Refugee settlement teams to be created throughout province
What was expected to be several thousand Syrian refugees arriving in B.C. by year’s end is now down to just over 200, and it is still unclear how many more will be coming to the province, or when.
Federal Immigration Minister John McCallum and B.C. Jobs Minister Shirley Bond held a joint news conference in Surrey on Wednesday to provide an update on the province’s plans to accommodate its share of the 25,000 Syrian refugees the Trudeau government has committed to bringing to Canada by the end of February. But neither minister could say how many would settle in B.C.
“The only number that I can give you today that I have had confirmed is that we will receive 217 privately sponsored refugees by the end of the year. ... You have to remember, they’re still processing people in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, so this is very fluid, very complicated,” Bond said in an interview.
While it is possible that “a few” government-assisted refugees will arrive in B.C. this year, Bond said, the majority are expected in January and February, when Ottawa expects to bring 15,000 to Canada.
McCallum could not say how many of those would come to B.C.
“One of the things we talked about today with Minister McCallum … obviously we can better serve refugees if we know when they’re coming and who’s coming,” Bond said.
McCallum was in Surrey, the city the most refugees in B.C. call home, to work with provincial and municipal officials on refugee settlement plans and to recognize the contributions of two Lower Mainland groups who have stepped forward to help out — the Lower Mainland’s Sikh community and developer Ian Gillespie of Westbank Projects.
Tony Singh, owner of the Fruiticana grocery chain, has offered free groceries to Syrian refugees for three months, and the Khalsa School in Surrey has offered free tuition to $1,000 Syrian refugee students. More than 20 Sikh temples throughout Metro Vancouver are collecting blankets, clothing, cash and other supplies for the incoming refugees and some offer free meals as well.
Gillespie offered 12 fully furnished apartment units to Syrian refugees over the next four months, and Westbank will also provide groceries during that time, spokeswoman Rhiannon Mabberley said, adding that they expect the first families to arrive as early as Monday.
Bond announced at the event that the B.C. government’s $1-million refugee fund will pay for teams of support workers to prepare for Syrian arrivals in five areas of the province and help the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. co-ordinate the services they will need.
Half the money will be used to fund five refugee readiness teams who will plan for the settlement of refugees in their communities. The teams will include representatives from settlement organizations, private sponsors, churches, schools, health-care providers and employers. They are expected to be based in the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Okanagan and Cariboo, but locations are contingent on where refugees ultimately settle, Bond said.
The province will provide the other $500,000 to the Immigrant Services Society of B.C., which is responsible for resettling refugees who are sponsored by the government. The money will allow the organization to create an online hub to connect private sponsors, settlement workers, counsellors and other service providers throughout the province to the information they need to support refugees. It will also allow them to track donations and offers of volunteer services, employment and housing needs, and set up support services for medical personnel who treat traumatized refugees. These will include a telephone consultation line and trauma-needs assessment tool, the announcement said.
Up to $1.5 million will also be available through the Canada-B.C. Job Grant to help all new Canadians find work, with twothirds of that money specifically earmarked for refugees. The money will fund specialized language and cultural training to prepare refugees for B.C. workplaces, a service to match refugees with employers, and up to $10,000 per person for job-specific skills training.
She also committed $2.6 million for job-specific language training. A common complaint among recently arrived immigrants is months-long waits for English classes.
“The thing that we heard about most in our roundtable today was how essential it is that we quickly have refugees acquire language skills,” Bond said. “For example, if you are a construction worker in Syria, how do you acquire the language skills to continue to work when you are here in Canada? So there will be a large number of organizations across the province which will each receive a portion of that funding, but I can tell you today that $1.27 million of that funding will be provided here in the Lower Mainland.”