Evidence of meeting #17 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.
12:40 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You received a 6% cut, then you got a three-month temporary top-up, and that three-month top-up is now over.
12:40 p.m.
Early Years Refugee Program Manager, Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society
That's correct.
12:40 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Then your funding is back to that 6% full cut again, and the need is still there and Syrian refugee families are still arriving. Families are living in isolation now because you're no longer able to make the family visits for these women and the children.
12:40 p.m.
Executive Director, Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society
Definitely.
I believe that we need multi-year funding. Having a three-month temporary top-up for our programming is completely inappropriate. Our refugees—children and families—all need ongoing, stable support. To experience this on-again, off-again kind of support services is completely inappropriate.
12:40 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You're not the only organization in the Lower Mainland that is providing these supports. There are others as well. Are they in the same situation as you are?
12:40 p.m.
Early Years Refugee Program Manager, Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society
We usually try to connect our families with other programs and services. Several programs that we know, such as community kitchens for Syrian families. There are classes for Syrian families that have started, but they will all have to be cut at the end of June because they all, most probably.... We don't know if the funding will continue. We still don't know, and it is already the beginning of June.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
This has been brought to the minister's attention and his staff's attention at this committee and elsewhere. Even though they said that there has been more funding put in place, in reality, for the organizations on the ground, it has not actually materialized to date.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In terms of the impact on women, at other committee meetings we've had people tell us that some women are experiencing issues of domestic violence. What are the implications if women are left in isolation, with no language opportunities and no ability to connect with the outside community for support? What are you seeing on the ground with families?
12:45 p.m.
Early Years Refugee Program Manager, Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society
We actually had a really big crisis in some refugee families that arrived earlier. It was really difficult to cope, because there was so much stress put on families, especially with repaying loans and working three jobs or something to be able to repay that loan. Sometimes in a stressful situation, you get stressed and things escalate. We had to help several moms go to safe housing.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Wouldn't you say, then, that it is critical for services like yours to reach out to those women so they are not living in isolation, and that with your program cut and the lack of funding, you are not able to do that work?
12:45 p.m.
Early Years Refugee Program Manager, Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society
Yes. We are trying now to concentrate on our Syrian families, but we still have lots of families we have to serve. We really cannot visit them and we cannot help them as much anymore.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
All the families are in the same situation, and we have a major crisis brewing.
Mr. Calla, I am going to turn to you for a minute.
You mentioned that in Ontario you also have a lack of funding and particularly that you will not be providing LINC classes in the summer months for that reason. At this committee, we have had other people from Scarborough and other areas in Ontario come forward and say that they have received funding cuts in the LINC program, so this is an ongoing challenge.
As I understand it, the government bases its funding on the number of people who have come over the past three years. There are inadequacies in that, because it doesn't reflect the reality of today. I wonder whether you can comment on that.
12:45 p.m.
Executive Director, COSTI Immigrant Services
That is correct, Ms. Kwan.
That funding formula has worked against Ontario over the last number of years, as I guess proportionally more immigrants have moved west. That situation has meant that although we have the infrastructure and so on, and we have the instructors, we have to lay them off over the summer.
Having said that, I must balance it with the reality about the Syrian refugees. The IRCC has made funding available to meet the capacity demand, so the issues you were mentioning around family violence and so on.... Our client support services will be working with the refugees for up to a year—and beyond, if there are special needs—to ensure that they connect with the appropriate services and that those kinds of issues are addressed.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you, Mr. Calla.
Mrs. Zahid, you have seven minutes, please.
June 2nd, 2016 / 12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for coming here and providing their input, and especially for all the work they are doing to settle the Syrian refugees in Canada.
My first question is for Mr. Mirakian.
First I would like to commend the Armenian Community Centre for all the work you are doing, specifically in regard to your commitment to helping Syrians resettle their lives here by pairing refugees and employers with community contacts who speak Arabic and Armenian, as it bridges the language barrier between refugees and employers.
Your organization was quoted in Armenian Weekly as saying that the jobs offered to Syrian refugees are “mostly minimum wage”. That is a great start to a path to good and stable employment, but could your organization tell me what initiatives you are taking to help refugees seek employment that is more relevant to their skills?
12:45 p.m.
Government Relations Coordinator, Armenian Community Centre SAH
I certainly can, but I think we should start from the position that was already stated here, which is that for the one-year period in which the co-sponsor or sponsorship agreement holder is working with the privately sponsored refugee, many of the refugees shouldn't necessarily be seeking employment immediately. Some of them do, because it's helpful for their adaptation to Canada to become more comfortable with the country, but for many of them it's a period in which to acquire the appropriate credentials or skills in Canada or to decide what they're going to do with their career.
If somebody comes to Canada at the top of their profession in Syria, it's unlikely they're going to be at the top of their profession in Canada within the first six months of living here. It's not possible. If I were to move to Syria tomorrow, I doubt I would be at the minimum level there in the profession I am in right now here.
I think because there is this adaptation period, often having the initial job isn't a matter of getting the best possible job but a matter of just getting into the Canadian workforce and being comfortable doing something so that you get used to the patterns of Canadian work. You get used to what people expect from you, and you also get used to the language in a work environment. I think that is happening.
The second part is that many of the younger male privately sponsored refugees who have arrived seem to gravitate toward the construction industry, which, if you know the situation in Toronto, is doing very well these days, whether it's industrial or residential. They need to have certain courses in order to be safe in that environment. They need to have the workplace hazardous materials information system course, WHMIS, and they need to have the falls course, which is a course on how to work at heights, around ladders, and that sort of thing. We have been very helpful with these.
Both of those courses are offered through private providers, but a lot of times they are offered at places where the refugee can't go, so we have worked with some Armenian-Canadian construction companies and we have worked with the course providers to get them into the community centres or to provide those courses at special times, such as Saturday mornings or something like that. Those are some of the things we have done to get people into construction.
There's been less of a demand from older people to go into construction, and there's been less of a demand from women to go into construction.
On the women's side, I should say a lot of them who were quite qualified in Syria, or wherever they were in the interim, are not as qualified to do those jobs here. For instance, someone who was a teacher might find herself gravitating to the hospitality or service industries initially, and those do tend to pay a little bit less money. However, I believe that over time, if someone was very successful in their profession in Syria, they will be able to become a teacher or a financial adviser or a manager in a large company. I think that over time, as people work in a Canadian work environment and have the time to develop these skills, they will be applying for those jobs as well, but I think it will take a little longer to do that. The jobs right now are mostly at the lower end of the pay scale, but I believe they're creating the first step to much greater success.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
That's good.
My next question is for Mr. Calla.
I have read that your organization offers an art therapy program for refugee children. As I have previously mentioned and as some of the witnesses who have been here before the committee have discussed, youth are the most vulnerable subgroup of refugees, and they often find it difficult to settle and to adjust to life here in Canada. From what I understand, your program assists traumatized refugee children to begin to cope with the mental stress and other hardships that they have faced in their past.
Could you provide further information, more specifics, about this program and about how successful you are finding it, especially for youth?
12:50 p.m.
Executive Director, COSTI Immigrant Services
It's a program we have been running for a good 15 years without funding from anyone. Basically it doesn't seem to fit any government program, so we've been doing it through fundraising. The impact is tremendous, because it allows children of any language to work with a trained art therapist to use art, whether it's painting or clay models and so on, and often what they express in their art is what's on their mind.
We had one dramatic situation involving a child who hadn't spoken in weeks, since he left home in the former Yugoslavia. He started to describe what he had drawn on his paper. It's basically an objective way of getting at those emotional traumas without any kind of judgment, so it's very effective.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Salma Zahid Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
You also offer youth settlement services, such as employment-related services, housing help, mentoring in job skills, and physical fitness facilities. How are you finding these things useful in settling the Syrian refugees?
12:55 p.m.
Executive Director, COSTI Immigrant Services
They're incredibly helpful.
If we didn't have capacity as an organization.... As I mentioned, we have 17 locations and about 350 employees. As an example, we've had situations of family violence and mental health challenges. We've been able to call upon social workers from other programs in our family centre to work with the Syrian refugees.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you.
I'd like to thank all the panellists for appearing today and providing their insights. Thank you for all the work you personally are doing in your organizations to settle Syrian refugees.
We will now suspend for one minute and move in camera to deal with some committee business.
Thank you.
[Proceedings continue in camera]