Citizenship and Immigration committee  Definitely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Honourable members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, good morning to you all. I would like to thank you for the kind invitation. I'm honoured to be here today to speak on behalf of the Catholic Refugee Sponsors Council, CRSC. CRSC provides a national vo

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In previous years the quota was public, so everybody knew which SAH was sponsoring how many. This year, the quota wasn't public.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't know. We asked Minister McCallum last Thursday, and he said that he would look into it. We really don't know who's getting what. For example, the Office for Refugees at the Archdiocese of Toronto sponsored about 2,300 individuals last year, in 2015. They got a quota of

Citizenship and Immigration committee  With the private sponsorships, honestly, I am not aware. Usually families are prepared.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You don't want them to feel entitled that the financial aid is coming at the end of the month. They have to go out and look for work. They can still look for work without knowing English.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the quotas were out about two weeks ago. I'm aware of one SAH that did not get a quota, but probably there is an investigation there. The quotas were out two weeks ago. In the meantime, only Syrian nationals were allowed to be sponsored until the end of March.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The cap was introduced back in 2011-2012 by then Minister Kenney. I believe it was a good thing, because the PSR program was mostly used for sponsoring families, and you have a lot of SAHs that go into the system and submit as many applications as possible—in the thousands. If on

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry, what was...?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, for sure. First of all, as I suggested, I would do away with the GAR program and make it a blended resettlement program. The government could put in financial support for three or six months, instead of for the full year, and deal with private sponsors to do the compassion,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would reduce the financial support from one year to three months, as they're doing in the U.S., and extend it only if the refugee proves that they need it. You don't really want them to feel that they are entitled and have them sit at home and receive a cheque at the end of the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Iraqi applications have been delayed. Now it's moving faster. We met with Minister McCallum last week and apparently they're sending 40 extra staff to Jordan and Lebanon, I believe. They want to clear up the backlog by June or July. The main problem we faced was at the begin

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think so. There was a political decision to bring in 25,000 within a certain time frame, and if you want to make that number you have to compromise on different issues. If numbers are more important than anything else, you will just go to the United Nations, get whatever

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Look at agencies other than the UNHCR. The second largest in the world is ICMC, the International Catholic Migration Commission. They work very closely with the UNHCR. They deal mostly with refugees who do not go to refugee camps but live in the rundown areas in different parts o

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, in a way it shouldn't be religious. However, if you look at refugees in the Middle East, you see that the most vulnerable are converted Muslims. They are more vulnerable than Christians or Yazidis. Atheists are more vulnerable. Then you have the Yazidis, then Mandaeans—