Evidence of meeting #20 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 support.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
As an Individual
Maybe in other services they had success rates before, but with the Syrian refugees, no, they didn't have success rates. So, yes, what you're saying is true. What you're hearing is correct.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
What would you like to change for these agencies you work with? This agency or that agency, it makes no difference. The government, the people of Canada, are paying for these guys. What are they not doing that they're supposed to do? Nobody's in trouble here.
As an Individual
No, no, I know. It's just like Jenny was addressing when she asked me the question. I think we should give an opportunity to those other agencies that haven't been funded by government programs before to get the funds to actually help the Syrian refugees or the people who are in limbo. Maybe we could create something new for the Syrian refugees for this temporary transition part that hasn't received previous government funding.
Is this the first time you guys have ever heard that the non-profit organizations haven't been funded to serve the Syrian community, or maybe not a 100% effort in their performance, or is it something new? If it's something new that the committee has heard, then maybe it's only happening in B.C. or in the Lower Mainland, where we're seeing it. But, yes, my opinion is they're paying it to the people. Funding is there, so they are paying it, but to unqualified people.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
The funding is there, but they're not getting the job done.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
What would you do differently if the next batch of Syrians or any other refugees come in? What would you do differently? What would you recommend be done differently in the future than what you're seeing?
As an Individual
First of all, I wouldn't hire just to cover the number. They needed interpreters; they hired interpreters, it's true, but none of them are qualified. You get people from different areas that don't understand Syrian accents, for example. For me, I can understand most of the Arabic accents, whether someone is from Morocco or Tunisia, but that's rare. But people from there, they don't understand the Syrian language, so even the interpretation was wrong.
There is one example I'll give you quickly on interpretation only. A lady was to attend a hospital for interpretation for a lady who had surgery, one of the Syrian refugees, so she was there, and they called me to please come. I took off work and actually went there. After the surgery was done, the lady came and said, “Sorry, I was late”. Anyway, I sat on the side to listen to what the nurse was telling her such as the instructions, the medications, what she should be aware of and what she should avoid, etc. After the message was given, it was wrong. She told her to take it easy on spicy food and not eat too much. She said to beware of taking spicy foods. The thing is, I was like, no, no, she shouldn't eat spicy, period.
Anyway, these are the things. Some people are unqualified. She barely speaks Arabic, but she's getting paid for that.
Conservative
Bob Saroya Conservative Markham—Unionville, ON
The stories, what I'm hearing today, are totally different than what we hear in the House of Commons from the Minister of Immigration, that everything's good, good, good. Obviously, things are not as good as what we hear from the minister.
Conservative
Liberal
Shaun Chen Liberal Scarborough North, ON
My first question is for the Calgary Board of Education, Chair.
You mentioned that there was no consultation from the federal government. I know that in speaking to the departmental officials who came to our committee meeting last week that consultation did occur with intergovernmental partners, including the provinces and municipalities. Did your provincial government not consult your school board or have any conversations regarding the Syrian refugee resettlement?
Chair, School District 19, Calgary Board of Education
That is correct. We were informed that students would come into the province of Alberta, but we were not consulted. We were told by the province to keep track of all costs to date for all of the Syrian refugee students who would enter into our system. We believe that this was a promise by the provincial government that they would support school boards financially in working with our Syrian refugee students.
Liberal
Shaun Chen Liberal Scarborough North, ON
The province did consult with you, and in the federal government's intergovernmental consultations, that input would have possibly come up through to the federal government.
Now are you also, as a school board, a member of CSBA, the Canadian School Boards Association?
Chair, School District 19, Calgary Board of Education
We are part of the Canadian School Boards Association through our provincial body of the Alberta School Boards Association.
I'd like to comment that we were not consulted. We were just asked to keep track of costs.
Liberal
Shaun Chen Liberal Scarborough North, ON
Good.
The costs you mentioned earlier were that there was $2.6 million of additional expenditures. Your provincial government has asked you to make submissions in terms of how many Syrian refugee children are registered, or have they? I see some heads shaking.
Can you tell me what's happening with the $2.6 million?
Superintendent, Learning, School District 19, Calgary Board of Education
With regard to our student record-keeping system, we have ways of tracking, and the government would have access to those numbers. We can certainly roll that up into a report about those students.
There are ways of tracking that information that we can easily make available to the provincial government, or they can mine our data.
