Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 16th, 2016

[Aleem Syed]

No, this is the blended category, and the translation services are being offered by SickKids directly. All hospitals have translation services.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

From the hospital itself....

[Aleem Syed]

Yes.

Also, in the absence of any translation services, we do have volunteer translators who will go with the family.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I see.

Also, in your comments you mentioned needing to establish new partnerships.

I also want to touch on the housing issue, because I'm quite worried about the month 13 phenomenon, even for the private sponsors. Come month 13 they might not be able to make ends meet, given the income assistance rate they have.

Some of the other witnesses are supportive, for example, of a larger strategy and of the minister engaging with his provincial and territorial counterparts to address the welfare rate issue. I just want to get your sense on the month 13 issue with respect to that, as well.

[Aleem Syed]

With regard to the private sponsorships, given the futuristic role of how governance moves forward, whether federal, provincial, or what have you, we see that a lot of engagement with the citizens and private sponsors needs to be taking place. This is because all citizens are taking an active role, and with social media and all the technological devices and gadgets available, they seem to be more meaningfully engaged than before. That is where I think the government will be in a much better position to move away from delivery and to look into policy-making and into taking advantage of the private sponsors from a delivery perspective, whether it be housing, settlement, or things from that perspective.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Would you support the call for the minister to engage with his provincial and territorial partners to talk about the issues around affordability of housing and of the overall need to address increasing the welfare rate?

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

You have 20 seconds.

[Aleem Syed]

That would definitely be positive. We would definitely support that.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

That was one second.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Twenty seconds.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Oh, 20 seconds. I thought you said “one second”.

Okay, Ms. Wong-Tam, could you respond to the same question.

[Moy Wong-Tam]

Definitely the welfare rate has to be addressed. Especially regionally in different urban centres, the rate should be adjusted to the cost of living.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Ms. Niazi.

[Adeena Niazi]

Yes, I agree. The welfare rate has to be adjusted.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Ms. Zahid, you have seven minutes, please.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair

Also, thank you, witnesses, for coming today and providing your input to us. It will be very helpful in our study.

I know the important work many of you are doing to settle the refugees in their new homes, so I'm very thankful to you.

My first question is for Ms. Niazi.

We have heard from other witnesses that many newcomer women often feel socially isolated and stuck in their apartments taking care of their families, making it difficult for them to become comfortable in their new community and culture.

I am also an immigrant. I came here about 17 years ago with a toddler. I was an immigrant and not a refugee, but I certainly experienced this, as well.

Could you discuss the experiences especially of the newcomer women whom you have worked with and share any best practices you have for helping them successfully integrate into Canadian society?

[Adeena Niazi]

Actually, the best practice would be to reach them at home, in the safety of their homes. We have met some of the women who have been here for a couple of years, but they don't even know how to do their basic groceries. The approach we have taken is to reach them in their homes. We make home visits. Our workers go to their homes and talk to them about their issues.

Sometimes the men don't feel very comfortable letting the women go out. We worked with the interpreters who came from Afghanistan, from a war-torn country, and they were very isolated, so we started that up. We went to their home, spoke with the men, talked about the issues, and we made some visits.

Then we had groups, for women only, at the library, where we talked to them.

We started teaching them how to use the elevator, because they mostly didn't use the elevator, and cooking and all. That proved to be very successful.

We did things like taking them to get their groceries, taking them to LINC classes...how to walk there. They were not involved in their LINC classes.

Home visits are very.... What's more important is how you do outreach with the most isolated and marginalized segments. We don't have many problems with those who are coming to us for services, but we are concerned with those who don't come to us.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

That's a very good point.

During our study, we have also heard from some sponsorship agreement holders, SAHs—and you're also one of the SAHs—who have said they have funds and would like to bring in additional Syrian refugees over and above the ambitious levels committed to by the government. As you know, Canada has finite resources to process and settle refugees, and there are refugees from regions around the world who are needing settlement. Could you comment on the impact that further increasing private refugee resettlement of Syrians could have on other refugees from the other parts of the world?

[Adeena Niazi]

As a sponsorship holder, we are working with different groups, and actually diverse groups of the population who have not been involved in the sponsorship like the.... What we're hearing from them is that there has been concern because some of the refugees in some parts of the world seem to be forgotten. I mentioned the Africans, the Afghans, and the Christians in Thailand.

Sponsors are willing to bring refugees in from Syria and other parts of the world, refugees who are in need of protection. The refugee program is a protection program to save the lives of those who are at risk. It doesn't matter if the person at risk is coming from Syria, from Africa, or from other parts of the world. They have that openness.

There has been a response to the Syrian initiative because most of them wanted this program to succeed and reach that 25,000. I'm glad that you're part of that program, under which we brought in many refugees. One of the reasons sponsors are not encouraged to bring them from some areas where they are not visa-ready and there might be five or six years of delay is that we know there are no guarantees that the refugees will arrive, and six or seven years is a long time. Because the Syrians were coming quickly and were fast-tracked, that's why most of us got involved in bringing them here.

Although there have been some problems with the communication in terms of CIDA.... For example, for some of the SAHs, including us for the BVOR cases, we put in for sponsorship in December. So far, we haven't heard, and we thought they were visa-ready. There have been such problems, but overall it has had an impact. Also, there's CPO-W. The expedited Syrian cases from the processing centre in Winnipeg, CPO-W, caused delays in other cases. We have Syrian and other refugees, and the Syrians are already almost having their interviews, but we don't have the confirmation from CPO-W so far.

[Salma Zahid, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

My next question is for you, Mr. Syed.

We all know how important proficiency in English or French is for the newcomer in making a successful transition and integration into Canadian society. Key to achieving this is access to classes for English as a second language. You mentioned in your comments that you are working with almost 120 families. Could you talk about the success the newcomers you are working with have had in access to ESL? How many of your families are registered with ESL already?

[Aleem Syed]

I would say that 90% of the families have been registered with ESL, especially through the LINC classes, and especially those who have come here in the January and February time period. Having worked with them and having visited them, I will say it is clear that they are going to the ESL classes, to the LINC classes. Those who have come more recently are in a bit of a waiting state, and I don't have the actual percentage for the people who are actually waiting.

One of the things that has come up as a challenge in certain cases is the incentive for the newcomer families to actually go to the LINC classes. Although they are registered, they don't want to go to the LINC classes, whether it be from their social perspective or in terms of what they should do in going to LINC to learn English. They feel that they are going back, that they are regressing and going backwards in their lifestyle. Those are some of the concerns they raise, but then, after having discussed it with them and after having told them that we can only go so far, we can only take the horse to the lake, we can't make it drink.... It's important that we distinguish, and this is what we keep saying—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Syed.

[Aleem Syed]

It is important that we distinguish between providing access to services versus making sure that access is convenient.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you.

Mr. Saroya, you have five minutes, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for giving us their input. We want this to be a huge success and we welcome their recommendations.

Mr. Syed, you mentioned that in some cases the family income is $1,070 and the rent is $1,000. How are they making ends meet?