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

To help newcomers settle, adapt and integrate into Canadian society, Canadian government, in partnership with provinces, territories and settlement providers, has been delivering programs and services to migrants, and providing stakeholders necessary funding to support these initiatives.

For this purpose, a new settlement funding of over $28 million has been announced to help fourteen partner agencies delivering settlement and integration services to new immigrants in Ontario. This funding, which is provided under the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA), is expected to help more than 33,000 migrants who have settled in different parts of the province. The beneficiaries will include the following:

WoodGreen Community Services will receive $3.8 million for providing variety of services, including specialized language training and programs for youth, to more than 8,300 immigrants in Toronto. This is in addition to more than $1.9 million provided to this agency earlier this year to help establish a new language training facility.

The Ethiopian Association will receive more than $2.2 million for providing settlement services, including help finding a job, to an estimated 7,232 newcomers, language training to 156 students and child-minding spaces to 16 parents, of particularly Ethiopian origin, in the Greater Toronto Area and the surrounding regions.

Lebanese and Arab Social Services Agency (LASSA) will receive a total of $1.2 million for delivering settlement services, including orientation, interpretation, referrals to community resources, advice, guidance and employment-related assistance to an estimated 3,300 newcomers, mostly from Arabic-speaking community, in the capital city of Ottawa.

A funding of more than $11 million will be provided to Settlement and Integration Services Organization ($9,105,346), Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology ($848,295), Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board ($103,315) and AAT School ($1,404,323) to help an estimated 5,000 newcomers to Hamilton access settlement services such as language training, referrals to community resources and help finding a job. Some of the language training offered by these organizations will focus on occupation-specific language needs. This training will be complemented by job-bridging, mentoring and job-shadowing opportunities.

Another funding of more than $10.4 million will be provided to COSTI Immigrant Services ($1,340,691), Welcome Centre Immigrant Services in Vaughan ($936,431), Catholic Community Services of York Region ($5,792,479), Centre for Information and Community Services of Ontario ($947,641), Jewish Immigrant Aid Services ($35,874), Job Skills ($625,607), The Cross-Cultural Community Services Association ($426,737) and York Region Education/Industry Foundation and Career Centre ($387,177) to help an estimated 9,700 newcomers to the York region access settlement services. The services will include helping migrants find jobs (such as job-search workshops) 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.

These funding for settlement and language training to Ontario are provided under the $920 million COIA over five years and are part of $1.4 billion package over five years to provinces and territories other than Quebec, which was committed by the Canadian federal government in budget 2006.