More staff going to help process Syria refugees, military may help: McCallum

Immigration minister told private sponsors as many as 10,000 Syrians would arrive by early next year

By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press Posted: May 05, 2016 1:26 PM ET Last Updated: May 05, 2016 1:26 PM ET

Existing and retired staff from the immigration department are to head overseas this month to begin handling hundreds of applications submitted by private groups across the country, Immigration Minister John McCallum said Wednesday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Talks with the military to provide assistance in bringing thousands more Syrian refugees to Canada are under way as the Liberal government appears to be spooling up efforts to make good on a promise to private sponsorship groups.

Existing and retired staff from the Immigration Department are set to head overseas this month to begin working through hundreds of applications submitted by private groups across the country, Immigration Minister John McCallum said Wednesday.

• McCallum sending more staff to Jordan and Lebanon to boost refugee intake
• Syrian refugees turn to food banks as they struggle to cope with high cost of living
• Syrian refugees not arriving quickly enough say B.C. private sponsors

"We're doing everything we can to honour our commitment to deliver the refugees who had been applied for by March 30," McCallum said.

McCallum committed to private groups to bring as many as 10,000 Syrians by the end of this year or early next, a response to the outcry that erupted when the government's massive Syrian refugee resettlement program ended and the processing of applications returned to a far slower pace.

Hundreds of groups protested, saying they'd raising thousands of dollars, rented apartments and lined up other supports for Syrians under the assumption that while the large-scale airlifts might be over, helping Syrians would remain a top priority for government.

The fact it was now going to take more than a year to bring people over left many groups frustrated.

The government had resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada between November and the end of February by deploying hundreds of staff overseas to process applications, including members of the Canadian Forces who helped handled medical and security screening.

Military role

What role the military could play in the second round hasn't been decided, McCallum said.

"I don't know if military people will go back or not but we're in close conservation with them and certainly people from my department, and some retired people, are going to be doing back certainly this month," he said.

Officials at the Department of National Defence said they couldn't comment on what they're prepared to contribute.
Since the end of February, 1,859 Syrian refugees have arrived in Canada -- at one point, that number was arriving in just a few days as part of the Liberal commitment.

But one of the major problems created by the surge in arrivals under that commitment appears to be easing: about 93 per cent of government assisted refugees brought to Canada by the Liberals are now in permanent housing.

In Ottawa, that milestone was reached on April 14 and now the focus is moving to making sure people can keep the homes they've found.

"Newcomer families are already disproportionately represented in our family shelter system," said Carl Nicholson, executive director of Catholic Centre for Immigrants.

"So it's absolutely critical that we invest in helping this newest and biggest community of newcomers avoid the need for shelter support."

His and two other Ottawa agencies received a $450,000 grant Wednesday from Community Foundations of Canada Welcome Fund for Refugees, a fund seeded by corporate donations from Manulife, CN and GM.

Some of the money will go towards rent subsidies and the rest for mental health initiatives and programs to help Syrians find jobs.

The Source:http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/more-staff-to-process-syria-refugees-1.3568136

Comment:

"Reality 101

The attached article about the processing of Syrian refugees confirms two core realties that Minister McCallum is employing when making policy judgment calls:

• Canada simply does not have the staff to process applications

• Priority  in the devoting of scare immigration officers has to consider the volume of

complaining pressure groups

The problem started back in the early 1990’s when then senior bureaucrat, and now Senate leader, Peter Harder joined the crowd in believing that computers processing applications could replace human contact in the vetting of immigration applications. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Ministers were assured that the officials had a clue what they were doing. Ministers found the money to fund the fiasco. 

Along with a slowdown in training front line immigration officers, the small, but effective, immigration police unit gave way to the CBSA monster. 

Fast forward to 2016: 

• The computers have crashed
• Immigration officers are not trained to deal with the realities of “successful  economic establishment”
•  Economic immigration landings went down 90% in 2015
• There are not enough immigration officers to train
• Both Immigration and CBSA officers are being asked to do the impossible. A generation of immigration officers has lost the capacity to deal with real people and their real economic establishment. This has led to an army of illegal workers who CBSA cannot arrest and remove because the illegal workers are vital to the economy. 
• There is an army of employers with no option but to hire illegal workers
• The system is in total disrepute. Even the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Independent Business have had enough 

Quo vadis?

Minister McCallum has no option but to:

• Fire his Deputy Minister for either pushing or going along with the Express Entry  shell game  which is based on the myth that Canada has the staff to process its economic immigration programs

• Start hiring and training people to understand the importance of administering  IRPA Section 12 (“successful economic establishment”)  which is the only standard for approving economic immigrants

• Given the time required to hire and train competent staff, the Minister has no choice but to continue stumbling through and resolving immediate  serious economic immigration problems , such as illegal trades workers,  on the same effective ad hoc basis  that he used with the Syrian refugees"

Richard Boraks, May 6 2016