Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 14th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Good morning. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on March 8, the committee will resume its study on the federal government's initiative to resettle Syrian refugees.

Appearing before us today are Imadeddin Sawaf and Eman Allhalaq, as individuals.

Sharing the spot by video conference from Calgary are Joy Bowen-Eyre and Jeannie Everett, both from the Calgary Board of Education; and Cheryl Low and Anne-Marie Hagel from the Calgary Catholic School District.

Finally, from the Peel District School Board, by video conference from Toronto, are Louise Clayton and Zaiba Beg.

Welcome to all.

Each grouping of panellists will have seven minutes for their opening presentations.

We will begin with Mr. Imadeddin Sawaf and Ms. Eman Allhalaq for seven minutes, please.

[Imadeddin Sawaf, As an Individual]

Hello, everyone. Just to touch base, we're going to cut it in half.

As a witness through this whole Syrian refugees experience, the only problem that we see is through the service agencies. We know that the funding is there, so there's no lack of funding; it's the lack of manpower and people qualified to help the Syrian refugees.

I've been dealing with the Syrian refugees for two years now. The newest batch that came in don't have enough support. Housing was the major issue at the beginning. Half of the housing was found by individuals themselves, not by the actual service agencies. Then, once they're out of the hotels, they've been just left alone. There's not enough support for everyone, literally. It's not only this witness; there are tons of witnesses just being left in their houses not knowing what to do.

We try to attend as volunteers. I do this on a voluntary basis. I'm not getting paid for this, and I've helped more than 50 Syrian families. It's just that it's exhausting just to know there is funding and there are people out there, but they're not helping. There's no one there. It's literally empty. I know people who have been left in their house for a month not knowing what to do, just waiting. Then, when they try to get in contact with people, they tell them, “Give us a call.” They call, and they hear, “Leave a message.” They leave a message and they hear, “Your message has been deleted.”

The line is being cut off somewhere by not getting the services that are out there to them. Yes, it's there on paper, 100%. On paper, it's fully there. There are services for language, interpreters, settlement helpers, settlement workers, family workers. It's all there on paper, but in reality, practically, there's nothing there. It's not hard to see. It's very easy to see. All you have to do is just go out there and see the people and exactly what's happening.

Again, it's not a lack of funding; it's a lack of actually giving it or hiring the right people for it.

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have another four minutes and 40 seconds.

[Imadeddin Sawaf]

The other thing is employment. Employment is very important, and I know the government's aim, obviously after they settle, is employment. They don't want to rely on the government all their life for funding. There is none.

I had this idea of employment pods, Syrian pods. Thank God, it worked, as in mass hiring. That was taken away. I tried to get Arabic employers to hire Syrians, because most of them have a lot of industrial trades. They didn't find a lot of support there. I try to teach them on my own sometimes, when I am free. That is the employment side.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

There is another three minutes and 45 seconds for Ms. Allhalaq.

[Eman Allhalaq, As an Individual]

[Witness speaks in Arabic]

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

If you could wait one moment as the translation is not functioning.

[Eman Allhalaq]

First of all, I would like to thank the Canadians who have welcomed us. I would like to thank the Canadian government for having given us the opportunity to come here and to change our lives.

We were in a situation that was extremely difficult, but thanks to God, we were able to come to Canada. Now our situation is greatly improved, and we live in safety. We are, of course, very happy to be here in Canada, and we are happy for the excellent help we have received from the Canadian government.

However, allow me to make some comments. Those who are supposed to be helping us are not necessarily doing so. Whenever I need to go to the hospital, there is nobody to go with me. I have a young daughter. I have to leave her at home. I can't leave her with my husband. I have to put my daughter in a child care centre so that we can study, and that is not always possible.

All the people who have come here hope to be able to work, hope to be able to help Canada with the work they do, with their experience. We would like to be able to work. These jobs are jobs we can do well, do properly. We want to do this work according to our skills. We are not here to benefit from charity. We want to use our skills.

I want to thank you for having listened to us here this morning. I hope the organizations don't feel that I am trying to take advantage of the situation.

We are told we have to go and enrol in different places. I have an appointment for a mammogram, for example, so I asked to have an interpreter. I am told there are no interpreters and it is up to the hospital to get an interpreter. When I go to the hospital, they say to me, “You don't have anybody with you, so we are going to have to put off your appointment to another time. Find yourself an interpreter, and then come back.”

This is the sort of problem we are all facing. This isn't just a problem that I myself face. It is a difficult one.

When we enrol our children in schools, we are in hotels. First of all, we have to find a house. We have to wait. Somebody came to visit the Syrian refugees, and then we tried to register our children in schools. We are told where we have to go and register the children. This person who came to us, Ahmed.... The schools are relying on this volunteer to help us, but we need to get the children registered. We can't rely on volunteers forever.

I am enrolled at S.U.C.C.E.S.S., and I am studying. I need to make appointments with the doctor, but I can't make an appointment during school hours. Obviously, the problem is that I don't speak English or French, but I still have to go to the doctor.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Allhalaq, you have 15 seconds.

[Eman Allhalaq]

On several occasions, we have asked the government organizations for support. I have said, for example, that we have this particular problem. My health is vulnerable. I need support. Can I have a family member brought over to Canada? I am told that is not possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Ms. Bowen-Eyre, you have seven minutes, please.

[Joy Bowen-Eyre, Chair, School District 19, Calgary Board of Education]

Thank you for the invitation to speak to your committee today. We would like to share our school board's experience welcoming refugees from Syria, and some information on how many students we have received to date, our process for accepting and integrating them into our school system, and our next steps.

The Calgary Board of Education is the largest school board in western Canada and the third largest in Canada. The CBE is one school system educating more than 117,000 students in over 220 schools with over 13,000 staff. We work together to provide learning as unique as every student.

Since January 4, 2016, the Calgary Board of Education has received 414 Syrian refugee students. The CBE has also welcomed 57 students with refugee status from other countries since January of this past year. The Calgary Board of Education has an established process for registering and settling students into our system, regardless of their country of origin.

In a typical year, our Kingsland Centre registers over 4,000 foreign-born and refugee students. The CBE has a diverse student population. More than 25% of our students identify as English-language learners. We have a robust strategy to support their needs, both through an inclusive model and through English as a second language classes.

[Jeannie Everett, Superintendent, Learning, School District 19, Calgary Board of Education]

We're certainly pleased to work with a multi-agency team in Calgary through Margaret Chisholm Resettlement Centre. Our students would probably come to us a couple of weeks after they arrived in Calgary and would be assessed at our Kingsland Centre. We have a program option available called LEAD, which stands for our literacy, English, and academic development program. It provides specialized support to our refugee students with limited English proficiency who may have experienced interrupted schooling, or who have experienced traumatic life events.

We have staff who have had the ability to train with specialized understanding of English-language development as well as trauma. Our LEAD model is very short term. It's intensive support with a goal of supporting our students and their families as they transition to mainstream classrooms and ESL courses. Most of our students would stay in LEAD up to two years and then they would begin to transition to regular programs.

However, each student is assessed when they come to us. We have the benefit of interpreters and understanding each child's story. Approximately 80% of our Syrian refugees have been supported through our LEAD program; 20% have had sufficient English and a history of schooling that has allowed them to go into mainstream classrooms with English-language support. Sixteen of those refugees have come to us with extremely complex learning needs. They needed to access specialized programming. Some have included students who are deaf and hard of hearing, some with limited vision, others with mild to very severe cognitive delays, and some with very severe medical needs as well.

Since January we've added 20 classrooms. LEAD classrooms have a teacher and an English-language learning assistant. They are supported as well by psychologists who specialize in trauma. We've added 20 teachers in the Calgary board in total. We've added 17 English-language learning assistants. We have diversity support workers; two full-time psychologists, again specializing in children with trauma and refugee experiences; and we've also hired eight certified Arabic interpreters who are on call as needed to support our students and their families. We have also paid for the transportation of those students. As they are getting settled into their new homes we provide transportation with no cost to the family.

Overall, our current anticipated costs for this year are about $2.6 million, and under the Alberta education framework for funding, full funding is only received for students as of September 30. As you know, our Syrian refugees arrived after January. Therefore, we've received no additional funding for these students.

As well, in our framework we received an additional $5,200 for each student identified as a refugee, and unfortunately should this designation change, we will not receive those dollars either. Again, $2.6 million—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

I understand you're sharing your slot with the Catholic School District, so perhaps we could allow the Catholic School District to say a few words, and I'll be somewhat lenient with the time.

Thank you.

[Cheryl Low, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Calgary Catholic School District]

Thank you very much.

The Calgary Catholic School District is the largest Catholic school district in Alberta. We serve more than 54,000 students in 105 schools, and we have an additional 10 schools opening in the next three years.

Our district is rich in linguistic and cultural diversity, with over 15,000, or 29%, of our students identifying as English-language learners. We register between 2,500 and 3,000 students born outside of Canada each year, and 21% of our schools have an ESL population of between 50% and 80%. We currently have 1,344 refugee students who have arrived from 70 different countries.

Since the federal government announced the plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees, the Calgary Catholic School District collaborated with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society and other organizations to ensure supports and services would be in place for these newly arrived students and families. We registered and welcomed 109 Syrian students. At the district level, we ensured that our reception centre staff were prepared to register students as they arrived. New language interpreters were trained in Syrian languages. In-school settlement practitioners were added to support schools with large populations of refugee students. The Calgary Catholic School District team was ready to support mental health and trauma-related concerns, as well as assist families with cultural adaptation needs.

Additional teachers were added to schools where there was a significant increase of refugee students. ESL consultants provided ongoing professional development and resources to teachers and educational assistants. We recognize that many immigrant students come with complex needs in addition to language acquisition. Gaps in education, limited literacy skills, trauma-related issues, cultural adaptation challenges, ongoing settlement needs, and mental health issues all impact the students' abilities to learn. To ensure the successful integration within our inclusive education model, the district provides ongoing learning opportunities embedding best practices for multicultural classrooms.

Explicit teaching of language development, addressing trauma and gaps in learning, creating welcoming environments, and providing appropriate programs for students assist our schools with successful integration. With the increasing number of immigrant students registering each year, the demand for our services continues to grow. Additional funding from the government is required to ensure the successful integration of immigrant students and families. We must be able to continue to support these complex needs that place a significant strain on and tax the financial resources of the district.

As these needs are not short term, but often last many years after initial settlement and become more prevalent once sponsorship ends, consistent and sustainable funding is critical. We are committed to working collaboratively with the federal, provincial, and municipal governments to ensure the successful settlement and education of refugee students and their families in our district.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Clayton and Ms. Beg, for seven minutes, please.

[Louise Clayton, Coordinator, We Welcome the World Centres, Peel District School Board]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and committee members for inviting us here today. My name is Louise Clayton. I am the coordinator of the Peel District School Board's We Welcome the World Centres.

[Zaiba Beg, Instructional Coordinator, English Language Learners, Peel District School Board]

My name is Zaiba Beg, and I'm the instructional coordinator for English as a second language and English literacy development programs for K to 12.

We would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.

[Louise Clayton]

The Peel board is the second largest board in Canada within the municipalities of Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon. It serves a diverse student population of over 152,000 students, of which 93,000 speak a language other than English or French as their first language. Arabic ranks among the top six languages spoken by Peel students.

In 2009, the Peel board created three We Welcome the World Centres with the assistance of funding from the federal government. All students new to Peel visit these centres before attending school. Students are registered, receive an assessment of their English and mathematics skills, and share family and educational background to assist with placement and orientation.

Family members receive a complete settlement needs assessment and orientation to the education system. Email alerts and reports are forwarded to staff at the receiving school so they begin to implement support programs before the family arrives. Students with special needs are identified and consultants are deployed to assist with appropriate placement. In 2016, we welcomed 10,215 clients at our three centres, of which 530 are Syrian students, in addition to another 200 refugee students from all over the world.

At the Peel board, we take a comprehensive approach to the settlement of our families. Settlement needs assessments are conducted by one of our Peel board settlement workers at our welcome centres, thus ensuring that no family is missed. We have a formal settlement workers in schools partnership, MSEP, the Multicultural Education and Settlement Partnership, with five agencies in Peel. An additional 40 settlement workers are assigned to 118 of our 250 schools. Once processed at our centres, information is sent to our partner agencies for additional follow-up at the schools by our SWIS workers. Peel board settlement workers provide itinerant services as required.

At the centres, we also have many partnerships that allow us to offer employment counselling, dental screening, and mental health counselling at various times throughout the year. However, these services and supports are finite, and often we find ourselves without consistent service. In collaboration with our MSEP partners, we also offer parent sessions and the World of Welcome program, WOW. Secondary students and their families participate in a variety of orientation activities so that students are ready for school.

The arrival of our new Syrian families has been an exciting time for staff and students at the Peel board. Through our partnerships with community and faith-based organizations, we were able to provide backpacks to all our students. With the help of volunteers, we also opened two donation hubs, where we collected clothing, bedding, kitchenware, toys, and books.

Partnerships with the Region of Peel have also allowed us to provide computers, grocery vouchers, and transit tickets and to assist Syrian families in obtaining free programming offered by parks and recreation.

[Zaiba Beg]

Our board has worked diligently to mobilize efforts to serve Syrian newcomers and communicate across departments within our district through the development of the Inspire Hope action team. We meet frequently to give updates from areas such as special education, mental health, social work, teaching and learning, communications, and community and settlement services in order to take inventory of existing supports and services, identify potential needs or areas that require funding, ensure coordination of services, and reduce barriers for new families, such as, for example, the waiving of certain fees.

When the influx of newcomer students was at its peak, senior leadership met weekly as a contingency team to examine critical issues and determine supports. Their actions to meet these extraordinary needs are swift and supportive, thanks to the funding from the provincial government that has been made available in partnership from the federal government.

In Peel, we continue to provide vibrant academic programming using the available resources. However, it is still important to note that ESL programs in elementary schools historically have been underfunded due to a provincial funding formula that does not adequately meet the needs of English-language learners in our board.

The Peel board has tremendous expertise in working with children and families of various immigrant backgrounds. However, most of the new students from Syria have very different programming needs than English-language learners we have served in the last several years. Most of the students in grades 3 and up have large gaps in education due to limited prior schooling. As a result, they require more intensive programs in order to accelerate their learning. This reality presents new learning and new demands for classroom teachers, ESL teachers, and school administrators.

The students who are in grades 9 to 12 are being supported by our regional English literacy development programs, and these sites need long-term support to serve these students. Within these sites, there is a group of students at high risk: older youths from 17 to 21 years old. A strategy and subsequent funding is necessary to meet their unique needs, as many have to work to support their families. Dialogue with post-secondary institutions is required to develop apprenticeship learning and trades programs with an ESL component so that students are able to secure skilled employment.

Despite all of this infusion of support, Syrian newcomers have multiple complex needs, and given that most have beginner-level English literacy skills, we need additional supports to serve these families in a timely and effective manner.

[Louise Clayton]

Federal government funding for We Welcome the World Centres has decreased 25% since inception, just by the 200% increase in clientele. Additional funds for settlement staff and child minding is essential to meet these needs.

Through our intake process, 30% of the families divulged that they had experienced or witnessed traumatic events. Immediate financial assistance to provide trauma counselling is fundamental to their successful integration. We encourage the government to continue funding SWIS programming, including our WOW orientation programs designed to help students connect with their peers.

In large Syrian families, mothers are particularly vulnerable, unable to access not only English-language classes but literacy classes, as many are illiterate in Arabic. They need services near their homes that also provide child minding for their young children. Financial infusion into this area is critical. Financial literacy is also imperative as many families do not have sufficient funds to feed their families.

Working with provincial counterparts, additional funds for specialty classes and breakfast programs are needed. Long-term solutions for employment, housing and transportation also need to be explored in the pricey GTA.

Zaiba and I thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Ehsassi, for seven minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Perhaps I could first ask Mr. Imadeddin Sawaf a question. I'm assuming you don't have any prepared remarks. Is that correct?

[Imadeddin Sawaf]

I'm sorry, what do you ask?

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Had you prepared remarks beforehand?