IRCC has released the findings of CFP 2024 Stakeholder consultations, wherein they found that they will have to extend services to temporary residents.
IRCC runs the Settlement Program & Resettlement Assistance Program to help newcomers adapt to their new life in Canada. The department partners with organizations nationwide to ensure that newcomers/ immigrants get the assistance they need.
IRCC is responsible for funding many of these programs. The CFP, i.e., Call For Proposals, enables IRCC to establish settlement & resettlement programs, which will significantly impact newcomers. Moreover, the most impactful programs are most likely to be allocated funding. The main purpose of the consultations was for IRCC to get feedback from the settlement sector on the changes being considered for CFP 2024.
The Canadian government spends some $2 billion a year on these settlement services. In addition, IRCC consults service providers organizations & a few non-IRCC funded organizations & officials from territorial & provincial governments in order to understand how they can provide support.
Settlement program services include providing newcomers with information & referrals, language training, & finding employment and housing. This is integral as Canada will welcome over 500,000 new permanent residents by the end of 2025. Well, this number could change somewhat in the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan 2024 – 25.
Moreover, this year, over 1,187 people participated in consultations to extend services to temporary residents. Participants had to help recognize & offer feedback on departmental priorities & resettlement sectors where they feel there are opportunities for improvement.
The findings were compiled through seven different webinars. Furthermore, IRCC seeks input on priority areas for CFP 2024. These include:
- Right services
- Right Clients
- Innovation & outcomes
- Francophone integration pathway
- Right time
Major Areas For Improvement
Participants stated that there is a need to expand the eligibility of settlement services to temporary residents seeking permanent residence. This includes temporary foreign workers & foreign students.
Interestingly, most IRCC-funded settlement services focus on permanent inhabitants, their dependents & spouses, & approved asylum claimants. The most recent population data by Statistics Canada shows that there are over 2.2 million temporary residents in Canada.
Marc Miller has estimated that there will be around 900,000 international students in Canada by the end of this year. Additionally, over 1.4 million individuals will live in Canada on a work permit.
Moreover, expanding services to temporary residents would be possible, provided the government’s willingness to support Ukrainian temporary inhabitants who came to Canada through CUAET. Well, this support is also available to temporary residents who participate in AIP.
AIP is a unique economic immigration program in Atlantic Canada.
In addition, the report also noted that in each webinar, participants mentioned difficulties in attracting & retaining qualified staff. They asserted that improved access to mental health support could benefit clients and the staff. This includes additional training for the staff when newcomers are having mental health issues, specifically among refugees, so that they can be referred for further assessment.
For instance, participants spoke of the need for a centralized process in order to ensure that all newcomers are aware of the settlement services available to them, beginning from the pre-arrival stage of their immigration journey. Well, some also mentioned that assessment must be ongoing instead of just the intake phase.
Moreover, participants recommended that IRCC allows more flexibility in how funding is administered so that search provider organizations (SPOs) can adapt better to the client’s needs.
The flexibility would enable providers to adapt to urgent, short-term needs instead of waiting for the next five-year funding cycle to begin.
Reporting Requirements Burdensome For SPOs
The report also reveals that participants believe that reporting to IRCC is overly focused on quantitative metrics when it must be measuring client impact & successes.
Moreover, participants suggested that there is too much reporting on quantitative metrics instead of client impacts & successes. They say indirect services have positive benefits, which they suggested aren’t captured in iCARE.
In addition, smaller SPOs do not always have a dedicated human resources department which can devote the necessary time to data collection & reporting. Participants would like to see a more dynamic & flexible database to download & manipulate client data.
Regional Differences
The report concludes by explaining that different regions in Canada have diverse needs to offer support to newcomers.
For instance, Atlantic Canada has almost no public transport alternatives outside the main cities. In such situations, newcomers rely on volunteers to help them meet their basic needs, like buying essentials, finding a place to live, etc. IRCC does not allow SPO funding to be used to reimburse volunteers for transportation costs.
Ontario SPOs call for increased collaboration across organizations, including increased referrals between service providers. Well, this is in addition to more flexible, limited-time funding to respond to crises while managing normal operations. Furthermore, IRCC doesn’t have a dedicated tool to help immigrants/ newcomers find services near them but the prairie provinces & Northwest Territories. They would like to see an app created to help clients locate settlement services to temporary residents & make referrals easier.
Areas Of Strength
Apart from the recommendations mentioned above, the report also highlights where IRCC has successfully supported SPOs.
Participants mentioned an elevated level of collaboration between governments & organizations, i.e., provincial & territorial governments. Moreover, many services were readily available in single locations outside business hours. They also stated that there were successes in offering specialized, culturally sensitive services to temporary residents, like mental health with interpretation support for refugees & ‘by & for’ approach to service delivery to Francophone newcomers.