Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 7th, 2016

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

On the same line, with respect to language training, you mentioned the issue of conversational training, particularly for women so that they don't become shut-ins, and they're not able to get into a class due to a lack of available child care. Even for the longer term, for the regularized classes, are you finding that there are huge wait-lists as well? That was the presentation from other witnesses that we heard last week, and we've had a Syrian refugee who's going into his 13th month and has yet to get into a class.

[Khim Tan]

Due to the lack of LINC classes, the formal language classes, there's a wait-list across the board. No matter which city you ask about, the wait-list is there. Part of the challenge of placing the Syrian refugees, the women with children, is that not only is there a lack of LINC classes, but there's also a lack of LINC classes that offer child-minding support, so there's an added challenge there.

Again, I go back to the fact that while we are waiting, and I know IRCC have said they're really trying their best to move as quickly as they can, we're seeing the refugees on a regular basis and I still think the turnaround for informal could be faster.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I have 10 seconds, so it's a quick question.

Have you actually had a LINC funding increase?

[Khim Tan]

Some agencies have, but not fast enough to meet the wait-lists.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Ehsassi, you have seven minutes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be sharing my time with Mr. Shaun Chen.

I would like to thank the witnesses. Obviously, all of our witnesses have been enmeshed in the challenge and we're grateful for all their input.

My first question is for Mr. Daud from Humanity First.

Thank you very, very much for your comprehensive statement. I have it here before me. There was one particular section that related to medical need. You say here that there was only a handful of individuals who had special medical needs. Would you care to elaborate on that?

[Dr. Aslam Daud]

Yes. We had only three or four individuals with special medical needs. One of them was permanently disabled and had some medical conditions for which he needed urgent care. We were able to provide that through IFH, plus through our panel of doctors. There were a couple of others who got sick because of various personal medical conditions who were also taken care of, so we did not face any challenges in providing that medical care.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you very much for that.

My second question is for Ms. Ferne.

Obviously, in the past I've had the opportunity to draw on your organization's expertise and your own expertise, so I'm eternally grateful for that. I appreciate that you do a lot of amazing work on the ground in Lebanon and Turkey, and one of the challenges in both those countries is that a lot of the refugees' children have no access to educational opportunities.

Having looked at the activities of IDRF, I understand that you are active on the ground there, so I was wondering if you could explain to us whether Canada's government assistance of $240 million in development assistance, or the $650 million we provide in humanitarian assistance, is something that has proven helpful, and how you go about providing educational opportunities for the children in Lebanon and Turkey.

[Jessica Ferne]

While IDRF has not received money personally from the government—our agency has not been funded for that—I know many of our colleagues have been and are doing exceptional work that we've had the opportunity to see.

Speaking for my own organization, IDRF support comes from a very engaged donor base. We are a proud Islamic faith-based organization, but we're committed to diversity. The projects and partnerships we undertake, and in all of our work internationally—Lebanon and Turkey are no exception—we always work with local organizations based in those communities.

One of the communities with which we work very closely is the Palestinian refugee community as well, who were displaced in Syria and then displaced yet again into Lebanon. They live in areas often outside of those areas where Syrian refugees or poor Lebanese communities are. We're trying to expand the scope of the work that we do to work with refugees and displaced people throughout those countries, always working in direct partnership and led by local organizations that are doing this.

One of the things we're seeing there is that with a lot of programs, because they can't be tied in effectively to existing national programs, or because these programs have restrictions about the ability for young people to get jobs when they graduate, there is a real sense of helplessness and frustration among a lot of young people about the point of completing their education, where it will take them, where they will use it, where they will go. A lot of services have their hands full dealing with that, or dealing with the symptoms of stress, which I mentioned.

As well, one thing I didn't talk about is that we are working more and more with schools programs that serve children with physical and mental disabilities in those areas. Again, where there are limited resources, a lot of times those children are the last to access those programs.

We've been working always to fund those local organizations and the work they're doing, to try to also create a sense of hope for young people that there's value to the education they're getting, and of course, hope that one day they will be able to use it in the careers of their choice.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

I have two minutes remaining for Mr. Chen.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Yes, two and a half minutes.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know that as of today, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees website reports that there are 4,844,762 registered Syrian refugees and over a quarter of those are children under the age of 18.

You talked about some of the challenges that are faced by young people, and I want to hone in on a specific multi-layered issue. They are struggling to get settled, and in general to access health services, including mental health services, but on top of that, the issues they faced in the regions they came from are very dire. These children, millions of them, have been forced out of school. They have a higher risk of being exploited or abused. Some of them, as we have heard from witnesses today, are victims of sexual slavery.

Do you know of any services or programs being run in Canada now that are able to specifically address that multi-layered challenge, in terms of these children coming from war and conflict and the types of mental health services they might need arising from their lived experiences?

[Jessica Ferne]

My colleagues might be able to speak to that very well because they're quite connected with local services.

From what I see, there are a lot of services that are scrambling to try to meet these various needs. They're seeing the youth who are coming in and trying to adapt their services to them. There's obviously a high demand for these kinds of services.

I think the key is also making sure that they're widely available, that there's some level of consistency, that there's longevity, that young people can count on it. They may be directing their energy to certain immediate needs, but that doesn't mean they're not going to need to cycle back to these services after 12 months and beyond. It's making sure that those are available.

It's also making sure that people know where they are and how to get them. I'm constantly learning about amazing work that's happening in our own communities, which I had no idea was there and that I can refer people to. It's how people learn about these services and how we can connect young people to them.

Again, it's why I say that to me, health, education, employment, are very interconnected, and making people aware, making service providers and educators aware of the services there, is key.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Ferne.

Mr. Saroya, for five minutes, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses who are doing all of the good work. Keep it up.

First, Mr. Chair, I will say thank you to Dr. Aslam Daud. He has looked after many different charities. One of the charities he looks after is housing homeless people. Once a year, I work with the 360°kids, and I end up going to his place in -29°C. I'm an old man, my feet were swollen, and he was the first guy standing on the door welcoming people.

Thank you. Keep up the good work. I really appreciate your hands-on work.

My question is for Dr. Aslam Daud or anybody else.

A cap was recently placed on the number of private sponsorship applications. Do you believe that this was a positive or a negative change? Would you like to see private sponsorship applications capped or uncapped?

[Dr. Aslam Daud]

As a private sponsorship agreement holder, and being involved in private sponsorship, I will say that a cap is a big challenge for us.

On the other hand, I also understand the issue of challenges of the landing, and that there has to be enough resources. The solution is not in putting on a cap or not. The solution is increasing the capacity of the immigration offices on the ground so they can process the case.

There's a balance that needs to be there. If you tighten the cap, then the processing is fast, but very few people come in. If you remove the cap and make it open, there will be a lot more applications and the processing will be slow. We have the band-aid solution of increasing the cap, which I do want to do, but the permanent solution lies in increasing the capacity of the immigration department in the visa offices.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Do you think it would be helpful for organizations like yours if you could bring more people in compared to somebody else?

[Dr. Aslam Daud]

Absolutely.

As a private sponsorship program, we are deeply involved with the sponsorship process. We know the refugees. We do the due diligence, and we are able to select the most vulnerable and the most needy, and also those who are connected in Canada. In that way, we are doing a lot of the groundwork that is helpful to IRCC. It's a matter of having the increased capacity to process these cases.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Have you witnessed any cases of sponsorship breakdown where the private sponsor brought in the people? Who can fulfill their promise on the private side?

[Dr. Aslam Daud]

Sponsorship breakdown is uncommon in the SAH community. The reason is that either they're family linked, or the organizations are already well placed to do the sponsorship. It would be a rare thing to see a sponsorship breakdown. It would happen only because of certain specific conditions, for example, if there is a secondary migration, or if there is an issue where the demand is a lot more than what is being provided. In that situation it could occur, but I'm not aware of any breakdowns.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Anybody can take this question.

What are the main challenges that refugees face as they transition to their new lives in Canada? What are the main challenges that settlement support agencies have in responding to the needs of refugees?

[Dr. Aslam Daud]

The biggest challenge is to find employment for them.

What we recommend is that there should be a program. When we are taking refugees, we are opening our hearts. There should be some type of model where we provide a three-month, a six-month, or a one-year program, which is funded so they get the Canadian experience and they are streamlined. They will become taxpayers soon. It's an investment in the future. Rather than making them dependent on the 13th month, investing in the early time would make them very successful.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

If I can go back to Vancouver, the biggest challenge we heard from the Surrey-Vancouver area was about the LINC classes, the people waiting for 13 months and still didn't get a chance to attend the schools. If they can't learn the language, then they can't find a job. Do you have anything to add to this?

[Khim Tan]

I think there are ways that we can help, and I will mention something again that was mentioned this morning.

We think about what kind of language classes are important to tie the language learning with employment possibilities. I think we're also challenged by working with all the different counterparts. There is a language counterpart working with employment counterparts and working with the settlement counterpart, so that there is an integrated approach to serving them and helping them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Ms. Tan.

I'd like to thank all of the panellists for the tremendous work that they're doing and all of the insights they provided to the committee.

The meeting is adjourned.