Evidence of meeting #21 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 training.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
11:45 a.m.
Peter Kent Thornhill, CPC
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thanks to all of you for the insight and advice you've offered us today.
I'd like to start with you, Ms. Wong-Tam. I was delighted to hear your reference to the York region welcome centre, which I can remember attending back in 2007, I believe, when it was opened as a pilot project. I think its success is worthy of examination by communities and regions across the country. It's wonderful how it's expanded. For the privately sponsored refugees it's very helpful to connect with all levels of government and services and language training and child care and so forth, but I think it's essential for refugees arriving under conventional circumstances.
I'd like to ask you, given the overburden we saw in December, January, and February, how the capacity of the welcome centre and other reception agencies as well has levelled out, hopefully, or is continuing to cope with stresses on capacity to provide services.
11:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Centre for Immigrant and Community Services
Most of the stress has been in the Toronto region versus the York region. The York region has received mostly privately sponsored refugees. You're right that the pilot welcome centre was opened in 2007 and then four more opened in 2010. We've been operating for six years now as a system. Durham followed suit about five years ago.
The City of Markham held a refugee summit in January. The welcome centre together with the Regional Municipality of York also held a refugee forum where all the private sponsors could come and learn what is available in the community. They're not aware of all the resources. Some of the private refugee groups are extremely well organized. They even have an education committee and other committees for their families when they come. They became a mini agency all on their own, but we want them to know resources are already available. For example, the City of Markham also opened parks and recreational services to them.
In terms of the welcome centre, we're able to deal with the influx of refugees. The last we heard, a meeting is happening right now. We have had a round table with the Regional Municipality of York. The whole community has been planning together. For us, York region is more manageable than Toronto. In Toronto the refugees have emptied out of the core of the city, mostly out of Scarborough, Peel, and so on, because of the cost of accommodation.
Just to give one more plug for the welcome centre, we have been studied by Germany and Sweden, and we've received different delegations internationally, so kudos to York region.
I think you're my MP, incidentally.
11:50 a.m.
Thornhill, CPC
Thank you for that endorsement.
Mr. Syed, you spoke to the housing issue, particularly in Scarborough, and the shortage of affordable housing. We've heard stories in recent months of some unethical landlords taking advantage of newcomers. I'm wondering whether you have any examples of attempted exploitation or unethical handling of newly arrived tenants.
11:50 a.m.
Representative, Scarborough Muslim Association, Greater Toronto Area Mosques
Affordable housing definitely is an issue, and it is much larger than the Syrian refugee resettlement process. It is the same for anybody else who wants to stay in the city.
With regard to exploitation, yes, through our colleagues we have heard of cases where the landlord would ask for the whole year's rent as a deposit—
11:50 a.m.
Representative, Scarborough Muslim Association, Greater Toronto Area Mosques
Exactly. If the settlement workers were working with them to provide them with housing and to get into a lease agreement, how is it possible that somebody is able to even think of doing that? Issues like that were brought to the volunteers' attention. The volunteers dealt with it, working with the settlement agencies very closely and were able to mitigate those issues.
While I understand that affordable housing is an issue, we also need to look at the equity in terms of the refugees, or the newcomers, versus those residents who are already in Ontario. We know some of the newcomer families receive $1,070 in their monthly support payment but $1,000 goes for rent. It is no different from any other resident in Ontario. In the grand scheme of things. It has to be looked at as something we can overcome in the future.
11:50 a.m.
Thornhill, CPC
Thank you.
Mr. Mandarino, you spoke about work site safety. I'm wondering whether English training in the jargon of work sites as it relates to workplace safety is provided by employers or by your union.
11:50 a.m.
Executive Director, LiUNA Canadian Tri-Fund
Yes, there is, through our union and our training programs. Employers, of course, rely on us to have an individual who is sent out to the job sites prepared to operate safely. We accept the burden of doing it because we want to turn out an individual who is prepared to go to a work site and operate safely, but of course, employers are also partners in that and they are doing that on a regular basis on their job sites as well.
11:50 a.m.
Thornhill, CPC
Coming back very quickly to Ms. Wong-Tam with regard to the arrival, I've met any number of arrivals from Syria with significant language abilities and professional certification. I'm just wondering whether your organization or TRIEC, the Toronto region immigrant employment group, is working to assist recognition of those certifications for those professionals.
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Centre for Immigrant and Community Services
As do most settlement organizations, we do provide services for assessment of foreign credentials; however, a lot of these refugees came without documentation, as you can understand, so it is an issue for them. Basically, our staff have counselled them to transition their career to find related work, not exactly in the same field. For example, a doctor would be advised to study to become a lab technician, maybe; an architect could become a home inspector, that kind of thing.
For those who don't have professional credentials, it's a lot of networking to help them find work in their own ethnic community where language is not an issue.
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Centre for Immigrant and Community Services
But we need them to continue to learn the language at the same time. So their evening classes—
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Thank you, Ms. Wong-Tam.
Ms. Kwan, you have seven minutes, please.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses. My first question is for Ms. Niazi.
You mentioned in your comments that delay in settlement services is an issue. We've also heard from other witnesses about those delays, particularly around language training. In the LINC program that you mentioned, the classes for the summer are now being cancelled because there's no funding. How widespread is that problem?
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Afghan Women's Counseling and Integration Community Support Organization
Actually, this is a big problem for the refugees who come here. First of all, for the period that they are not going to class, there are no programs for them. They stay at home, which will cause depression and more isolation.
As I mentioned, there have been cuts for the past five or six years. There have been cuts to the settlement services. The last time when we had those cuts, we had no other option but to close the classes. It's not only that the classes are closed, but we also have a long list of learners who are waiting for the classes and we cannot accommodate them.
One of the major problems that we face, especially with the Syrian refugees who come here, is that they're coming with large families and there is a large number of children here. In some cases, even if there is space available in the class, we don't have enough childminding spaces for them, so they can't go to the classes. We have women waiting for classes for a period of four or five months, and now, when the classes close, another two or three months are added to that. It's a big problem for them.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Have you had any problems with access to health care particularly for the women? We just had a witness on Tuesday, someone who came forward, who has been diagnosed with cancer, but because of the lack of translation services at the health organizations, she wasn't able to receive that diagnosis until three weeks after, and from a stranger who happened to speak Arabic and was there at moment. She said to the stranger, “I don't understand what they're saying. Can you help me?” That's how it happened.
I'm wondering, and I'll open this up to all three of you, if you could give me a quick response about what kind of experiences you have seen with respect to that. Is it an issue, or it just a one-off in my own community?
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Afghan Women's Counseling and Integration Community Support Organization
In our organization, we are working with sponsored refugees. Lots of refugees are coming under sponsorship. So far, we haven't received any major health issues.
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Centre for Immigrant and Community Services
Part of my speaking notes really speak to the medical issues that are faced by the Syrian refugees.
Most women would prefer to be seen by female physicians or specialists who speak Arabic, so that really limits the pool; it may be non-existent in some areas. I would recommend that medical or qualified interpreters be provided for these refugees, at least during the first year after arrival, because it's critical. People are not being treated for serious conditions. I think some of the most common problems are respiratory tract infections, diarrhea, skin infection, hypertension, diabetes, and so on. Also, a large number of the children have not been inoculated since the war. The Canadian Medical Association Journal mentioned that 43% and 52%, respectively, of Syrian refugee children have received the primary series of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine and polio vaccine. A large percentage haven't been inoculated.
Noon
Representative, Scarborough Muslim Association, Greater Toronto Area Mosques
For one of the Syrian newcomer families who we are directly helping, the response our Scarborough Muslim Association is.... The 15-year-old child has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. It's unfortunate. It's a very difficult situation for the parents to go through. All we have heard from the parents, though, are words of gratefulness for the services SickKids is offering and the quick turnaround in terms of services and translation services being offered. We have no issues in that regard.
Noon
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Those translation services are being done by the resettlement service agency.