Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 19th, 2016

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That's consistent across the country, because that's what I've heard. Across the country there was a 10% cut for LINC programs. Thank you.

On housing, it's great that landlords have stepped up, and I understand that is the case for some other locations as well. Do you know if that commitment is made for the 13th month going onwards? Is the reduction in the rent that's being offered just for this first 12 months, or is it for beyond? Because there's a real problem that I'm worried about, the 13th month and beyond.

[Carl Cadogan]

We can have Mike speak to that, but my quick comment about it is that even if the rent stays the same, the allowance, the money that the refugee has, lessens, so you have the same impact. If they are now not supported by the federal government any longer and they have to go on Ontario Works, as an example, what they will get will be less than what they had been receiving, and they're going to be faced with an issue.

[Mike Murray]

I might just reinforce that. As a municipal government, we are really quite concerned about month 13. Several things may happen. Rents may go up. For some landlords who have done this out of the goodness of their hearts, their approach may change. That may be one thing. The settlement assistance will expire, so if somebody isn't attached to employment, there is a question about what their source of income is going to be. In Ontario that may mean people going on Ontario Works, which may have an impact on municipal government.

There are several things that are potentially problematic as we look ahead to month 13. There is an ongoing question about whether the settlement provision allowance is adequate regardless.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Murray.

Thank you, Ms. Kwan.

Mr. Chen, I understand you are splitting your time with Ms. Zahid.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want first to say how heartening it is to learn about the incredible work that's being done by the Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge community, both at the social service agency level and at the government level.

We've heard you talk about the importance of providing information and ensuring that the Syrian refugees have an opportunity to succeed. With respect to the long-term goals, and particularly in month 13 and beyond, I am concerned about specific groups of refugees that might not be able to achieve success. We've seen through the research that government-sponsored refugees versus privately sponsored refugees are more likely to access services. They access settlement services at 87% versus privately sponsored refugees at 69%. Further, we know that particular groups of refugees that are marginalized might find it difficult. For example, Focus for Ethnic Women has reported that women particularly have barriers to accessing health services and employment.

My question is for anyone on the panel. What can you suggest the government do to help your work, especially in providing information and support to reach out to those marginalized communities as well as to privately sponsored refugees who may not have access to the same level of service?

[Carl Cadogan]

Lucia might have a comment as well. My quick response to that is that part of what we have done—and Reception House has always given a bit of support to families who have privately sponsored refugees—because of the large numbers, as Tara said, is that we have tried to involve more families who have privately sponsored refugees in discussions. We've tried to ensure that they are aware of the services in the community. We certainly can do a lot more, but that again is a resource-driven focus, because the staff do it, bodies do it. Meeting with families and bringing them together to provide a bit of orientation to the services in the community takes time. As a small agency, we don't have resources for that, but more can be done.

I think it's a lot better this time than it was in previous times, but there are still gaps.

[John Haddock]

I'll answer that one. Part of the 10% cut to our funds on April 1, 2015, the majority of the funds that were reduced, was for information and outreach. We chose to keep the majority of our funding for the actual settlement work itself, so that's been a consequence.

To Carl's point, it would be important particularly in the early stage but also once you get into months 13 and beyond. We're not very well connected with the publicly sponsored refugees in our region, as an example. Somebody needs to have a focus on it and it's an issue, but a lot of us aren't able to just tackle that one head-on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Haddock.

Ms. Zahid, you have three and a half minutes.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to thank all of you for joining us today and for all the work you are doing in the Waterloo and Kitchener region.

I will open this question to the panel. I know that younger children are very resilient. They are often able to adapt more quickly to a new situation and a new culture. It can be harder for teenagers to make adjustments. Being the mother of two teenagers, I know that moving to a new high school is a challenge for that age group, let alone for those who are traumatized, who are new to this country, and who are adapting to a new culture, a new school system, and a new language. They face even larger educational and social gaps when compared with the younger kids.

Could you discuss the unique challenges facing teenagers and what we can do to assist in that?

[John Haddock]

I'll respond first.

As I think I mentioned in my remarks, 15 years ago the YMCA, with grant support from the United Way, started trying to do some work specifically with newcomer youth, with teens. As you indicated, teenage times are turbulent even in well-established formalized families. At a time of significant change, the needs are only exacerbated. I applaud your recognition of that.

Over the last 15 years, we've received significant support from the community. The YMCA has invested a number of dollars in terms of providing opportunities for our newcomer youth, in each of our three health and fitness centres in our region, to come together weekly, to spend time together, to grow together, to learn together, and to help with their integration into Canadian society and schools.

It's a huge need that's currently unfunded, by and large, except by organizations and individuals who decide to take that need on themselves. Funding is not there.

[Carl Cadogan]

I'll echo what John just said.

We have entered into a partnership with another community-based organization to respond to this issue. We have been lucky to secure some funding from Ontario Trillium Foundation. We recognize that teenagers, young people, need a lot of support, and different kinds of support from their parents. We're looking to set something up, hopefully starting in the next week or two. There was no funding from the federal government, so we looked to other sources of funding to make sure we had some programming for young people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 20 seconds, Ms. Zahid.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay. I'll pass.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

I'd like to thank all the panellists for appearing before the committee today. On behalf of the committee, thank you for all the tremendous work you're doing to help resettle Syrian refugees.

We will now suspend the meeting. We have an item of business that needs to be dealt with in camera.

Thank you once again.

[Proceedings continue in camera]