Evidence of meeting #34 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
You mentioned this earlier. Are municipalities like Saskatoon given enough advance warning, consultation or funding before federal Liberal immigration or asylum decisions increase pressure on local services?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
I don't know that I'm able to speak to what notice we get. I'm sorry, sir.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Do you feel heard by the federal government? Does the city feel heard by the federal government?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
I would say that on some issues, we are. I'm hoping we'll be heard on this one as well.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
It's not so much on immigration.
Has council had any consultations with the immigration department federally?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
Council has not, that I can recall. I don't know whether our administration has talked to the federal administration.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
There are 13,000 immigration bureaucrats in Ottawa. It's unfortunate that none of them has reached out to consult the City of Saskatoon.
Is it wrong for local residents to ask whether their city has enough homes, health care, classrooms, shelter beds and other public services before the Liberal government adds more pressure?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
No. My residents ask me those questions every day.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Are there residents of Saskatoon today who are facing homelessness or housing insecurity?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
Absolutely. There are almost 2,000 residents, probably more now, who are homeless, and many more who are facing housing insecurity.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
It's more than 2,000. Wow.
Saskatoon has also had to support residents who were displaced by the wildfires elsewhere in the province of Saskatchewan. Is that correct?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
Yes, sir. Every year we take thousands. Last year, we took over 8,000, which maxed out all of our hotels and several soccer centres and rec centres.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Wow.
Do you think it is fair to local citizens in Saskatchewan, including local Canadians facing homelessness or displacement from the wildfires, when the Liberal government increases pressure on local housing and shelter systems without first ensuring capacity or even consulting the City of Saskatoon?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
I think it's a complex issue, and we absolutely want our voice and our needs to be heard.
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Would faster processing and removal of false or rejected asylum claimants reduce pressure on municipalities like Saskatoon?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
Yes. There's a lot of good work that can be done to take care of asylum seekers in Saskatoon. I applaud the efforts of those who do that work.
My question is, can we avoid some of that, or should we be building on that?
Conservative
Vincent Ho Conservative Richmond Hill South, ON
Right.
This is my last question. We see the Liberals bringing in political activists, ideological advocates with no skin in the game and NGOs whose taxpayer funding is contingent on the number of refugees we take in. The Liberals appear to be taking advice from these groups.
As a municipality, does Saskatoon feel heard, and do the residents of Saskatoon feel heard, by this federal government?
City Councillor, City of Saskatoon, As an Individual
I can't speak to who they listen to and who they don't listen to. I just want to make sure that our voice is there and that Saskatoon and other municipalities and regions across the country are heard as well.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Michelle Rempel
Thank you. We are out of time.
We will close this round with Ms. Sodhi.
You have five minutes.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all our witnesses for being here today.
Ms. Clark-Kazak, you've often described housing for refugee claimants as a complex intergovernmental problem. In your research, have you seen examples of where federal, provincial and municipal governments have successfully coordinated housing for asylum seekers? What made those particular models work? Could you give us just a few examples?
Prof. Christina Clark-Kazak
Yes. One example is in Peel, which was mentioned before. The other example is a sort of half example here in Ottawa. There was a plan in place to provide transitional housing through the City of Ottawa and the province and the federal government. That was then put aside. That's an example of where they could have been working together.
The Quebec case is very interesting. In Quebec it's different from all the other provinces. You actually have a provincial government that coordinates everything. I think that's a really good model. If we're thinking about distribution across the country, we could draw on that successful model in Quebec.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Perfect.
The federal government has also introduced the interim housing assistance program, which is helping quite a bit in Peel too, as we know. It's also to fund emergency accommodation for refugee claimants and support cost-sharing with provinces and municipalities. From your research on intergovernmental coordination, does a program like that represent a step in the right direction? What would you suggest to increase its effectiveness?
Prof. Christina Clark-Kazak
I think it was partially successful. Again, the Peel example is a good one. The City of Toronto also got resources through that program. It did go to some places where it was needed. I think the problem was that a lot of the money was wasted on hotels. They were very costly, as Ms. Brennan has already said, and they were also not effective. They're temporary. You cannot register your kids for school if you're living in a hotel. You need some kind of more permanent address. As well, social workers couldn't get in there. Hotel staff are not trained to work with asylum seekers. This was not a good model. It was a very inefficient model.
We already had these non-governmental organizations working across the country. Again, we did research with all of them. Many of them were willing and able to increase their capacity, but they were never asked. That money did not trickle down to the non-governmental sector. It was concentrated mostly within provinces and the municipalities. We didn't think about the other actors that were involved in that space.
Liberal
Amandeep Sodhi Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
How do you think Canada can maintain that humanitarian leadership while also ensuring that our immigration and settlement systems are sustainable for the communities that are receiving newcomers? Being from Brampton, I would say that one of the biggest examples is Peel Region. In the Peel area we see a lot of newcomers to our cities.
Prof. Christina Clark-Kazak
Again, I think there is a perception that asylum seekers are somehow impoverished. Yes, they're coming here for humanitarian reasons, but many of them are skilled workers. We saw this with the Ukrainians. They weren't asylum seekers. They were brought here under temporary visas, but many of them got jobs very quickly in other sectors. They didn't have to become asylum seekers, because they were given a pathway here.
We need to think more carefully about how we're constructing asylum seekers as being only a burden on the system, when they're also contributing to the economy. Providing the services to asylum seekers also contributes to the economy. A lot of work comes with providing services to asylum seekers.