Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, today announced allocations for federal funding of settlement services in all provinces and territories outside Quebec for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
“The Government of Canada wants newcomers to integrate into Canada. That is why we have tripled settlement funding since 2005-06,” said Minister Kenney. “We are committed to ensuring the distribution of settlement funding is fair and that immigrants receive the same level of service, regardless of where they choose to settle.”
Settlement funding is distributed to serve the needs of newcomers, as a result of a national settlement funding formula that is based on a province or territory's share of immigrant intake.
This formula now applies in all provinces and territories except Quebec and reflects that, when compared to the other provinces and territories, Ontario's proportional share of new immigrants in Canada has gone from 64% in 2005 to 52% in 2010, as more newcomers have chosen to settle in Western and Atlantic Canada.
The funding formula was also updated recently to reflect the use of settlement services by refugees and will increase the amount allocated to provinces and territories, based on their intake of refugees.
“We believe it is only fair that settlement allocations across Canada should be based on the share of newcomers that provinces and territories have,” noted Minister Kenney. “As a result, most provinces and territories will receive an increase in settlement funding.”
Based on the current allocations, the average per-immigrant amount that the Government of Canada will invest to help immigrants in provinces and territories outside Quebec is $2,816, as compared to $946 in 2005.
The priority for the 2012-13 allocations is to focus on delivering services directly to immigrants and away from supporting expenses such as administration, travel, or capital costs for organizations.
The total 2012-13 amount for all provinces and territories outside Quebec is $576.8M, compared to $184.7M in 2005-06.
The allocation for settlement services in Ontario will be $314.9M for the 2012-13 fiscal year.
As Ontario enters into the national settlement funding formula, CIC plans to fund, in 2012-13, at least 90% of the 261 settlement service providers currently funded in the province and, as it determines precise numbers, will wrap up all contribution agreements with the remaining organizations. The majority of the agreements that will end are time-limited projects due to finish March 31, 2012.
Immigration Forum
