Evidence of meeting #151 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 funding.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In my last few seconds, because we are pushed for time, I'll just point out to all of our presenters that you can send additional material—
Senior Manager, Business Development and Community Services, Toronto District School Board
Sure.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
—to the committee that would highlight some of the funding shortfall, which areas you need the government to pay attention to by way of action, whether it be funding or any other recommendations that would assist you in doing your jobs.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
Mr. Whalen, you have four minutes, not four and a half, like everyone else.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all, especially for the work your organizations do to help integrate newcomers and address some of their most pressing concerns.
On this side of the room, we've been under the impression from the data that we've increased the amount of money for settlement services agencies by 32% over the last four years, yet your organization is talking about flat funding and increased demands. Maybe you can elaborate a little on where you think this money is going and why you weren't seeing the 32% in your programs.
Senior Manager, Business Development and Community Services, Toronto District School Board
The Toronto District School Board is a large service provider in the city of Toronto, but is not the only service provider. There are a number of other program areas, including welcoming communities and newcomer services, so some of those programs have seen an increase. I think it would probably have to be looked at on a program-by-program basis, but certainly, as I've mentioned, the costs have escalated. I can give concrete numbers in the follow-up write-up that we can provide as well.
School Trustee, British Columbia School Trustees Association, Vancouver School Board
In the Vancouver situation, the funding comes for eligibles only. As an example, from April 2018 to January 2019, 60% of the intake in clients were ineligibles, and the funding would only cover the 40% who were eligible.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Sure. On that note, you still provide the services to whom you are calling ineligibles. Are they receiving a lesser or a worse service?
Assistant Superintendent, School District 41, Burnaby School District
I think that our people are doing the best they can off the sides of their desks for those people. They are having to prioritize really drastic kinds of cases. They can't give them the same wraparound service and appropriate level of service they are giving others. I think that's what we're seeing. They deserve the same kind of service as eligible clients.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
For the final question, we have been trying to be as respectful as we can of newcomers and of the language used in committee about their status.
Maybe, Mr. Green, you can confirm to us that the adjective “illegal” is not applied to the children who are in the school system in Toronto. The activity of their having crossed the border with their parents might have been illegal, but the children aren't being referred to as illegals within the context of the Toronto school board, I hope.
Senior Manager, Business Development and Community Services, Toronto District School Board
No, they are served, provided service and not discriminated in any way within the school board context.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
If you were going to recommend additional services that you feel your cohort needs to be funded but that aren't currently funded, what would be the top two or three services these students need, which the general school population doesn't, that are dictated by their immigration status, both for eligibles and ineligibles? It would be nice to know whether these services need to be expanded in the school setting.
Senior Manager, Business Development and Community Services, Toronto District School Board
This gets into a little bit of a jurisdictional issue, but we do find a lot of students who need social work. If not that, then perhaps case management and support are needed to navigate through all of the different services while they're in school. There are settlement workers in school, but it's even a little more robust than that. There are some very significant trauma issues. There are some very significant service needs and mental health challenges and that sort of stuff, so I would say that would be there.
Liberal
Nick Whalen Liberal St. John's East, NL
Everyone's nodding, and I've seen your little graphic with the puzzle pieces that show that navigation is a real issue.
Does the federal government have a role to play in helping coordinate this or is this something you look principally to the province to do?
Assistant Superintendent, School District 41, Burnaby School District
I'm not the one to answer that question. I think whoever makes those decisions makes the decisions. It's really about not who does it but the fact that someone has to step up to the plate here.
Senior Manager, Business Development and Community Services, Toronto District School Board
This kind of piggybacks on what I had mentioned at the very end of my presentation, that the coordination between the province and the federal government is very important where there are different jurisdictional areas, because the learner or client does not really care who paid for the particular service; they just know that they need it. Gaps do arise when there's an absence of coordination.
Liberal
Matt DeCourcey Liberal Fredericton, NB
On the question of navigation, there's a local immigration partnership program funded by IRCC. Do your organizations connect with a local LIPS program and is that helping with the navigation of services and referral to services?
School Trustee, British Columbia School Trustees Association, Vancouver School Board
Yes, absolutely. In Vancouver's case, the local immigration partnership is really advantageous, especially in figuring out what kinds of services other organizations are doing to kind of bootstrap their way into it, such as colleges and universities.
Senior Manager, Business Development and Community Services, Toronto District School Board
From my perspective, that helps on a macro level in terms of coordination between the agencies. It doesn't always necessarily help on the micro level of the individual learner or client.
Toula Germanakos Program Coordinator, Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada, Toronto District School Board
We don't participate in the LIPS program, but we do have quarterly committee partnership meetings and we do get together with other service providers, and that's where we—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I'm afraid I do need to cut you off, as we have another panel coming in. We may need a briefing on LIPS, because that sort of adds some confusion.
I need to move you out quickly. Thank you very much. We need to move our next panel in.
Please do respond to Ms. Kwan's request. The clerk will help you with that as well.
We'll suspend for one minute.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I'd like to call the meeting back to order. I am very worried about the looming votes.
Thank you to our witnesses. As I said, I'm a little worried that we are going to get cut off, so I want to get your testimony in first.
We're reconnecting with our video conference.
I think we'll begin with Ms. Foster, from the Arden Language Centre, for seven minutes.
Thank you.