Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14th, 2016

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

But they've never asked for it.

[Jeannie Everett]

They have never asked for it specifically with the intention—

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Is your provincial government funding and covering the cost of the $2.6 million to help settle Syrian refugees?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

No, no.

[Voices]

No.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

No. Okay.

I know that the minister did say last week that education is a provincial jurisdiction. In the province of Ontario, for example, the provincial government there has asked school boards to make a mid-year submission in terms of the number of Syrian refugee children, as well as a breakdown by every school of where the children are being settled. In fact, the provincial government in Ontario has then stated that they will provide revised transfer payments at the end of the school year.

Are you suggesting that the federal government should get into funding school boards directly in terms of, for example, the number of special education students, the number of new immigrant students? How does it work for your school board in your province in terms of students who enrol mid-year, which is something that happens all the time, and numbers can fluctuate? Are you saying that your provincial government simply funds you at the September 30 submissions in terms of full-time equivalent students that are in your school board and then sort of says good luck for the rest of the year?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

That is correct.

Within the province of Alberta, and I cannot speak to other provinces, we have a drop-dead date of September 30, in which all school boards throughout the province of Alberta receive funding for each and every student in our school districts. Beyond that, school boards are required to make adjustments and allowances for whatever students come through our doors.

The difference here is the large influx of Syrian refugee students. Given that they have some significant complex needs and they are wartorn, traumatized, and require significant supports, we are frustrated in the fact that neither the provincial nor the federal government is taking responsibility to assist school boards in working with these students.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Thank you.

I know that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Twenty seconds.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Back in February, at Wilma Hansen School in the Queensland neighbourhood, there were incidents where the walls of the school were vandalized.

Can you tell us how that was a teachable moment for the school community in Calgary?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

We were very disturbed to find that one of our schools was tagged twice with disrespectful language. It gave us an opportunity to talk to our students and our community about the importance of including everybody, recognizing that there's diversity, and ensuring that each and every student feels welcomed within the Calgary district.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Rempel, for five minutes, please.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Ms. Bowen-Eyre, do you get a sense of why you've been asked to tally up the cost? What I would speculate is that perhaps you've been asked to tally the cost up to send to the provincial government, in which the provincial government would then perhaps petition the federal government for additional funds.

Do you think that would be a reasonable speculation?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

I believe that would be a reasonable speculation, and that would be my understanding. In conversations that I've had with our minister of education, we believe that in order to support students, we need financial support as well.

As I stated earlier, while we open our doors to each and every student, it comes with a significant cost to all of our students when we have to take money from other pockets of our budget.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

The $2.6 million that the CBE has spent has put you in a deficit situation. Is that correct?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

Not in a deficit situation, because what we've done is juggle resources. We get funded on a per student basis and that is to last throughout the entire school year, so what we do is juggle and provide resources where they are needed. When we take money from a certain pot to help fund some students, then other students may not be getting the services and support they need, or maybe some of our buildings aren't getting the care and attention they need, or maybe we can't hire other staff in other areas as we might wish to.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

For the committee perhaps you could describe what juggling means in terms of specific opportunity cost calculations that have had to be made this year.

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

For example, we get pots of money for English-language learners. We know that we need to provide more support for our English-language learner students, as would our colleagues at Calgary Catholic. We also recognize that when we are juggling money, it means that our class sizes become higher for all of our students. We have larger class sizes in order to provide more supports for all of our students. What we hear from our parents and the community is that they would like smaller class sizes so that all of our students can feel supported.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Have you had to increase class sizes this year due to having to absorb this $2.6 million in extra costs?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

We've had a modest class size increase this year; that's correct.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

That's shocking.

Again, just to bring you up to speed, we did have the department officials in committee at the beginning of the study. They have indicated that there are no plans right now, or no plans to support school boards providing this service.

If my speculation is correct and the provincial government is going to have to come to the federal government to ask for costs for this, can you, perhaps, for some of my colleagues—I think I'm one of two Albertans in the room right now—give a sense of what this could mean for the provincial government, as well as the province of Alberta, given the economic downturn that we're in? How likely are we to see massive budget increases for school boards in Alberta, given the economic downturn at this point in time?

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

This school year we were given our budget. Actually, ironically, we have a public board meeting later on, right after this meeting, to debate our budget. We have a hold-the-line budget from the province, so we have rolled out exactly the same money to all of our schools and classrooms going forward this year. We are anticipating a $20-million deficit at the Calgary Board of Education for the next school year, and part of that deficit is the supports to our Syrian refugee students.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I think everyone in this room understands that Canada has a duty to help Syrian refugees, but the question that we're debating at this study is how we do that. It's not just about numbers on a score card.

In this situation, yes, public education is a provincial responsibility, but given the massive influx of refugees over a short period of time, do you think it's reasonable for the government to have consulted school boards and perhaps provided a more robust response?

I think you have two seconds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

A 20-second response.

[Joy Bowen-Eyre]

Yes, I believe that's correct. If I can put it into perspective, the number of students we've received is the equivalent of five elementary schools.