Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 3rd, 2019

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

So if you were to—

[Garry Green]

Or $604,000.

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

So if you were to approach the federal government to ask for funding for the programs you're providing for all of these services, you're short somewhere between $600,000 and $700,000 a year?

[Garry Green]

Yes.

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

Is that fair?

[Garry Green]

That's correct, yes.

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

Have you made representations to the...I don't know who does this...the Department of Immigration?

[Garry Green]

We usually work through our local office, so we will express to them the importance of this. Yet, at the same time, some of the measures that we take, if we can be more efficient with something, we've been more efficient. If there's a position we can leave unfilled, we leave it unfilled. However, you do get to a point where it gets increasingly more difficult. I think over the next three years, that's where we'll probably be feeling it most.

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

When was the last time you had an increase in funding?

[Garry Green]

I can't tell you exactly, but it's been awhile.

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

Long ago.

Do you have any comments on those questions I've been asking, Ms. Hart?

[Heather Hart]

The great question is about the increase in funding, because of the way it's designed. It looks like we're receiving some increases in funding. We receive a base amount and then there's an amendment given, but it takes a whole process of time for this amendment to go through. We might receive word that it's going through in November, and it actually comes at the end of January. You hire somebody, and you have to spend that by the end of March. If you don't spend it by the end of March, then that slippage is pulled back again.

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

Is that provincial or federal?

[Heather Hart]

This is federal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I need to end you there.

Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.

I want to build on that because I think that is one of the critical issues. It sounds like it's happening in the lower mainland, as well as in Toronto and elsewhere.

You have a larger population for which you are not funded well enough to provide the supports you need. With the increase in students who require support, and without a corresponding funding increase, you have to do more with less, right? Do I have that right?

[Garry Green]

Yes.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

On the second issue, the government will sometimes come in with what's called “slippage money” or “amendments,” where, at the end of their fiscal cycle, they have some money they've found somewhere. All of a sudden they come to you and say, “Hey, here's some money,” and then you have a very limited time to spend it. Therefore you don't have access to stable funding. You never know when that money is coming, and in a unionized environment you need to prepare to see what staff need to be hired and to plan accordingly. That's another significant problem to which you are seeking resolution.

There's also the issue around the misaligned calendar of a school year versus that of the budget cycle. That, too, needs to be aligned so you can do your work properly. That's the third thing.

The last thing I want to ask you about is what happens to the students when they don't get the support they need. I wonder, Ms. Reddy, if you can highlight that for me. What are the consequences of that?

[Jennifer Reddy, School Trustee, British Columbia School Trustees Association, Vancouver School Board]

I have a testimonial from a young person in Vancouver who delineates the experience. I think one of the key points about this is that the school board is actually the first and most frequent point of contact for the students. Through the students we meet the parents and other siblings, so that kids can focus on learning and the parents can focus on their settlement and learning through LINC. In that time frame, it's also very limited until they turn 19 and age out of the system, so we have a small window in which we can provide the support they need.

This is from Myriam, and this is her story:

Today I am an honors political science student at McGill University and now the recipient of two major scholarships that allows me to study in France for one year to learn about European politics and excel my French. If VSB staff followed the discriminatory protocol and deprived me of the crucial services I received, I do not know where I would be today. When I came to Canada I did not speak English, lacked prior formal education, and my family and I suffered from the trauma of migration and family separation. These were some of the issues amongst many others that we were facing in our new country. However, at VSB with the supports I received from EIYP (Engaged Immigrant Youth Program/SWIS) with my day to day needs such as understanding school system—

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Could I get you to slow down a little bit for the interpreters. Thank you.

[Jennifer Reddy]

Thank you. Yes, I do speak fast.

—feeling welcomed, making friends, getting involved, and receiving homework support. These programs empowered not just to learn English and excel academically but volunteer and start new programs in my community (English Welcome Club) in my city in order to empower other youth like myself. However soon I learned that in fact, the support I was receiving was technically not for me because I was a refugee claimant therefore not qualified to receive these essential supports so crucial for my success. VSB staffs helped me regardless of caring about my status, and I am grateful for their courage because it took my family 3.5 years to receive a refugee status which meant I would get qualified for these support after leaving high school.

Myriam arrived in Canada as a refugee claimant and was very fortunate to make it to Canada alive, as many of people from her country of origin don't. The three and a half years it took to become a refugee was quite fast for immigration processing time.

Those are some examples of the differences between receiving settlement in that time frame and not.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I'll give you an extra 30 seconds.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Green, very quickly, you were just saying that you are losing some funding. Can you just expand on that for me, please?

[Garry Green]

It's not a funding loss as much as the fact the costs have escalated and funding has remained at a static level.