PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa—Opposition parties are blasting the government over $53 million in cuts to settlement services like language classes for immigrants but no one questioned why tripling funding for those services from $200 million to $600 million only increased the number of people using those services by 31 percent.
The figures emerged during testimony from senior officials from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) on Tuesday morning as opposition parties demanded an explanation for cuts to settlement services, particularly in Ontario, where the highest percentage of immigrants will settle.
Although the province will claim the lion’s share of settlement funding with some $345 million for 2011-12, Catrina Tapley, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, told the committee it would also feel the cuts most acutely.
That is largely because Ontario’s cuts are compounded by the sunset of a special deal that saw the province get more money for settlement services per capita than other provinces besides Quebec. The rest of Canada has its settlement services funding determined by a formula that takes note of where immigrants land, though CIC also keeps track of where immigrants eventually settle, adjusting for migration within Canada.
“This is an opportunity to move toward the principle of national fairness in funding,” said Tapley. She said the $53 million in cuts came out of a strategic review of settlement services.
That explanation did little to assuage the concerns of Liberal MPs, who argued that needs have not declined with immigration levels remaining at historic highs.
Without language classes and help adjusting to their new country, new Canadians are more likely to fall behind, Liberal Immigration critic Justin Trudeau told The Epoch Times.
“These people are going to end up on welfare, they are going to end up calling on social services. It costs less to give them language training, to give them the help they need to integrate,” he said.
Trudeau said the fact that the uptake in services only increased by 31 percent despite three times the funding becomes less relevant over the long term.
“It depends on how you define value. Over the course of a couple of years, a new Canadian will develop tremendously better skills, language, and then they can start integrating.”
“Let’s stop looking at it on a five-year horizon—let’s look at it on a ten-year horizon. Let’s actually look at something in a realistic way. What has been studied and demonstrated time and time again is that you cannot simply say you have arrived, here is a package, two weeks later you are a CEO or a middle manager, or contributing to your full potential. There is a learning curve.”
He said it takes time for new programs to take effect, and the increase in uptake is a positive sign.
Immigrant Voting in Flux
The cuts come at a time when voting patterns among non-Canadian born are less certain than in the past, said Frank Graves, founder of EKOS Research Associates polling firm.
While immigrant Canadians historically voted Liberal, that has changed in recent years and the Conservatives gained ground in the immigrant vote during the last election.
“Certainly better than they did historically,” said Graves.
The pollster said the immigrant vote can be the difference between being in government or opposition, or holding a minority or majority of parliament.
“That portion of the electorate is growing much more quickly than other parts.”
He said they are also more politically active than in the past and better mobilized to play a role in upcoming elections.
The Liberals had been ahead among non-Canadian born in recent months, but have lost that advantage as the Conservatives pulled ahead in all categories, said Graves.
Cost of Uptake
Part of the reason for the costs growing faster than the uptake was because the quality of programming had improved and that service providers were trying to reach people with higher barriers to participating in programs, said Tapley in an interview after the committee.
She said some of the increased spending went to infrastructure improvements, while some went to provide additional services like childcare and transportation so mothers and others who could not otherwise attend were able to take advantage of settlement services.
Unfortunately, some groups that made infrastructure investments or expanded their capacity to provide those services are now finding their funding cut, but their leases remain.
Marion Newrick told the committee that her group, the Community Action Resource Centre in the west end of Toronto, was informed via form letter that its funding would end on March 31.
She said the Afghan Association, which supports some of the 1,500 interpreters who helped Canadian forces in Kandahar, will be left with a lease debt of more than $300,000.
“This community can never recover from this level of debt,” she said.
