Public Accounts Committee on Feb. 13th, 2018

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

I'll tell you an anecdote as to the amazing integration that we see with Syrian refugees. I had the honour of being at the airport when one of the families arrived, and I met the family. About a year later, I was at a Subway, and one of the Syrian refugees who had arrived that day was working at the Subway. I talked to him, and we took pictures. He was so happy to see me because I had been there the first day to welcome him. Here he was, speaking perfect English, and when I met him he did not speak a word of English. This was a year later.

It goes to show that with the proper services, when the refugees are properly provided with good services, anything is possible. It was a very inspiring day.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lefebvre.

We'll now move to Monsieur Généreux.

Monsieur Généreux, in the second round you have five minutes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, everyone, for being here this morning.

Mr. Manicom, I have a slight problem with what you said a few minutes ago about rural areas. You said that there is still work to be done; that is what I understood from your conclusion. You say that the services are not always provided. I am from La Pocatière, a town of approximately 4,200 people, and we have access to all the public services you have mentioned.

I find it regrettable that, when floods of immigrants arrive, as they did in 2015, there seems to be no system to establish priorities and to allow those immigrants to be brought to the regions. The population of the Bas-Saint-Laurent is aging more than most in Canada, as Rémi Massé, my colleague on this committee and also the member of Parliament for that region, can attest. It is important to invite immigrants arriving in the country to come and settle in rural areas too.

Do you have any strategies, or a plan, to improve this situation, which has occurred as the result of our country's great generosity?

[Marta Morgan]

During this initiative, we have seen a great deal of enthusiasm across the country for welcoming Syrian refugees, including in rural areas and small communities. We have created programs outside Quebec, because the Quebec government has his own programs and makes its own decisions as to where the immigrants go.

We established eight new organizations to welcome the refugees to smaller communities in Ontario, on the Prairies, and also in British Columbia to respond specifically to the enthusiasm shown by rural communities and to steer new immigrants to smaller communities.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I usually sit on the official languages committee. We invited the Minister and the assistant deputy minister, Stefanie Beck, to our meeting on May 14. My colleague Ms. Rempel asked how many people spoke English or French when they arrived in Canada and Mr. Lefebvre pointed out that he had just met someone who now speaks English very well. The minister then gave the figure of 5%. Are you able to tell us how many people that is? We have welcomed 50,000 Syrian refugees as of today, but, at the time of the meeting, it was between 25,000 and 30,000, and of that number, only 5% spoke English or French.

Are you able to provide the number of those refugees who now speak one of the two languages, particularly in official language minority communities? Are there Syrian refugees who did not speak French when they arrived and do so now?

[Marta Morgan]

I will ask Mr. Kiziltan to answer that.

[Ümit Kiziltan]

According to our survey, 40% of the Syrian refugees spoke English, around 1% spoke French, and almost 60% spoke neither of the two official languages. Of course, there are variations between—

the privately sponsored refugees and the government-assisted refugees.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Have there been any particular efforts to welcome Syrians, even though they may not speak French, into francophone minority communities across Canada?

[David Manicom]

I think you are asking me whether efforts have been made to welcome people into francophone communities.

The government did not establish welcome centres in small communities for sponsored refugees. Given the timelines, we were not able to establish new centres. Most of the Syrian refugees who speak French were welcomed by private sponsors in francophone communities.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Okay.

Do I have any time left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

You have 10 seconds.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I am not necessarily talking about small communities. In Manitoba, for example, there is a large francophone minority community that could have taken immigrants, and probably did so.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

We'll now move to Mr. Massé.

Mr. Massé, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am going to continue along the lines of the questions that our colleague Mr. Généreux was asking.

Before I begin, I must congratulate your respective teams. The commitment we made during the election campaign resulted in a considerable expenditure of energy and resources by the staff in your department. I speak for us all when I congratulate them and celebrate the remarkable work they have done.

As our colleague Mr. Généreux mentioned, making sure that Syrian refugees are integrated clearly means learning the language, either French or English. The report notes an exception in the case of the Government of Quebec, because it runs its own immigration program itself.

I would like to hear what you have to say about the mechanisms that the Government of Quebec has put in place in order to achieve some of the national objectives that have been set. I am curious to understand the mechanism established by the federal government and the Government of Quebec to that end.

[Marta Morgan]

An agreement was reached between the federal government and the Government of Quebec to manage the contributions that the federal government provides to the Government of Quebec for integration services. Funds are actually transferred, and they are then managed by the Government of Quebec. They report on their programs and the results they achieve. We did not reach an agreement with that government that specifies standards or requirements along those lines. This mechanism is more in the form of a grant. The Government of Quebec is free to choose the services it provides and to establish its own priorities.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Now I would like to talk about learning one or other of the official languages. Although there may be no very precise criteria, do the dealings you have had with the Government of Quebec allow you to establish how many of the Syrian refugees the province has received have learned French? I would be curious to find that out.

[Ümit Kiziltan]

First, the agreement between Canada and Quebec is regularly evaluated at a high level. Four years ago, we conducted such an evaluation and we will be starting another one shortly. The evaluation allows us to analyze how services compare, by which I mean the services we provide and the services provided in Quebec.

Second, we have no data on the number of refugees who have learned French, but there are working groups where all aspects of the matter are discussed.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Okay, thank you.

Deputy Minister, in your opening remarks, you mentioned that the department has invested more than $27 million to increase the availability of language training. I would like to know more about that. Can you give us some details, specifically about the mechanisms established with that funding, with a view to increasing the availability of language training services?

The Office of the Auditor General also mentioned issues related to waiting lists. What specifically has been done with that amount of $27 million to increase language services?

[Marta Morgan]

Recently, we have added 2,500 new training seats for

language training, and we have established processes designed to help the refugees with their children, with their transportation, and so on, so that they are able to take advantage of the training.

We are also in the process of strengthening our practices for directing learners to other classes when some are full. That allows us to reduce wait-times. We have invested in informal learning to bring people in the community together with refugees or to establish conversation groups.

We are doing a lot to make sure that the refugees have access to those services.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

You're out of time, but I'll give you a supplementary. Did you have one quick question?

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

No, I'm fine. I could have gone for a couple more minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Now, we'll go back to Mr. Nuttall.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

One of the things I heard on the ground was with regard to services related to employment. I know it's not directly covered here, but when you are looking at the basic needs and the service providers you have in the field—for instance, I know the YMCA is one of the organizations that works with you—is there an emphasis put on employment services as well?

[David Manicom]

Yes, absolutely. With a refugee population like the Syrians, we're always brokering a little the challenging decision point as to whether they should focus on language acquisition first, or focus on getting into the workplace. We increased our overall funding in the settlement program by quite a lot. Naturally, given the profile of this population, a lot of our emphasis was on initial official language acquisition, but we've developed a number of bridge to work programs. There is a very large and growing one in Ontario, for example.

A number of programs try to enable the newcomers to move from survival-level jobs into higher-level jobs. There is programming directly from our department, as well as links to programming of other government departments, such as ESDC. Specifically for the refugee population, we were focused on language acquisition first, and then programs to help them develop pathways into the workplace.