Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 19th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on March 8, the committee will begin its study on the federal government's initiative to resettle Syrian refugees.

Appearing before us today are Huda Bukhari and Zena Al Hamdan, both from the Arab Community Centre of Toronto; Rachel Gouin and Hayat Said, from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada; and Sherman Chan, from the Canadian Council for Refugees.

I would just like to remind the witnesses that each group will have seven minutes to make their representations.

I will begin with Ms. Bukhari and Ms. Al Hamdan.

[Huda Bukhari, Executive Director, Arab Community Centre of Toronto]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, good morning. Thank you for inviting the Arab Community Centre of Toronto as a witness this morning in regard to the Syria initiative.

The ACCT, the Arab Community Centre of Toronto, wishes to congratulate the federal government on its response in resettling the 25,000 Syrian refugees within the short time that it did. Thank you. From the members of the Syrian community I bring their thanks. The resettlement of the Syrian newcomers is a proud and important part of Canada's humanitarian tradition, which reflected our commitment to Canadians and demonstrates to the world that we have a shared responsibility to help those who are most in need of asylum.

The Syria initiative galvanized the whole country and brought to the fore communities that traditionally have had no part to play within the settlement sector, sponsoring groups and well-wishing Syrian volunteers.

The Arab Community Centre of Toronto responded to this initiative early on, commencing in January 2015 by partnering with Lifeline Syria, a community-based initiative aiming to resettle 1,000 Syrian refugees a year through community sponsor groups. The ACCT's role was to connect with the settled Syrian Canadian community and have them act as a focal point, as Canadian contacts, for those families or friends whom they wished to have matched with community sponsors.

Lifeline Syria was formally launched in June 2015, and the Province of Ontario was the first of the funders to respond to this initiative in funding the project. The ACCT was able to hire a Syrian community worker to connect with the Canadian Syrian community. To date, the ACCT has put forth more than 750 cases to be matched, has held 12 information sessions, and has provided guidance and assistance to more than 600 Syrian community members filling in sponsorship forms.

The ACCT at that time, with inadequate staffing, requested from IRCC funding assistance towards additional staff and was turned down in October and again in December 2015. We had at that time an increase in Syrian clients accessing our services and could not keep up with the demand. Funding was made available—thankfully—in April 2016 for the addition of two full-time staff members to address the Syrian newcomer clients.

At that time, the ACCT needed to hire Syrian settlement counsellors who could reflect the Syrian newcomers' languages. Arabic is spoken in 22 Arab countries, and each country speaks Arabic with a different dialect. The Syrians are made up of Armenians, who may not understand or speak Arabic, and Syrians in the north and in the south who speak Arabic with completely different accents. We needed staffing to help us in that initiative.

As well, Arabic is understood within the 22 Arab countries through the classical, written version. Not many people speak the classical Arabic. I'll come back to that later.

From early June 2015, the ACCT worked at bringing to the escalating Syrian refugee crisis the attention of the larger community, working closely with Syrian Canadian grassroots organizations, such as the Syrian professional group, faith-based organizations, and other settlement agencies, to focus the public's attention on the issue and on creating a coordinated response. This was done through the creation of response networks delivering Syrian cultural information sessions to the sponsoring groups, settlement agencies, and other organizations across Canada.

The ACCT connected with non-traditional partners, such as landlords, employment agencies, hospitals, school boards, and so on to leverage all resources to facilitate the plan of action to honour Canada's commitment.

To maximize the efficiency of the support provided by the ACCT to the more than 100 non-Lifeline Syria sponsoring groups who access our services, we assigned a settlement counsellor and two volunteers to facilitate communication with their new families and provide active support. This initiative was provided through funding from the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto.

Commencing December 2015, again the ACCT saw itself at the heart of the Canadian response to the crisis. Five staff members were assigned to assist as interpreters and escorts at Pearson Airport.

They provided over 300 hours of service coordinated through the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, or OCASI, and Malton Neighbourhood Services. This initiative was funded through IRCC, though release of funds and information was slow to trickle down to the IRCC program officers in Toronto, who had absolutely no idea that this had been agreed upon.

The ACCT saw an increase at this time in the number of Syrians requesting our assistance. During the first quarter of 2015 there was a 9.5% increase of clients accessing our services who were Syrians. The second quarter saw an increase of 9.7%, the third quarter an increase of 15.3%, and as of April 2016, 50% of our clients are Syrians.

In December 2015 again, five partnerships were created, with the Toronto Employment and Social Services, the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Peel District School Board, and Mount Sinai Hospital for referral of clients and for cultural interpretation.

With the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the ACCT proposed that a homework and tutoring program be initiated because of the referrals and because of the information we were getting that the children who were coming in were acting out in schools. To that end, discussions are still in the works for us to set up that homework and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Bukhari, you have 30 seconds, please.

[Huda Bukhari]

Okay.

Additionally, by this time the ACCT had received and trained 75 volunteers.

I have 30 seconds and I'm going to talk about the challenges and the trends.

The challenges include permanent housing for the government-assisted refugees. The stay at the reception homes and hotels was a lengthy process, though it created a social connection with other Syrian refugees who were there.

We're experiencing through the Syrian refugees who are coming in a lower-than-expected literacy level.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Bukhari.

I notice that you've provided us with copies of your opening remarks. As soon as we have them translated into French we'll make sure that a full set is distributed to all of the committee members.

Thank you.

We will now move on to Ms. Gouin and Ms. Said.

You have seven minutes, please.

[Dr. Rachel Gouin, Director, Research and Public Policy, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada]

Thank you. We're grateful for the opportunity to present to you today.

Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada supports and encourages children and youth to achieve great futures. We have 96 member clubs. We see 200,000 children and youth through our doors each year and we have service locations in 625 local communities.

Several of our Boys and Girls Clubs have stepped up to help welcome the Syrian refugees. In fact, they welcome newcomers every time they arrive in communities. They're working with settlement agencies. They have opened their doors specifically for the Syrian refugees during the day, have arranged transportation for children and youth to be bused from school or from housing projects to club programs, and are integrating youth into regular after-school programs.

They're noticing that parents are busy working very hard to integrate, that families are large, and that children and youth need that extra support, even help with homework or having some sporting activities, some recreation in their lives, especially youth and young adults who struggle most when their parents do not speak English or French and who require that extra support for school and possibly to find some employment, such as many of our Canadian-born youth have in their adolescence.

Boys and Girls Clubs has submitted a written brief to the committee. We have two main recommendations. We would like to see the government give some thought to how we can support young people in the short and medium term to integrate. We think that youth programming that helps them make connections to their community, encourages their leadership, supports them through homework, and helps them find that first job or volunteer opportunities is very important and that the programs should be universal, open to all newcomer youth regardless of their immigration class or their country of origin.

We have invited Hayat Said to speak to her experience of immigration and the importance that such programs have had for her.

[Hayat Said, Member, Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada]

Thank you to the chair and the committee for having me and allowing me to share my experience with you.

My name is Hayat Said. I came to Canada in 2011. I originally came from Syria. Coming to Canada was really hard because one of my struggles was that I didn't speak English, and my family didn't speak English as well. Getting introduced to the Boys and Girls Club by my mom was really helpful because I'd been bullied before I came here. Coming here was really supportive and the Boys and Girls Club helped me with my English. My experience was really good because I was really shy. I couldn't even talk to anybody for two seconds because I was just afraid that I was going to get bullied there, too. Getting the help that I needed, learning English, and getting the support, like being involved in spelling bees, being with the leadership programs, and giving me the opportunity to be the president of the leadership program, helping the members give back and teaching them how to be a good and strong leader, was really helpful.

They supported me with everything. My school was really a big part of it. I wasn't doing really well at school, so when I got introduced to the Boys and Girls Club I started having high grades, and my family started to learn some English because of the club. Now my siblings have joined the Boys and Girls Club of Canada, in Ottawa. It was really helpful, and it's my second home, honestly. I got the opportunity to be a young volunteer, and now I have over 800 volunteer hours. I enjoy going there every day because I want to give back what they have given me. I learned English over three years, and it's been a crazy experience, and I wanted to give that back.

I want all refugees to have the opportunity to learn English and get experiences like these, and speak out about their experiences. Also, the club is giving me the experience of working with them and being a part of the Boys and Girls Club, and now I'm going to graduate with a scholarship and go to Algonquin College to study ECE, that is, early childhood education.

I've been really happy and blessed to be with the Boys and Girls Club, which is really supportive and has given me the education and the help, and I would love to answer any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Before we move on to questions, there still are two minutes, Ms. Gouin, if there's anything else you'd like to add. If not, we will move on.

[Dr. Rachel Gouin]

I would add that the Boys and Girls Club has developed a national program called the newcomer youth advancement program that is helping support our clubs to reach out to newcomer youth and to help the clubs be skilled at helping young people integrate. Over the last three years we have seen 2,750 youth in nine locations across the country. We've added three more locations this year and two more will be added next year, and the outcomes have included an improved sense of belonging, increased and improved cultural awareness, leadership and self-direction, communications and social skills, and better attitudes around school. These are exactly the things that the UN Refugee Agency recommends, these kinds of programs that help young people connect to the receiving population. The UN agency has recommended that these programs are needed, so we are trying to do our part and we wanted to raise awareness about the importance of such programs.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Gouin.

Mr. Chan, you have seven minutes, please.

[Sherman Chan, Executive Committee Member, Canadian Council for Refugees]

Thank you for inviting me to the meeting today.

I am an executive committee member of the CCR, and I also work as the director of family and settlement services for MOSAIC in Vancouver. I have been working with the sector for about 24 years.

I am going to highlight some of our observations and recommendations for the committee study.

CCR is a national non-profit organization committed to the rights and protection of refugees and other vulnerable immigrants to Canada. We have about 180 members across Canada.

It is really important to encourage Canadian individuals and groups in the resettlement of Syrian refugees, and we see that harnessing goodwill from Canadians is essential. We should continue to involve and have active community engagement with Canadians.

Additional funding for Syrian refugees by the Treasury Board is a good investment.

Throughout our services to Syrian refugees we notice many new private sponsors, many new community groups that want to help. We think it would be good if there was some support through settlement organizations to work together with them on how to help resettle the Syrian refugees into the community. We would suggest the government consider this.

In terms of the integration challenges, an ideal is for Syrian refugees to be closer to their families. For many reasons—housing, the availability of jobs, or even schools—it may not happen and we think it would be good if settlement organizations could intervene or work earlier with the resettled Syrian refugees, even when they are in temporary accommodation, to make some good arrangements. We can make sure there is the desire; we know that through our experience. Many of them will eventually move to where there is community support or family support and that will make their integration in Canada more meaningful.

The availability of employment counselling and placement services is important, we know that. Many of them have high hopes of finding employment in Canada because they really want to be part of the community and contribute to the Canadian economy. We also know that many of them don't speak English well or they don't have any work experience so settlement support in finding a job, resumé writing, and labour market information is important.

I will give you an example from Vancouver. Working with the Province of B.C., there is going to be a survey on working with the employer and looking at the occupational profile of refugees, particularly the Syrian refugees in metro Vancouver. That means we can work with the employer community and have better matching and have the employer know what skills the refugees are bringing so they can match easily with the employer and have the refugees work well there.

We understand that in big cities it is always a challenge to find affordable housing. We think that settlement organizations or the sector could have a worker specific to housing, educating Syrian refugees on landlord and tenant rights, and how they can negotiate to make living there meaningful.

On the education of refugee children, through the IRCC there is a program called settlement workers in schools. It is a good way to make sure that refugee children can integrate well into the school system.

With the ESL program, the LINC program, 62% of Syrian refugees indicated they don't have any English language skills or French language skills. We also know that there's a long waiting list for LINC, particularly for level one and pre-literacy. We think that at this point we could be looking at some informal alternative to the LINC program to support them because many of them really want to be part of the community. There is an opportunity to recruit more volunteer teachers, to develop curricula, and to have conversation circles to support them.

While we are doing that we'll be looking at best practices and also looking at some of the information guidelines on how to work with refugees, their community profile, and some of the ethical and professional issues of working with immigrants and refugees.

Those are the recommendations that we have.

In terms of medical support, we would like to see.... Yesterday I got an email about the interim federal health program, IFHP, cut-off rate for dental, particularly for many of the refugees who are in a really bad situation in terms of dental care.

There are many refugees who can't hear particularly well—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 30 seconds, please.

[Sherman Chan]

—and refugee children with developmental delays, so if IFHP can support them, I think that would be very good.

The last point is about the non-Syrian refugees. We think that it is important that it's not just focused on Syrian refugees but looks at refugees from other countries as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Chan.

We'll begin the rounds of questioning of seven minutes.

Ms. Zahid.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'll take this opportunity to thank all of our witnesses for coming today and for providing their input.

My first question is for Ms. Bukhari.

Last year in December you spoke at Minister Freeland's town hall on Syrian refugees. You stated that a key aspect to successful integration was ensuring that refugees were able to easily access the services that they require. Which resources do you feel are the most important to successful integration of the Syrian refugees? Do you think that there are presently enough resources for Syrian refugees to have that access? Which resources would need to be improved upon?

[Huda Bukhari]

This is a two-part question.

What we have been experiencing with the refugees coming in is that the information they were getting in the three-day orientation sessions pre-arrival was dated. It was outdated when they came to us, and we had to update the information. It was completely different to what they had received.

The resource that they will need is better access to services, and by better access to services, probably I mean that settlement agencies should have access to the refugees at the hotels versus the clients staying at hotels for over a month without any kind of service at all provided to them. Those are the resources.

Should the Canadian government perhaps create extra reception centres for refugees who are coming in, that would be a lot better. That's one thing.

Another thing that we have experienced is that privately sponsored refugees fare a lot better because they have better resources through their sponsors who are around them all the time and through the support of the sponsors around them. I think that these refugees should be allowed to stay with sponsoring groups in areas where there are other government offices.

Let me give you an example. We were called out to Grey Bruce County where there was a sponsorship group who had a family they had to drive for 45 minutes each way so that they could access their language classes, LINC. They had to take them for over an hour so that they could get to a Service Canada office to get their OHIP cards issued to them.

We recommend resources such as making sure that refugees are housed and are permanently housed in a location that has those government services around. Those are some of the things.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Bukhari.

I understand, Ms. Zahid, that you'll be splitting your time with Mr. Ehsassi.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Mr. Ehsassi, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Let me also thank everyone who has made the effort to be here. It's amazing to hear about all your experiences.

On this occasion, I also want to say congratulations to you, Hayat, and your amazing work. You really are a testament not only to how critically important the Boys and Girls Club is, but more importantly, to how critical it is that all of the settlement agencies be part of the process.

Mr. Chan, since you did allude to the specific challenges of work and training for refugees who are coming in, and you also talked about how you have partnered up with other settlement agencies, I was wondering whether you could perhaps provide us with best practices, and let us know what your experience has been so far and what works and what doesn't.

[Sherman Chan]

So far, in terms of the best practices that we are looking at, first of all, we definitely see a strong interest from the business community, or the corporate employers. Overall, they are interested in how they can support refugees. I think that's a shift not just in terms of looking at their skills but in terms of some compassion and the ways that they want to adjust the way they work.

In Vancouver—and I'm using Vancouver as an example because I work there—it starts through the provincial government. Of course, the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. is also part of it. They are developing and have already formed five refugee response teams in B.C., so we work particularly at leading in Vancouver, and what we have done is to invite about 38 organizations, including employers, the city, the language providers, and the health care professionals, to meet and develop strategies in approaching this.

In terms of the employment working groups, as we call them, we have had meetings, and we had the B.C. employment council work with us to develop a questionnaire for us to do surveys to find out who the refugees are who are coming here, what their language skills are, and what their jobs were. We learned that many of them could be farmers. Many of them could be good at driving. We don't know too much, but here's what I think we need to do. If the employer really wants to hire, they want to know who they are looking for, who they are, so we will compile the information and we will put it in the public domain on a website.

We also have employment counsellors who can negotiate with what we call the “labour market engagement specialists”. We can engage with them, say that we have have this pool of refugees, and ask how we can help. Some employers may be even willing to do some job placements, and then they also provide some kind of a workplace connection. They could have some refugees.... Right now, many immigrants could have a job experience there, build up their confidence, and have employers knowing who they are. I think that's something we want to do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Tilson, please, you have seven minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I want to thank all of you for coming and giving us your testimony.

I want to particularly congratulate the representatives from the Boys and Girls Club for their testimony.

Ms. Said, your English is outstanding.

[Hayat Said]

Thank you.

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

You speak better than a lot of MPs I know, I might add.