Canada’s plan to reduce immigration levels leaves newcomer organizations scrambling with ‘off-the-cliff’ funding cuts

Reduced levels means reduced demand for services, so it should not come as a complete surprise to the settlement sector:

Newcomer Oleksandr Krestych and his wife Olena have been taking English classes full-time while working full-time since they arrived from Ukraine in 2022.

The couple — him an orthopedic surgeon and her a dermatologist — know learning the language is key to their success in Canada. They’ve made progress, moving from basic English courses that helped navigate day-to-day life to now focusing on language training for employment and professional communication. 

Every weekday, they attend classes at Enhanced English Skills for Employment in Winnipeg from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. before heading to a 3:30-to-11:30 p.m. job assembling fibre-optic cables in a factory.

“It’s hard and tiring,” said Krestych, 50. “But it helps improve our English so we can get better jobs and improve our life.”

However, after their last class at the end of this month, the couple must find another school — if they can find one with available spots.

Enhanced English Skills for Employment has been informed its current Immigration Department funding agreement, worth $650,000 a year, will not be renewed when it ends on March 31.

Across Canada, excluding Quebec, the Immigration Department is axing funding to organizations that assist newcomers with settlement and integration through employment-related services, language training and community support programs.

The cuts follow the reduction in immigration targets announced by Immigration Minister Marc Miller in October, which aims to welcome 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027 — a 20 per cent drop from 485,000 last year.

The Immigration Department is also reducing the new funding cycle from five to three years, making long-term planning harder for funded agencies. Additionally, it will only continue funding English classes beyond level 4 of the Canadian Language Benchmark until September 2026.

“With funding being tied to the number of past arrivals and future admissions, the funding for settlement services has also been readjusted downward, at first by a small amount in 2025-26 and then further in the following fiscal years,” it told the Star in an email.

Funding allocated for settlement services outside of Quebec will drop from about $1.17B in 2024-25 and $1.12B in 2025-26, it said, adding that funding decisions are based on the number of newcomers expected, the needs for those accessing services, relationships with partner organizations and available resources.

The immigrant settlement sector said it’s been caught off guard by the “off-the-cliff” cuts that were made without consultation and enough time to wind down programs to minimize impacts on clients and staff, most of whom are immigrant women from racialized communities.

“While the funding cuts happened, the folks these agencies are seeing now are not going away,” said Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, which has more than 240 member organizations.

“We don’t anticipate a reduction in service demand, but we certainly will see a reduction in services available.”

Kathryn Friesen, executive of the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies, warns that recent cuts to settlement services funding will leave many newcomers vulnerable amid an economic slowdown and affordability crisis.

Douglas said her member organizations in Ontario are expected to see a modest one per cent reduction in federal settlement funding for 2025 and up to 20 per cent next year. However, the Toronto District School Board is set to lose a third of its federal funding for newcomer language training, closing five learning sites as of March 31 and reducing its program capacity from 2,485 to 1,800 learners. Its enhanced language training programs will be phased out over two years.

Due to the exponential immigration growth following the pandemic, including newcomers from Afghanistan and Ukraine, some service providers have already been struggling with waiting lists for programs, especially in language training.

The Star has learned that Western provinces are hardest hit, though provincial bodies representing the settlement sector are still trying to calculate the extent and impacts of the cuts. Some service providers are desperately trying to find alternative funding sources while making plans to move clients to unaffected agencies.  

In B.C., more than 20 organizations have been completely defunded, with others facing funding reduction ranging from 15 per cent to 75 per cent. In Alberta, some groups faced cuts as deep as 35 per cent. In Manitoba, at least 12 agencies have lost their entire funding.

Kathryn Friesen, executive director of the Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies, said the cuts could not have come at a worse time, as recent newcomers are the most vulnerable to the current affordability crisis, soft job market and economic slowdown.

“It’s a small investment to help people upon arrival reach success a lot sooner than if they’re having to go it alone to navigate so many of the systems that they have to navigate,” said Friesen, whose umbrella group has 60 organizational members.

And newcomers’ journeys are not linear, and they may access supports at different stages of their settlement. 

Karen Sawatzky, executive director of the Hecate Strait Employment Development Society, expresses frustration over losing funding after a decade of service, leaving her remote community in Prince Rupert without crucial settlement support.

“Settlement services continue to be essential to those already here,” said Katie Crocker, CEO of the Affiliations of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC, in a statement. The group is made up of 94 member organizations.

Newcomers “depend on settlement supports to integrate and thrive in their communities. The settlement and integration sector’s specialized and crucial support better equips immigrants to contribute to Canada’s social and economic growth, enriching communities across the country.”

Both large and small agencies are impacted by the cuts. In B.C., for example, the Vancouver Community College has lost its entire $4 million yearly funding for language training for 2,400 students; the Hecate Strait Employment Development Society will have its entire $150,000 support axed.

The latter serves newcomers in remote Prince Rupert, 1,500 kilometres north of Vancouver, and the agency will have to send clients to organizations in Terrace, which is at least 90 minutes away by car.

“We have yet to sit down with someone at immigration and have them tell me why they declined us funding after providing these services for 10 years,” said its executive director Karen Sawatzky.

“They have not given us a clear (transition) plan. I’ve been in touch informally with the other service providers to help each other.” 

At Winnipeg’s Enhanced Language Skills for Employment, its executive director Louise Giesbrecht has to let go of six language instructors and some administration staff. She is knocking on the doors of the province and charitable foundations to fill the impossible gap. 

While her biggest concern is where to send current students and the 400 on the waiting list, she is busy trying to find the money for staff’s accrued vacation pay and closing costs on things such as shedding documents to comply with client privacy terms, emptying offices and getting rid of furniture.

Source: Canada’s plan to reduce immigration levels leaves newcomer organizations scrambling with ‘off-the-cliff’ funding cuts