OTTAWA -- With federal benefits about to run out for thousands of Syrian immigrants, the Senate human rights committee is raising concerns about those people shifting on to provincial welfare rolls.
The flood of 30,000 newcomers, both government and privately sponsored, are quickly closing in on their one-year anniversaries, when supplementary benefits will expire and many could be left dependent upon provincial assistance.
"It's not only this (federal) government that has to pay attention, it's every provincial and territorial government that has to pay attention," committee chairman Sen. Jim Munson said at a news conference.
"When you're off-loading the breaks and benefits you've got now and you're giving them to the provinces by the thousands, are we sure the provinces are ready?"
The cross-partisan Senate committee, which includes five Conservative appointees, two Liberals and two unaffiliated senators, says the federal government has to ensure that language training is provided so the Syrians can successfully join the work force and society.
Another 20,000 Syrian refugee applications are in the works.
Among other provisions, the committee is recommending that additional language training be complemented by daycare to make it easier for parents to attend.
The senators are also concerned about mental health provisions for the refugees, many of whom fled terrible fighting and suffer from post traumatic stress compounded by their isolation in a new country.
They'd like to see more effort by the Canada Revenue Agency to ensure refugee parents quickly qualify for the Canada child benefit, and the committee is also concerned over unequal treatment of government loans for refugee travel, saying the loans should be forgiven or -- at minimum -- be interest-free.
But access to training in English or French is an overriding issue concern.
"Language, language, language. This is the issue for them," said Munson.
In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Immigration Minister John McCallum said Ottawa added another $18 million to refugee language training programs last month.
Sen. Thanh Hai Ngo, who arrived in Canada as a Vietnamese refugee in 1975, said the overwhelming response the committee heard from Syrians is their desire to work and contribute -- and that learning one of Canada's official languages is the key.
Ngo said the Senate can't tell the federal government what to spend, but floated a figure of $200 million in needed new funding. That's on top of the estimated $1 billion the overall program will cost over six years, according to last March's federal budget.
Ngo said there were no assistance programs when he arrived in Canada and he lauded the "excellent" short-term help now provided to refugees.
"If you help them, you help them to the end," said the multilingual senator. "You don't leave them in the middle of the street and say, 'OK, I've done my job."'
Ontario alone has taken in more than 14,000 Syrian refugees since this time last year, when the first government plane carrying refugees arrived at Pearson International Airport.
Since then, more than 5,500 adults have received language assessments and have taken part in free language training in the province and more than 4,600 children have been registered in school.
Ontario has allocated more than $10 million over 2 1/2 years for resettlement and related supports, in addition to $2 million it contributed for immediate overseas relief.
The committee was told that about 12 per cent of federally sponsored refugees have found some form of employment and more than half of privately sponsored refugees have a job.
Sen. Salma Ataullahjan, the committee's deputy chair, said senators did not hear any evidence of a brewing backlash against the Syrians as they transition off federal assistance on to provincial welfare.
"But I can't speak to the future," she said.
The Liberal government announced in October that it has a target of 300,000 new arrivals in 2017 -- the same number established this year on a temporary basis to accommodate the additional Syrian refugees.
The Liberals have effectively reduced the number of refugees being targeted for next year to 40,000 from 55,800. At the same time, the government is increasing the number of economic immigrants to 172,500 from 160,600.
