Canada announces new funding to help newcomers settle in Ontario and improve language skills

To help newcomers settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), in partnership with provinces, territories and settlement providers, has been delivering programs and services to migrants of more than 40 nationalities for over 16 years, and providing stakeholders necessary funding to support these initiatives.

For this purpose, a new settlement funding of over $30 million has been announced to help 16 partner agencies delivering settlement and integration services to new immigrants in the city of Toronto, Ontario. This funding, which is provided under the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA), will cover the period of next two years through to 2010, and expected to help more than 10,000 migrants who have settled in Canada’s largest city. The services will include helping migrants find jobs and assisting them in getting general orientation, translation and interpretation services. The funding will also help migrants with referrals to community resources and counseling services.

The 16 partner agencies in the city of Toronto, who will receive a portion of $30 million, include Center for Information & Community Services Ontario ($3,628,753), Community Microskills Development Center ($1,537,453), COSTI Immigrant Services ($3,772,100), JobStart ($551,573), Midaynta Community Services ($1,163,436), Northwood Neighborhood Services ($933,270), Polycultural Immigrant and Community Services ($2,530,593), Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Center ($1,284,295), Skills for Change ($1,867,349), South Asian Family Support Services ($1,397,171), South Asian Women’s Center ($197,697), The Cross Cultural Community Services Association ($908,464), Woodgreen Community Services ($2,894,789), Working Women Community Center ($1,754,157), YMCA of Greater Toronto ($4,869,263) and York Weston Community Services Center ($778,775).

Another funding of $2 million has been announced for the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Center at the occasion of Chinese New Year to assist in delivering settlement and integration services to newcomers in Ottawa-Carleton Region. This funding, to be spent over two and a half years, is expected to serve more than 7,000 people with settlement services such as language training, counseling, general information and employment-related support.

Similarly, at the start of Vietnamese Lunar New Year, a new funding of over $2.5 million has also been announced for three Vietnamese organizations serving newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The funding will go to the Vietnamese Association of Toronto ($1,850,988) and the Vietnamese Women’s Association of Toronto ($235,683) for delivering settlement services to more than 650 newcomers in Toronto’s Parkdale neighborhood and in North York. The Vietnamese Community Center of Mississauga ($454,188) will also receive funding to provide language training to at least 45 immigrants in the community. The settlement services that these organizations provide include orientation, translation and interpretation services, language training, referrals to community resources, counseling, and employment services. In addition, as announced in May 2007, the Government of Canada is also committed to facilitating the immigration of Vietnamese living in the Philippines without status since the late 1970s.

Flexibility Learning Systems of Lethbridge, Ontario will also receive a funding of $1.3 million, which will go towards developing and delivering more flexible language training and literacy programs, over the next three years, to meet the increasingly diverse needs of newcomers. The funding is being provided under the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program, and expected to serve more than 650 newcomers in this area.

These fundings for settlement and language training to Ontario are provided under the $920 million COIA over five years and are part of $1.3 billion package over five years to provinces and territories other than Quebec, which was committed by the Canadian federal government in budget 2006.