Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14th, 2016

[Zaiba Beg]

Ahead of time in the fall we did know that the students were coming. The Ministry of Education since December has been providing our school board with very thorough communication on a regular basis. Memos were received in December and in the early part of this new year, where we were given information about the different resources that we would be able to access. Also, we were given a template to track our expenses, and our board has been making very careful decisions around expenditures.

We didn't create brand new classrooms for all the students. We tried very much to keep students in their home school, if possible, and we have regional sites for students in secondary school, because of those very different kinds of needs. Fifty-five per cent of our population, the students who have come in, are in the primary years. Their needs are really well met in their local community school. Our board has been very careful about those decisions, and then we have really collaborated with the Ministry of Education.

Definitely we need more support. They've put some occasional teachers in place right now until the end of June, and they've also put in a couple of teachers for September. We'll have to determine needs later in August, and that's up to our senior leadership team.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

The Calgary board mentioned that it had created about a $2.6-million gap. Can you tell us if, in Peel, there has been any financial gap around your board?

[Louise Clayton]

I don't think I'm the person to ask about that.

What we have been asked to do is track our expenditures. We have been told that the province will match us dollar for dollar for extraordinary expenditures that we were forced to take to meet the needs of our Syrian families.

Our federal government funder has also provided us with an additional settlement worker, an Arabic-speaking worker, for our centres. We continue to dialogue with our community partners and our federal government funder to meet the needs in our school district and in the community.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Mr. Sawaf, you mentioned also something about trying to get jobs and employment for the refugees. The concerning part that I heard is that there were some being paid in cash, at below minimum wage. In Canada we actually want to make sure that our employers are following the rules so that the employees pay into the Canada pension plan, pay into EI, pay into the benefits that Canadians get. I'm concerned that this isn't happening. Is it because the refugees at this stage are not allowed to work legally?

[Imadeddin Sawaf]

No. Legally they're allowed to work.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I'm trying to understand why an employer then would try to employ people and not meet the legislation and the law of the country, and would have employees work for cash.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jenny Kwan]

Mr. Shipley, I'm sorry to interrupt but your time is up.

We have Ms. Zahid. We have probably close to five minutes before we adjourn.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

I'll share my time with Mr. Kang.

I just have one question for the Peel District School Board.

I know that many of the youth we are getting among the Syrian refugees have special needs, and they have to be accommodated in the schools also. I met a family in Scarborough Centre. Two of their kids had special needs.

Can you discuss how you are accommodating the Syrian newcomers who face special needs? Are there any lessons we can all learn from that?

[Louise Clayton]

When they come to Peel all of our students come through our welcome centres. For students with special needs, it's no different. We have a screening tool that we use there, and we dialogue directly with our consultants in the board office. They come out to our centres and meet with the families and our settlement workers and teachers who work at our centres. They're doing a home and family visit to determine the appropriate placement that is needed for that family.

Again, the family may be out of school for a week or so, but when the placement is made, it's a proper and informed placement that is going to be right for that student and that family.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I'll share my time with Mr. Kang.

[Darshan Singh Kang, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you.

My question is for Mr. Sawaf.

Mr. Sawaf, you seem to be contradicting yourself. On the one hand, you're saying there's a lot of demand for employees in B.C., and on the other hand, you're saying that the Syrian refugees are working under the table. I find it hard to believe. They're legal to work here. Somebody who is illegal to work here could probably accept jobs under the table, and that's breaking the law. I think if they are working under the table, they are breaking the law, and the employers are breaking the law, too.

I find it hard to comprehend that such a practice is going on. I find it hard to believe.

[Imadeddin Sawaf]

It's not contradictory. It's going back to the same thing of not being put on the right path.

When I see them being paid in cash, it's not because there's no opportunity for them. There are no programs in place, like the pods that I mentioned, for them to get employment. No Canadian company will hire them, if go to a company and say, “Hello, are you going to hire me?” That's number one.

Number two, when you're getting paid in cash, you are drifting; you don't have direction. My main concern is that they not drift into these things, getting paid in cash, and then getting into more illegal stuff, which we don't want to see. They're really happy they're here. They're more than happy, and they're thanking the government it brought them here. The thing is, I don't want to see them drift. Now, people tell them, “Stay with the government funding. When the settlement allowance is finished, go on welfare. Get paid in cash for that $9-an-hour job and you can still make it.” Their mind is being injected with this mentality, which I don't want to see happen. I'm running from one family to another and saying, “No, no. We don't do that. No, no. We don't do it.” Do you see what I mean? I'm trying not to get them steered toward that, because all cameras are on them right now. Everything is on them. If they are going to do anything wrong, I'll look at them and see they're not good. That's what I don't want to happen.

[Darshan Singh Kang, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Okay.

I'll share my time with Mr. Chen.

[Shaun Chen, Liberal, Scarborough North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My question is for the Peel District School Board.

I know that in September 2015 your school board wrote to the prime minister at the time urging that Canada bring in more Syrian refugees. In that letter, your board chair wrote that through your three We Welcome the World Centres, co-funded with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, you have had the privilege of welcoming refugees from Syria and other war-torn areas to your community and to your schools.

I know that since November 4, our government has brought in 27,580 refugees.

Can you tell me what the impact has been? What have the students learned about other children from other countries with dire circumstances? Do you believe there is more capacity for your board to accept more refugee children, moving forward?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jenny Kwan]

You have 20 seconds.

[Zaiba Beg]

It's definitely been an honour and a privilege. Schools have been really stepping up and doing their own initiatives at the school. The children have seen it as a way to understand the world better. Our board's priority is equity. We definitely would support this. We know that through these partnerships we have with the Ministry of Education and through our agencies that we can find better solutions. There's a definite openness and the teachers are very excited.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jenny Kwan]

Thank you very much. I'm sorry to cut you off.

We're out of time, so I want to thank all the witnesses for making time to come and present to the committee. All of your comments as well as the information that you provide are very important.

If you have additional information you wish to share with the committee that may not have been touched on, or needs further clarification, please feel free to send in a written submission to the clerk's office and it will be distributed to every single committee member here.

With that, I want to thank everybody, with a special thanks to our interpreters as well.

The meeting is adjourned.