City of Powell River Council will write to a federal department, objecting to the termination of funding for immigrant services in the community.
At the March 4 committee of the whole meeting, councillor Cindy Elliott said she was glad to see the correspondence from Lift Community Services regarding the loss of funding for services from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
“My, hope was that we could make a motion to write a letter to the funder from our city council, objecting to this decision,” said Elliott.
Councillor George Doubt said he was 100 per cent in agreement with the motion, and that council should write to the federal government and ask that immigration services funding be restored for Powell River.
“We have immigrants, and they are valuable members of our community,” said Doubt. “To get services in a place like Comox, Courtenay or some other place on Vancouver Island, is difficult, even for people who can navigate their way through the language and have the funds to do it. If you are an immigrant and you are trying to get advice on a passport, or if you are a Ukrainian citizen trying to renew your temporary access to Canadian residency while the war is going on, they have to go somewhere else.
“The funding has been reduced by 85 per cent to immigrant services. Lift is left with 15 per cent of the budget that they had before. It’s a valuable service.”
The committee unanimously carried the motion to send correspondence to IRCC.
Elliott said in the letter, she would like to make the case that the community has a high number of immigrants. She said the region does not have the ability to share services with neighbouring communities.
“This decision is going to create hardship,” said Elliott.
In correspondence to city councillors, Lift executive director Kim Markel said the loss of funding will have a huge impact on how Lift is able to provide services to the hundreds of immigrants it supports each year.
“We are working with community partners to plan on how we can maintain some level of programming, but unfortunately, this funding decision will necessitate staff displacement and significant service disruption over the coming months,” stated Markel. “I expect our service disruption may also increase demand for other community services and supports.
“This funding cut is devastating, not just for our clients, volunteers and staff, but fuels an anti-immigration rhetoric that I find very distressing. For the past 14 years, Lift has been providing a wide range of supports to immigrants, including English as a second language support, community connections and mentorship, documentation and application support, crisis support, citizenship ceremonies, and more.
“This funding cut neglects to take into account that even though the government has lowered immigration targets, there are still many individuals and families in the community who require settlement supports.”
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