CIMM - Settlement Program and Resettlement Assistance Program

Key Messages

• Ensuring that newcomers to Canada are well supported and can succeed is a national project; it’s about building Canada.
• Through the Settlement Program and Resettlement Assistance Program managed by my Department, eligible newcomers receive the information they need about life in Canada, the community in which they will settle, language training, finding a job, and making connections with established immigrants and Canadians.
• The Resettlement Assistance Program provides immediate and essential services, such as temporary housing, to address the specific needs of government-assisted refugees and other eligible clients.

Supplementary Messages

• The foundation of these programs and their delivery rests on the partnerships the Department has with civil society organizations, as well as the provinces, territories and the private sector.
• Settlement Program clients have positive outcomes, with nearly all clients agreeing that service referrals they received were useful and the majority agreeing that IRCC-funded services changed their knowledge of life and employment in Canada.

Visible Minority Newcomer Women Pilot

• The Visible Minority Newcomer Women Pilot was launched in December 2018 to:
  • expand existing services that support visible minority newcomer women;
  • establish new partnerships, including with organizations led by visible minority women, and test new approaches to increase employment opportunities; and
  • evaluate and test the effectiveness of employment-related services for visible minority newcomer women.
• The Government is funding 21 organizations from across the country that understand visible minority newcomer women, the barriers they face and their circumstances. These organizations are undertaking projects over the next two years that will:
  • develop and test innovative approaches to enable visible minority newcomer women to find a job and succeed at work;
  • support smaller organizations to increase their capacity to serve visible minority newcomer women and enable them to overcome barriers to employment; and
  • increase the digital literacy of visible minority newcomer women to access and advance within the Canadian labour market.

National Call for Proposals

• The National Call for Proposals is a fair and transparent competitive process that identifies service providers that will maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of settlement and integration services for the benefit of newcomers and Canada as a whole.
• More than 800 projects were selected for funding through the 2019 National Call for Proposals process. The projects represent the most comprehensive set of supports and services that have ever been offered in Canada, and they will meet the evolving needs of newcomers, although the demand for funding has been much greater than anticipated.
• The organizations chosen through the process, including 79 new service providers, will deliver services and activities that use resources effectively and are client‑centred, outcomes-driven and responsive to newcomers’ needs.

Service Providers Organizations with concerns about funding

• As the needs of newcomers and the services that will best support them continue to evolve, IRCC and the service provider organizations it funds must adapt and grow to meet these changing demands.
• We understand that organizations who were not successful may be disappointed. IRCC strongly encourages them to apply to future funding opportunities that may be relevant to them.
• Settlement funding allocations are primarily based on the proportion of immigrants landing in a particular jurisdiction, which can demonstrate where needs are greater. Fewer new arrivals and a decreasing proportion relative to other provinces and territories can result in reduced funding.
• Total funding has increased in 2020‒2021, and although most provinces and territories will see an increase in investment in their jurisdictions, allocations for Alberta and Manitoba have decreased slightly compared to the previous year.

Canada–Quebec Accord

• The Canada–Quebec Accord provides the Government of Quebec with an annual grant, which is calculated using a formula set out in the Accord. The grant covers settlement services, resettlement services and administration for which Quebec is responsible.

Progress on Recommendations from CIMM Settlement Services Report

• My Department has been taking steps to improve settlement programming. The actions we are implementing address the 16 recommendations issued by this Committee in your report, “Improving Settlement Services across Canada.”

Supporting Facts and Figures

• The Government provides substantial funding for the Settlement Program (outside Quebec). Investments have increased from $200M in 2005-2006 to approximately $785M in 2019-2020.
• Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, the Government of Canada provides funding to Quebec for settlement, resettlement, and administration. In 2018-2019, the grant was $559.4M.
• Budget 2018 committed $31.9M over three years to support opportunities for visible minority newcomer women to thrive and succeed in the Canadian economy.
• The Government also proposed an additional $9M investment to strengthen the Visible Minority Newcomer Women Pilot.
• The Settlement Program uses a third-party service delivery model, with about 550 service provider organizations.
• In 2018-2019, nearly 520,000 clients accessed at least one settlement service, a 13.5% increase in clients served from 2017-2018 and a 22% increase since 2016-2017.

Background

IRCC Settlement Program:

• The objectives of the Settlement Program are to:
  • provide appropriate support and services for eligible immigrants to assist in their settlement and long-term integration in Canada;
  • equip immigrants to contribute economically and enrich the social and cultural fabric of Canada; and
  • encourage participation by a range of players (e.g., communities, schools and other public institutions, employers, Canadian citizens) in the provision of settlement services and fostering an integrated society.

IRCC Resettlement Assistance Program:

• The Resettlement Assistance Program provides supports and services to address the immediate and essential needs of government-assisted refugees and other eligible clients being resettled to Canada, such as provision of temporary accommodations, initial start-up costs and income supports for up to 12 months or 24 months for high needs cases.

IRCC Settlement and Resettlement Assistance Programs Call for Proposals 2019:

• The call for proposals is the main vehicle used by the Department to solicit proposals to deliver resettlement assistance, settlement and integration services to all eligible newcomers for up to five years.
• This call for proposals, in conjunction with specialized funding envelopes including the Visible Minority Newcomer Women Pilot, Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023, Service Delivery Improvement Fund, Gender Based Violence fund and Pre-Arrival Services, highlight the Department’s commitment to ensure fair access to high quality settlement services.

IRCC’s Settlement Program Outcomes:

• Recognizing the growth in immigration levels and settlement funding, IRCC will continue to demonstrate responsible and sound stewardship of its grants and contributions funding envelope. Performance measurement, evaluations, assessment of value for money, and service delivery improvement projects all help drive the program toward increased efficiency and effectiveness to better serve clients.
• Surveys of settlement clients and non-clients and increased data and new linkages, like the one between the settlement client service usage data (iCARE) and the longitudinal immigration database (tax filer data) are key to understanding how clients are progressing, which will provide a picture of clients’ economic outcomes.

Committed to Ensure Quality and Effective French-language Settlement Services:

• In March 2018, the 2018-2023 Action Plan for Official Languages allocated $41M over five years to enhance Francophone migration and improve settlement services for French-speaking newcomers outside Quebec through a consolidated Francophone Integration Pathway ($36.6M), as well as enhanced horizontal coordination and accountability within IRCC ($4.2M). This funding is complementary to the Settlement Base funding dedicated to the provision of services in French.