Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 4th, 2019

[The Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.)), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I call this meeting to order. This is the 142nd meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Welcome, witnesses, as we begin our second meeting to study settlement services in Canada. Thank you for joining us.

Before we begin, I want to update the committee on a couple of meeting announcements. As members will remember from the last meeting, I undertook to schedule some meetings. We have just been able to finally get them scheduled. For your calendars, today and Thursday we will do our settlement services study. They will be the second and third meetings of this study, which will be a minimum of seven meetings, as per your motion. There is no meeting on Monday, February 18, as in Ontario that is Family Day. On February 20 we will have a meeting on supplementary estimates (B), which you have asked me to do.

I approached both Minister Hussen and Minister Blair and we tried to schedule meetings. Mr. Blair is being requested at public safety as well, and we have very limited days. As you will know, a number of opposition days are being called. The reporting back could happen even earlier than by the end of March, or we would be deemed as having received them. Both ministers have agreed to change schedules and be available on February 20. They will be given a short period of time to speak, five minutes each, to give the committee enough time to question them on supplementary estimates (B).

For your further noting, on February 25 and 27 we will return to the migration study. You have requested three more meetings on that. We will have one on the 25th and one on the 27th. As well, just to alert you, I will be trying to schedule a special meeting of the committee to accomplish the three meetings you have requested before we have the two-week break so that the analysts can continue working on the evidence and get ready for a meeting where you would give instructions for the writing of the report when we come back in March.

Again, February 4 and 6 will be settlement services; February 18 there is no meeting; February 20 will be two ministers for supplementary estimates (B); and February 25 and 27 will be back to the migration study, with probably a third meeting that week, which we will try to schedule with as few conflicts as possible.

Are there any questions?

Ms. Rempel.

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

Will the ministers be appearing at separate panels or in one panel?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

They will appear in one panel. The supplementary estimates are actually the budgetary responsibility of only one minister, and that's Minister Hussen. That is his responsibility. Minister Blair will be here on the policy questions with respect to irregular migration, because he has that file but he doesn't have budgetary responsibility for it.

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

To be clear, does Minister Blair not have any responsibility for allocating resources that he is in charge of?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I will ask you to ask him that.

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

But you just said that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I know that the fiduciary responsibility is to the minister of IRCC with respect to the budget of IRCC. How that gets played out between ministers I don't know, but I do know that the responsibility technically falls to that minister.

Mr. Tilson.

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

Will the departments appear at separate times?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

The department officials will be with them, as is our custom. They will then stay for an additional hour following the ministers.

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

Will both departments be on at the same time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I would have to confirm, but I believe there's only one department, and that's IRCC. Mr. Blair doesn't have a department.

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

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Very good.

Let's welcome our guests.

I'll begin with you, Mr. Hussein. Welcome. After your presentation we will go to the two witnesses joining us by video conference from Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

Mr. Hussein, you have seven minutes.

[Ahmed Hussein, Executive Director, The Neighbourhood Organization]

Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm delighted to be here. My name is Ahmed Hussein. I'm the executive director of TNO, The Neighbourhood Organization, which is a settlement agency in Toronto. I would like to speak on the range of settlement services provided.

It's important to do a needs assessment for all newcomers who come to our organization or to a similar organization that provides settlement services. Basically, it's for the whole family or some of the family. It's really to identify their needs, their priorities and their expectations, and to set up goals. Group information sessions cover a large number of things that a large number of people need—employment information, parks and recreation information, school information and those kinds of things.

Another component that has really become more and more important now is community connections, which is really about connecting them with established Canadians. It became quite effective during the time of the Syrian refugees. A number of private sponsors sponsored and actually enhanced community connections. It was about facilitating their connection with somebody who could enhance their network and enhance their employment opportunities—somebody who was established, who knew employment information, and who had a large number of networks.

There are also support services such as providing childminding when workshops are happening or when language training is happening. As well, especially for GARs, government-assisted refugees, there are translation and interpretation services.

After doing all of that, and after the review of the services they need, they will get a lot of referrals to connect them with wherever the holistic needs assessment indicates. It could cover the whole family. For example, with a family of four or five, a number of things will be touched—employment, attending school, or connecting with youth recreation services and youth opportunities. It will clearly follow whatever the needs assessment plan is. One of the most important things is the access to employment, which is really about settlement. They will move forward when they're able to get employment. That's actually the most important thing. Within that process, they're also getting some sort of civic engagement. It connects them to the things that are happening in their neighbourhood and to being part of the community. That way the cohesiveness of a community or neighbourhood exists when newcomers come.

This programming format can be delivered by drop-in or group settings or online. In some cases, for the last couple of years successful settlement services have been delivered in the school setting, for example, through SWIS, the settlement workers in schools program, and in libraries, recreation places, and faith places. It's also important to have flexible hours, on weekends and evenings. A lot of people are working odd hours in some cases, and having access to services is important.

Looking at best practices, really you create a welcoming environment for them to be comfortable in. When you make them comfortable, you get more information to help them. You provide culturally appropriate services in terms of their language needs and in the geographical area where they can access the language. You also need good listening skills to see what their needs are.

Again, one of the other important things is really working with established Canadians so that you can really connect with them. Mentorship and community connections are critical points of their success. Those sponsored by private sponsors are actually more successful than are the GARs because they have a network that is working for them.

One of the other things is to really reinforce with them about being active citizens and engaging, because at the end of the day you want the newcomers to be settled properly, to participate and to create the harmony that we want to have in our country. Some of them are entrepreneurs and the settlement services can help with a lot of information on referrals. Now more and more people are asking for support in businesses. For example, in our area, a lot of them are actually doing catering or sewing, and selling their services to neighbours who have higher incomes compared to those in other areas. You also have to make sure that whatever you are doing, they are participating and that you are not pushing them into things that might not be important for them or things that are not helping them.

One issue that still exists is access to regulatory bodies like engineers, doctors and lawyers. It's still a challenge even though more and more improvements are happening. The other thing is that at all of these policy tables where newcomer issues are discussed, they're not there, and that needs to be recognized and built on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'll need you to wrap up fairly quickly, please.

[Ahmed Hussein]

Yes. Sure.

The other part is settlement service collaboration between all governments—federal, provincial, and municipal. It's important that we work collectively together and engage newcomers because the success of newcomers will contribute to the success of the country.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you.

You'll have more time to continue that when the questions come.

Let's move westward and go to Ms. Hamm from the Saskatchewan Intercultural Association.

Thank you for joining us.

[Jess Hamm, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Intercultural Association]

Good afternoon.

As you said, my name is Jess Hamm. I'd like to thank you for the invitation to speak with you today. I believe you are experiencing what I would call nice balmy weather there in Ottawa, as we are experiencing -37°C with the wind chill today.

I am the executive director of the Saskatchewan Intercultural Association, which is an impact non-profit organization founded in 1964. I'd also like to acknowledge that our organization operates on Treaty No. 6 territory, the traditional homelands of first nations and Métis people.

Since our beginning, the SIA has been committed to supporting cultural groups to retain distinctive cultural identity, language and arts while also integrating and feeling accepted into the community they've come to. In the last 20 years SIA has focused on providing programs and services that both empower and relieve barriers for newcomers. When I say “newcomers”, I mean both immigrants and refugees.

We also serve indigenous people in the areas of securing employment, language advancement and cultural understanding. An integral part of SIA has always been to provide anti-racist education and promote intercultural understanding to the general public through workshops, programming and community events.

SIA partners with many organizations in the community to offer a wide variety of programming, including employment skills training, English and heritage language classes, youth programming and performing arts entertainment. SIA works towards intercultural understanding and acceptance in our community through providing intercultural education and through committee work.

For over 20 years, SIA has offered employment training services. One of our employment programs targets internationally trained professionals with the intention of connecting these newcomers to their career fields here in Canada. This program utilizes classroom training and internship-style work placements and is funded provincially by the Government of Saskatchewan.

Another unique employment initiative that we provide serves both newcomers and indigenous youth between the ages of 18 and 30 who have little or no work experience. This program not only addresses employment barriers but is designed to break down any cultural misunderstandings and increase participants' intercultural understanding. This program provides classroom training, with allowances, and paid work placements, day care subsidies and transportation supports. It is also funded through the federal government.

SIA also offers English-language training through both federal and provincial government funding. This allows us to serve newcomers of various statuses and provide classroom training on Canadian language benchmark levels from one to eight. We offer over 24 different classes at different locations throughout the city of Saskatoon. We offer child care for all of our daytime classes and a few of our evening classes.

We also offer several youth programs in the community, with after-school and summer programming. Our summer youth program is for newcomer boys and girls aged six to 18. This program focuses on integration, education and recreation. The program provides transportation supports and is federally funded. Our after-school programs are funded through small local grants and are not restricted to just newcomers. They focus on cultural learning and sharing through partnerships with our local schools.

SIA's core has always been culture and anti-racism, so we also provide programming that values cultural difference and brings people together to learn and understand each other's values through mentoring relationships, educational sessions or forums and bridging opportunities. We also support a network of 22 language schools that provide language training in 19 different languages in our community, as we wholeheartedly believe that staying connected to language and culture is extremely important.

SIA's overall goal is for our community to be an equitable place for all cultures, which means that we are also embracing our role in reconciliation efforts through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action. Through indigenizing our own organization, we aim to provide settlement and integration services to newcomers that are respectful of the indigenous peoples of this land, while also working to support the indigenous communities with their own growth and success. Our city, our province and ultimately our country will thrive and be more successful when our relationships are based on mutual respect, trust and understanding.

I'd like to now read for you just a few impact statement quotes that have been taken directly from our clients.

The first is from one of our employment programs: “I am very grateful to the help as it has assisted me to stand out as a confident and composed person who now fully understands many new cultural and social values. I am now able to exercise newly learned interpersonal skills and am pushing my way forward. During this program, I learned about many new ideas and ways to prepare for resumés, cover letters and interviews, and this has provided me also with the ability to closely interact with fellow colleagues coming from different cultural and social environments.”

This one is from one of our intercultural mentoring programs: “I found this program made me feel welcome to the city, and I was matched with a good mentor who really cares about the program. They showed a real interest to learn and share the point of view about cultures, roots and social issues. By understanding each other's cultures, we have learned that we have similarities in our roots. This program has made me feel really welcome to this city and also to this country.”

This is one more from an employment program: “I wouldn't be where I am today without this program. I am now seeing my daughter every second weekend, and I just bought a car. I also bought good runners that can breathe, because I need them for work. If this program hadn't helped by providing the cab so I could get to the interview or connect to my work placement and now my job, I don't know where I would be.”

Last, this one is from one of our English-language programs: “I heard SIA offered English classes with child care. Luckily, I got a chance to become a CLB 3-4 student. Since I joined this class, I feel happy because I do not need to worry about my child during learning English. I came to Canada five years ago, and my first job was at a hotel. One time my manager asked me to do something, but I could not understand, and I felt embarrassed. Now, when working, I am able to answer the phone for my manager, and I can make simple conversation with customers. My English skills have improved a lot, but I still need to work hard. I will keep learning English and never give up.”

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I need you to wrap up fairly quickly, please.

Thank you.

[Jess Hamm]

I'm just going to do that.

In conclusion, I'd like to give the following recommendations:

First, funding for settlement and integration in Canada needs to authentically include reconciliation with indigenous people and recognize the devastating role that racism plays in creating barriers for newcomers while they settle in Canada.

Second, funding and contract decisions should more often take into consideration the local context, since wide-encompassing national decisions often leave out or discount what is needed in the smaller provinces or cities.

Third, recognize that English-language training is more than just a ticket for newcomers to receive Canadian citizenship, and cutting off access to IRCC funding afterwards prevents holistic integration. English-language training in CLBs 5 to 8 are essential for newcomers to be successful in our communities.

Last, the federal government needs to put more money into employment programming that not only educates newcomers but focuses on employers and their role in the settlement process.

I'd like to thank the committee for their time today. I am happy to answer any questions members may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

Now we go to British Columbia.

Ms. Hamel, thank you for joining us. I'm glad you were able to get on video conference. That was a bit of an issue today, and I'm glad it worked out.

[Jocelyne Hamel, Executive Director, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia]

Yes, thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me here.

My name is Jocelyne Hamel. I am the executive director of Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, which is part of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia.

The focus of my presentation will be the role of neighbourhood houses in the settlement and integration of newcomers as a best practice to be looked at. Specifically, I will briefly discuss a case study in the neighbourhood house model and link some relevant research.

I am so happy to have had the opportunity to hear from my colleagues Mr. Hussein and Ms. Hamm first because I think there are some similarities. I am taking a slightly different tack with my presentation.

I want to start by sharing a short story from one of the respondents who participated in an evaluation of our food programs in 2017. Her name has been changed.

Like many immigrants, Aya found the process of adjusting to her new life in Vancouver difficult and lonely, that is, until she found her way to the cooking club program at the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. Through participation in these peer-run cooking workshops, Aya found a new way to engage with her community, make new friends and lift herself out of isolation.

For Aya, MPNH was “el punto de partida”, which means “a point of departure”, to try new things and to be more comfortable with people. “It took me out of my depression, the loneliness I felt. Now I feel useful. I feel happy and I feel more connected.”

From the cooking club, Aya joined a leadership training circle and started volunteering at the neighbourhood house to gain some work experience and confidence and skills. She said that this support and her experience in the cooking club gave her the courage to volunteer to help organize an event with other parents at her children's school.

Aya is now employed in a full-time permanent position at the neighbourhood house and is “excited to be able to help others like me”, she says.

Neighbourhood houses are community-based welcoming places where all people of any age, nationality or ability can find a way to connect with others and their community. They are multi-service agencies with which newcomers find many ways of initially engaging. Once newcomers are attached, they'll participate, lead and learn through a continuum of programs and services and community building.

The neighbourhood house model applies several principles and approaches such as being neighbourhood-based and rooted in the community; providing safe and welcoming places that are open and inclusive to all; taking participant-centred and grassroots community-building approaches; addressing local concerns and fostering civic engagement; offering multi-generational and intercultural programs and services and approaches; and using strength-based and asset-based approaches that focus on capacity building and catalyzing reciprocity.

I would also like to add that in B.C., neighbourhood houses have always been at the forefront of nurturing indigenous relationships in the community because that's where we are. We're in the community and we work with the people in the community.

Because of our focus on inclusion and connection, we foster intercultural interactions between indigenous people and others, including newcomers and refugees. These lead to more awareness and acceptance of indigenous cultures and history. Neighbourhood houses are also working very strategically towards truth and reconciliation goals at this moment in time.

Newcomers have multiple needs, and research indicates that neighbourhood houses are well placed to address settlement and integration needs through multiple service points and through a holistic approach. Neighbourhood Houses in Metro Vancouver is a four-year research project funded by a SSHRC insight grant, which focuses on several aspects of the neighbourhood model as a unique service delivery approach that responds to individual and community needs.

Briefly, some selected findings of this research relate to how neighbourhood houses build capacity for newcomers. Neighbourhood houses met newcomers' immediate settlement needs for service and integration by offering programs for children and intergenerational services, as well as many other services, not all of which are specifically settlement programs.

We create safe places of connection and support that break isolation and provide a sense of well-being and connection. We use a strength-based approach, which fosters aspirations and opportunities, builds confidence and skills, and nurtures the value of community participation. We offer leadership and volunteer opportunities that often help newcomers ladder up into job opportunities.

The research also specifies that newcomers reported larger increases in social capacity development than did the respondents born in Canada. The research shows that social capacity development for newcomers increases as their involvement in neighbourhood houses increases in length, intensity and variety.

Many programs and services are offered by neighbourhood houses that achieve the capacity building and neighbourhood connection for newcomers. The example I gave at the beginning of this presentation is typical for many newcomers who face economic barriers and food insecurity when they first settle. They turn to community organizations like ours for support.

All neighbourhood houses have food-related programs, ranging from food distribution services to cooking clubs and community kitchens, where groups of people come together to learn, cook and eat together. Often we find that newcomers come to food programs as an entry point and find many other services and programs that meet their needs once they walk through our doors.

In 2017, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House conducted an evaluation process that focused on the impact of cooking programs and teaching kitchens on participants. The evaluation included in-depth interviews as well as a survey. We confirmed that our food programs have proven successful in improving participants' food and nutrition skills.

A more revealing impact, however, is that food programs are much more than just being about the food. The food programs also create social connections for people. Spending time together in the kitchen has helped people to develop strong social networks and helps them to break free from social isolation and connects them with life-enhancing supports, such as housing and lasting friendships.

We also learned that participants felt safe in practising English because they were in a welcoming environment. Even those who could not speak English at all were able to participate, because sign language was so much easier to use in a kitchen than in other areas.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Ms. Hamel, I have to ask you to wrap up, please.

[Jocelyne Hamel]

Yes.

We also learned that they were supported to develop leadership skills. They took risks to become a leader and teacher in cooking classes or in other volunteer positions. Some respondents attributed their experience in the program as helping them get employment.

We learned that being involved in an inclusive and safe space provided several of our participants with the support they needed to address mental health challenges. We feel that food programs are absolutely a best practice in a community-based organization like a neighbourhood house.

That's it. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to all the witnesses. We're now going to the part of the meeting where we turn to the members to ask questions.

The first round is seven-minute rounds.

We'll start with Ms. Zahid.