The federal government's decision to cut funding services for newcomers brought Retta Alemayehu to tears Thursday, Dec. 23.
The executive director of the Ethiopian Association in the Greater Toronto Area and Surrounding Regions, Alemayehu learned on Dec. 14 that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) would no longer be funding the organization's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program or its Immigrant Settlement Adaptation Services (ISAP) program."When the CIC funding is gone our backbone will be broken," Alemayehu said in an interview Dec. 23.The Ethiopian Association, located on Danforth Avenue, has been providing the services to new immigrants from not only Ethiopia, but from all over the world since 1993. Earlier this year it, along with hundreds of other organizations, submitted a proposal for funding to continue offering those services. Alemayehu said he was shocked to receive the letter denying their application."There was no explanation," he said. "It just said they weren't going to continue with the agreement."Close to 85 per cent of the association's funding comes from the federal government, which not only goes to fund the LINC and ISAP programs but also to help cover rent and pay for staffing - including Alemayehu's own salary."If those are gone then we don't have 85 per cent of our budget that we need," he said.Without the CIC money 18 of the association's 26 staff members will have to be let go and thousands of clients will have to find services elsewhere. Close to 2,500 people access settlement services through the organization, things such as counselling, housing assistance or referrals, and another 200 to 300 people receive language assistance through LINC. On Thursday LINC students held a holiday party and seeing the students and staff celebrating made Alemayehu emotional."This is a very bad time," he said. "I wept today seeing my workers."The federal government has faced criticism for the funding decisions, but in a teleconference Thursday afternoon Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, defended the decision. He said the money was just following the people and while Ontario used to receive the majority of immigrants in Canada in recent years the numbers have decreased as newcomers have settled in other provinces such as Alberta."We have to make some adjustments in the funding across Canada to make sure the money is following the immigrants," he said.Last year Ontario was the first destination for 106,000 immigrants, down from 145,000 in 2005.Alemayehu argued while this might be true, within six months many immigrants leave other cities and end up in Toronto so the funding cuts mean there won't be the programs to support these secondary migrants.Kenney also said the overall decrease in Toronto in funding was just eight per cent as some funding that used to go to organizations such as Alemayehu's will now go to others who scored better in the CIC assessments. The 700 funding proposals were reviewed based on a number of factors: project relevance; cost effectiveness and value for money; organizational capacity and governance (including a review of past experience with CIC); programming priorities; project feasibility, meeting client outcomes and addressing needs; and an organization's track record in demonstrating financial accountability and report.Because Alemayehu didn't receive a reason for the funding decision he could only speculate and one rumour he heard was because the Ethiopian Association only serves one group of people, which he said isn't true."It's serving people coming from all over the world," he said. In total 10 agencies in the GTA have had their funding axed."The reality is the services will continue to be offered by other organizations that scored better on our assessment." Kenney said.The provincial government has stepped in to criticize the federal government for the cuts, which across the province mean a decrease in funding from $390 million to $346 million.