Thank you.
Evidence of meeting #16 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 families.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #16 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 families.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:45 p.m.
Amer Alhendawi Interpretation
I have a six-year time period. If I don't complete payment of the total amount, then there will be interest.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You've been here for 13 months. You can't get into language training because there's a wait-list.
Your wife, as I understand.... Can she get into language training? Can she even register for language training, and if not, what's the problem?
12:45 p.m.
Amer Alhendawi Interpretation
No, she didn't get a chance to go.
Her situation is worse than mine. I try my best to learn English on the streets through my friends or through some acquaintances. She doesn't have that chance, because she mainly stays at home with the kids.
It's a very difficult situation. If any of us can't learn English, it will be very difficult for us to find a job.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much for sharing that. I really appreciate it.
My next question is for Mr. Al Hassani.
Does your organization, Child Aid International, or any other organizations that you know have access to government funds, even though you have the resources and the capacity to provide support to the new arrivals?
12:50 p.m.
Founder, Child Aid International
The short answer is no, we don't have any access. We don't receive any funding from the government, neither I nor Child Aid nor other organizations that I'm working with, the two organizations that I mentioned.
On the other side, yes, I think if we were to get help to cover some expenses, that would be very good. We could better help the Syrian refugee families and improve our volunteer work in this part of the job.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You've been doing a lot of volunteer work, I know, on your own time, you and volunteers who have the language capacity, who understand the culture, who are refugees themselves who have travelled this journey and have the knowledge base to assist the families, but you have zero support from the government to facilitate that work at this time.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you.
Ms. Woods, you mentioned that in your communities there are others who are dealing with transportation loan issues. You were suggesting that all the refugees, regardless of country of origin or timing of their arrival, are dealing with these kinds of problems.
Can you elaborate on that? If you're calling for the government to address this issue, what's your suggestion? Should they waive the loan, irrespective of country of origin, as well as the timing? I mean for those from before November 4.
12:50 p.m.
Sponsorship Program Officer, Action Réfugiés Montréal
Yes, and I have an example to give you. In one family we had, a Syrian family, the adult son had to go to another country to study in order to ensure his safety while the application was going through. His family arrived on a chartered flight and had their transportation covered. He, however, was asked to pay for his flight, which was a few thousand dollars, if I remember correctly.
Of course we have Syrian families who arrived before November 4 who are paying large transportation fees. Ideally, it would be great if you were able to waive—and we would certainly recommend waiving—the transportation loan. As we have seen here, it's very difficult for families to have that additional monthly cost, and the loan can accumulate large interest after their one year without interest.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In terms of families trying to make ends meet, we have seen an example of people on income assistance not being able to make ends meet. Can you tell us what the experience is like for the people you are working with in your community, and the impact of that? What action can the government take? Should we call on the government to convene a provincial and territorial table to address the issue of income assistance rates, not just for refugees but for all people on income assistance who can't make ends meet? Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on that?
12:50 p.m.
Sponsorship Program Officer, Action Réfugiés Montréal
Currently we are quite lucky with the families we are working with, because they have extra family support already in the community, so a lot of them are able to lean on them. However, for those who had multiple family members arriving at the same time, it was extremely challenging. They weren't prepared for that. Yes, unfortunately some families have to use food banks.
In terms of suggestions....
12:50 p.m.
Sponsorship Program Officer, Action Réfugiés Montréal
I don't know if you have any....
12:50 p.m.
Executive Director, Action Réfugiés Montréal
One needs to understand that privately sponsored refugees do not get income assistance of any kind. They are allowed to go to school, etc., so there might be a way.... The BVOR system, I guess, is a method to try to have the government help in some ways. If there was some way to have some funds allocated to a privately sponsored family, a certain amount per person to help in that way, it might—
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you, Mr. Clarke.
Mrs. Shanahan, you have seven minutes, please.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
May 31st, 2016 / 12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Vincent, we can sense the emotion in your submission. Thank you for being involved in private sponsorship. It is a very critical part of the refugee resettlement.
I can only imagine how frustrated you must have been with the previous government in terms of the levels they had set, compared to the levels we have set. You yourself indicated that there was a 10,000-person target set by the previous government. The current government, just to clarify, has in fact brought in 27,200 Syrian refugees to date, and we will be settling 44,800 individuals as refugees in this country this year. That is pursuant to the levels that we announced on March 2.
I wanted to ask you, in terms of the costs.... If I understood you correctly, you indicated that you want faster processing, particularly of the PSRs from Syria, and I have three short questions.
One relates to refugees from other parts of the world, who, in my view, would be equally needy, so I want to know your perspective on them compared to the people just coming from Syria.
Second, as we have heard this repeatedly today, do you acknowledge that there are costs that relate to PSR sponsorship that exceed the first year, so that in years two, three, four, and five, there are settlement costs, health care costs, and education costs related to people who are in this country?
The third point is that if more money needs to be dedicated to the processing to make it faster, how much more money would you seek to have the government spend on this initiative?
Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Founder and Co-Chair, Collingwood Syrian Sponsorship Committee
First of all, I guess we should go back and say that to my understanding, there are 60 million refugees in the world in 73 countries, so we have a huge problem for mankind. It just happens that with the Syrian refugee crisis, we decided as Canadians to jump on the bandwagon. It is very challenging to look and say, well, we are bringing in all these Syrians, yet we are ignoring the other refugees around the world.
I don't have the answer to that, because I can't play God. I would just say that everybody is equal. It is just that we have gone down this path of Syrian refugees.
The sustainability of our program is going to be critical. I have read some transcripts of past meetings, and obviously sustainability is coming up in what we are talking about today. We have this gentleman who is in his 12th or 13th month. There is a lot of action of bringing Syrians in—and gosh, that's great—but what planning has gone behind that in the long run? You take a look at informing people, educating people, the ESL crisis that was evident today, and then look at people after one year. It is going to be a huge problem.
This is the tip of the iceberg, from my perspective, because learning a language, understanding English, is going to take at least a year, and then people are going to be looking for employment and we are going to be supporting them on a socialized basis. Sustainability is critical.
Are we going to need more money? Well, it just never stops. We are going to need more money. We are fortunate, in our small-town Canada, to be able to go back to the residents, who have tremendous empathy for what is going on, and we will raise more money, but the other thing that is important, as I said, is that the government should recognize what we can do. You are not in the business of relocating people. Let us do it. We have all the resources set in place to take families in. Why should we dismantle this program? There are thousands of small-town Canadas across the country that have put together programs like ours, and we can help the government with the resettlement, whether it is Syrians or people from any other countries around the world. Let's get our act together. Talk to us.
I am not frustrated—I'm sorry, I do get frustrated—
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
If you're frustrated, I think it is coming from a good place, because clearly your community built up a huge capacity to receive refugees, and you don't have them. There are refugees who need help, and they can't get the help. Over in Montreal, things are working relatively well, but I know that's because the organization has been in operation for 20 years, so you were able to ramp up a little more.
I would like to hear, maybe from each one of the witnesses, the most important thing that needs to happen now so that we can build that capacity and be ready to receive the next onslaught. If indeed it has to be an onslaught—if that is what we're about—let's be receiving people in an ongoing way, because of course we need people. People mean prosperity for all of us.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
With that question being thrown to everyone on the panel, we'll go in a row.
Go ahead, Mr. Alhendawi.
1 p.m.
Amer Alhendawi Interpretation
For me, as long as Canada accepts people, the most important thing is for the Government of Canada to provide, in a broader way, access to English as a second language, because this is essential to every newcomer who doesn't speak English. When they are able to speak English, life will be very easy. We as a family have been here for one year. It is very difficult. Whatever we want to do, we need English to communicate. If we have doctors' appointments, whether for me or for one of my family members, my wife, it is a very difficult for us to continue.
Again, it's very frustrating. I cannot keep on asking my friends or people I know to come and help me with appointments. If we have a telephone call and there is a voice message, I have to ask, “Can you come and translate it for us?” That's very difficult. Sometimes we are very hesitant even to answer our phone because we don't know what language the person on the other end is going to speak. If it's English, it's very difficult for us.
I ask the government to provide a broader way of accessing English as a second language for newcomers.
1 p.m.
Liberal