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much.

Just to carry on with the loans program, with the deadline for the end of February, when was that decided, and why February?

[Dawn Edlund]

I'm not even sure I was there at the time, but through the course of February we were continuing to interview cases to make sure that we hit the goal of having 25,000 people arrived by the end of February. We weren't entirely sure, of the people we were interviewing, who exactly was going to be in a position to travel by the end of February, so we continued to interview more people. There were about 2,374 people who had been interviewed by the end of February but who had not yet travelled at the end of February.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I see; so the primary factor is to arrive at the 25,000 number, and once you have reached it, then whoever else is coming down the pike will not have this benefit. Similarly, those who did arrive prior to November 7 would be out of luck, and they also didn't get the exemption.

[Dawn Edlund]

To clarify, Mr. Chair, the 2,374 who were interviewed by the end of February will benefit from the waiver of the transportation loan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Yes, thank you. I understand what the driver is now. It's all just to meet the numbers, but not....

Of private sponsors, individuals or groups, who have come forward, how many are still waiting for families to arrive? If I get that information with a breakdown province by province and city by city, I would appreciate it. If you don't have that number today, I can receive it at a later time.

[Dawn Edlund]

We don't have that number today, but it's something we can get.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

Concerning the SWIS program that the staff spoke about, I wonder whether I could get the information as well on when that was established. Could I get a comparison budget? I asked for the budget and the breakdown for this year, but it would be good to actually get the comparison with previous years. Could I get what the budget was for the last five years and the number of workers that budget carries, on a breakdown by communities?

Also, could I have the numbers showing how many refugees came to those communities? Presumably those communities with the larger refugee numbers would have a larger share, one would assume, of the funding. If I could get those corresponding numbers, that would be appreciated as well.

[Catrina Tapley]

Mr. Chair, we're happy to provide corresponding numbers around that, particularly on the breakdown on settlement workers and the school program.

Just in terms of how we allocate funding, which I think was the second part of the question, we're happy to provide the information, but we allocate funding for settlement services in two different ways. For our core amounts of settlement services we use a formula. In terms of where we spend money in jurisdictions, it is well established. In terms of spending the $38 million or so in this fiscal year for settlement services for Syrian refugees, we've targeted them to the communities in which Syrian refugees have actually settled, and we have tracked in real time where we're spending those funds.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

In terms of consideration for funding, do you take into consideration also the different categories of refugees? For example, it was mentioned that there are some differences of need for government-sponsored versus privately sponsored refugees. What is the funding formula consideration? If I could have that information, that would be appreciated as well.

[Catrina Tapley]

With respect to the funding formula, Mr. Chair, we don't break down between privately sponsored and government-assisted refugees. Not with respect to the Syrian dollars themselves but with respect to the overall formula, we do it on a per immigrant basis as to where immigrants settle, and then we over-weight by a factor of 2.5 for refugees in general, but we don't break it down between government-assisted and privately sponsored.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I note in the chart that was given to us that breaks down the privately sponsored numbers per province versus the government-sponsored, overwhelmingly in the major cities, such as Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto we have significant numbers of government-sponsored refugees, whereas other provinces have a far larger number of privately sponsored refugees.

I believe the needs are different. I wonder whether or not, from previous experiences, the officials have information on what the differences are between government-sponsored refugees and the privately sponsored refugees in their resettlement process. If you can share all of that information with the committee, it would be very useful and helpful.

[Catrina Tapley]

Mr. Chair, with respect to Syrian refugees, the largest difference will be in language training. In terms of numbers of those who report—and again, this is self-reporting of whoever feels they have language training—about 85% of government-assisted refugees report not having any English or French, whereas with privately sponsored refugees it's close to 60% who report some language abilities in either English or French.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I would argue that there is a bigger difference than just language, because the government-sponsored refugees, as the minister identified, are the most vulnerable groups, and it is they who are targeted. The privately sponsored are different. In terms of even the refugee families' own background, education levels and all of those things make a difference in the resettlement process and so on. The size of the family matters; all of those factors need to be taken into consideration.

I wonder whether or not the ministry staff have done any analysis with respect to this in previous resettlement processes with refugees and therefore have that understanding going forward with Syrian refugees and other groups.

[Catrina Tapley]

Mr. Chair, I didn't mean to suggest for a minute that language would be the only difference. We agree, of course, on the other issues as well.

What we've tracked in the past is use of our settlement services, and we can break that down between privately sponsored and government-assisted refugees in terms of who uses these services, just as we could with other categories of immigrants who come in.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 45 seconds.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you. I would appreciate that information in any of the reports and data that the ministry officials might have from the past.

I wasn't meaning to say that you were suggesting that this is the only factor that mattered, but it really is important for us to have all that information going forward to try to figure out what the best thing is that we need to do and how to improve the services.

That information would be pertinent as well, concerning the family makeup, the size of the family, educational background, if we could receive it from the officials.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Do we have a commitment from the department to receive that data?

[Catrina Tapley]

Of course, Mr. Chair, as much as we have available. With refugee populations, we're not asking for educational assessments, so our information will be imperfect, but of course we will make available to the committee what we have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Tapley.

Ms. Zahid, you have seven minutes, please.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

In my riding of Scarborough Centre, the Catholic Crosscultural Services organization in collaboration with IRCC provides services through the links initiative to assist Syrian refugees currently in Canada to bring their family members still abroad into Canada. We know that family reunification is a key factor in the success of the integration of the newcomers to Canada.

What is the response of this program to date, and what demand for this program does the department see going forward?

[Catrina Tapley]

We have a strong demand for Link services. Link is our English service, Click is our French-language service. We see strong demand for this going forward and are actively monitoring where we have wait-lists for language classes and are trying to move funds there to address those.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

My question was in regard to the initiative to assist the Syrian refugees who are here to bring their families here—the matching program and the link in that, not the Link classes.

[Catrina Tapley]

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

[Dawn Edlund]

This is the family links initiative. I'm sorry for our misunderstanding of the question here at the table, Mr. Chair.

That organization has been helping to match up Syrian families who say they have family members they would like to have brought to Canada. A kind of matching service has been initiated. I don't have the exact numbers, but there have been several thousand names brought forward, and then there are organizations that have come forward, as groups of five or whatever, to say that they would sponsor those families. I don't have with me today specific numbers on how it's working.

David, do you?