Canada announces new funding to strengthen support for women and the economy

To help immigrant women settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society, the Canadian government, in partnership with settlement agencies, has been delivering customized and culturally sensitive support in their process of settlement and integration in Canada, and providing stakeholders necessary funding to support these initiatives.

For this purpose, a new funding of over $3.4 million has been announced to help 4 partner agencies delivering settlement and integration services to new immigrant women in Ontario and Alberta. The services will include helping migrant women find jobs and assisting them in getting general orientation, referrals to community resources and counseling services. The funding will also help migrant women acquire training for non-traditional careers.

In Toronto, YMCA Korean Community Services and the Korean Canadian Women’s Association (KCWA) Family and Social Services will receive $684,000 jointly. The funding will be used to deliver settlement assistance to approximately 1,600 newcomer women, including help in finding a job, language training and counseling.

This settlement funding to a Toronto-based organization is being provided under the $920 million Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA), which was committed by the Canadian federal government in budget 2006.

As part of $1.4 billion ‘additional settlement funding package’ to provinces and territories other than Quebec, the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association in Calgary will receive a total of $1,460,142 to assist in delivering settlement services to immigrant women, including orientation, referrals to community resources, general information and employment-related assistance. This funding will specifically be used to provide newcomer women with one-on-one counseling services to help them as they transition to their new lives.The funding is expected to serve more than 1,000 newcomer women.

For 2008–2009, Alberta will be receiving more than $47 million in basic settlement funding.

Women Building Futures (WBF) Training Center of Alberta will also receive an additional investment of more than $1.3 million, which will go towards extending the pre-apprenticeship training facility to more low-income women. This 16 week training program help women reach their full potential in non-traditional careers and supply apprenticeship-ready women worker for Alberta’s construction industry. This investment will further assist the conversion of a 45,000 square-foot warehouse into a teaching center to support the WBF training program and accept more trainees.

So far, WBF has graduated more than 250 low-income women. After the extension in training facility, which is scheduled to open in April 2008, WBF can increase its capacity to help 400 women per year become qualified apprentices and skilled workers, which will strengthen Alberta's labor force. WBF is recognized by industry as a supplier of quality, apprenticeship-ready tradespeople. The new funding of more than $1.3 million will bring total federal funding to $2,493,977.