Evidence of meeting #15 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was syrian.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Kent and Mr. Allos, for coming up and guiding us through a difficult time.
I hear the stories all the time. Private sponsorship people have rented places for months and months, but the private refugees are still sitting at the back and not knowing when they will arrive. As well, a cap was put on the private sponsor applications. What impact has this had on your work, Mr. Allos?
Director, Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council
The Iraqi applications have been delayed. Now it's moving faster. We met with Minister McCallum last week and apparently they're sending 40 extra staff to Jordan and Lebanon, I believe. They want to clear up the backlog by June or July.
The main problem we faced was at the beginning of this year in January when the instructions came out that you could not sponsor anybody but Syrian nationals. You can tell that there are other communities, not only Iraqis and Syrians, but Somalis, Afghanis, Eritreans, and refugees from Pakistan and Burma, and they need to be resettled. Refugees were feeling that they were being persecuted, I guess.
You go and meet with refugees in Jordan, for example. You're in the same room as Eritreans, Iraqis, and Syrians, and you say, “Sorry, but we can only talk to Syrians.” They feel that they are being persecuted again. That was the main challenge, but now things are moving better, definitely.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Regarding the cap that was put on, do you think this is a good thing, or should it be looked at again by the government?
Director, Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council
The cap was introduced back in 2011-2012 by then Minister Kenney. I believe it was a good thing, because the PSR program was mostly used for sponsoring families, and you have a lot of SAHs that go into the system and submit as many applications as possible—in the thousands. If one or two succeed, that's fine. In the meantime you're creating a huge backlog in the visa offices. In Africa right now you have a five- to seven-year wait in visa offices.
So yes, you need to create the cap, but I would create the cap with penalties. If your success rate is at 90%, you should be treated differently from the way you would be treated if your success rate is 20%, because that's what's creating the backlog.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
You've been working with these agencies for the longest time, if I understand correctly. With all the lessons learned regarding the resettlement of a large number of refugees over the years, are you using that same experience to resettle these refugees here, at this moment?
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
You were doing this for a long time. Is it any help using the lessons learned from the past in the refugee resettlement program to resettle refugees now?
Director, Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council
Yes, for sure. First of all, as I suggested, I would do away with the GAR program and make it a blended resettlement program. The government could put in financial support for three or six months, instead of for the full year, and deal with private sponsors to do the compassion, the moral support, finding the jobs, making sure that the refugee family is resettled.
If they're not financially independent within a few months, they'll remain on welfare forever. For me, that's not a successful resettlement.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
Based on your experience, what changes would you like to see made to our current and future resettlement strategies?
Director, Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council
I would reduce the financial support from one year to three months, as they're doing in the U.S., and extend it only if the refugee proves that they need it. You don't really want them to feel that they are entitled and have them sit at home and receive a cheque at the end of the month. They have to go out and work. They have to contribute to society.
Conservative
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I wanted to first thank both of you for coming, and I commend you both for doing a great job, one as a SAH to help refugees and one as a private sponsor of refugees. It's a commendable action, and it's putting your money where your mouth is. I truly appreciate that.
Mr. Kent, you said it's wrong to pit one refugee group against another, but a January 27 article in The Canadian Press revealed that the previous government was, in fact, doing that. They were cherry-picking Syrian refugees.
As a private sponsor, do you have the same freedom to do that, and do you think it was a right choice to do that at the time?
As an Individual
I understood from Minister McCallum's remarks—and we're friends and we go back a long way—that he was saying ”Enough with the Syrian refugee program. We've got to look at our global obligations of 12,000-24,000 refugees a year beyond Syria.” My response to that was that the government had made the Syrian refugees a project of focus, and it was above and beyond the normal refugee portion of our 285,000 to 300,000 immigrants and refugees brought into the country every year.
With regard to the prioritization that the previous government had in giving priority to the oppressed minorities, I think the remarks I've heard here again today are that they have not only been displaced from one hostile situation but into others, and we have an opportunity to easily, and at a much lower cost to government, integrate those privately sponsored families into existing communities of the various diasporas, including the Yazidis. Not long ago there was a baptism ceremony at St. Clement's Church in Toronto of a Yazidi family—
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
It doesn't matter why. You're doing the exact same thing. You're picking those who have the most comfort here and you're saying they're here, but if you reverse it, the other ones are more vulnerable because they don't have the same support.
As Canada, we open our doors to all, regardless of whether they have the supports—
As an Individual
No, the government-sponsored refugees are from that traditional pool of refugees, but some of the privately sponsored refugees are accepted as unknown quantities. However, for those communities that will carry their sponsored families and individuals into Canada, it only makes sense, particularly with regard to the government hitting its targeted numbers, which they did initially—
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
You're saying that for the government-sponsored refugees, they should not pick and choose, but because you have networks and community-based support for privately sponsored refugees, they should be able to pick—
As an Individual
For highly rapid integration.... There was an event that I attended, and I believe one of my colleagues here was at the same ceremony. The mayor of Toronto said that he wondered why there was such a hot spot on the map of the greater Toronto area with a large volume, thousands, of sponsored refugees. He realized it was the Armenian community, which over the past number of years have been active sponsors and had successfully integrated people by not only finding temporary accommodations and schools, but actually finding jobs—
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
No, no, I'm agreeing with you on the privately sponsored ones. It was more on the government-sponsored refugees.
Mr. Allos, my question is to you. You're saying we should decrease funding for government-sponsored refugees and reduce it down to three months, while what we've been hearing from other witnesses as well as other caucus members here is that the fear is the 13th month. Their initial issue is to learn English, and that doesn't happen in three months. You can't learn a language, English or French, one of the official languages, in that time.
Once you have accommodation, the second challenge is to then get your language—
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
—and then get a job. How do you think you can justify reducing funding for that?
Director, Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council
You don't want them to feel entitled that the financial aid is coming at the end of the month. They have to go out and look for work. They can still look for work without knowing English.
Liberal
