‘It’s a Crisis’: Cuts Hit Immigrant Settlement Support

B.C.-based service providers are facing drastic cuts and in some cases the total loss of immigrant settlement services funding, as of March 31.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, told The Tyee the funding cuts were made across Canada in regions where they do not expect newcomers will arrive, or where alternative settlement service providers exist.

“In making these difficult decisions, we carefully consider the number of newcomers expected to arrive, the needs for those accessing services, relationships with our partner organizations and available resources,” Mary Rose Sabater, an IRCC communications adviser, told The Tyee via email.

The funding cuts, which were announced last fall, are tied to immigration and refugee rate cuts the federal government announced in 2024 to bring immigration rates back to pre-COVID levels.

After March 31, the federal government will provide $1.2 billion in annual funding for settlement services across Canada, not including Quebec. This includes an “initial investment” of $155.6 million in B.C.

This is actually an increase in overall funding by 4.2 per cent over last year. But the additional funding is going only to areas the government will be resettling newcomers, which does not include as many B.C. locations as previously received funding in 2024.

B.C. settlement service providers say the cuts put into question whether newcomer families and single adults will be able to access the services and supports they need to thrive in Canada, such as language classes, after-school and weekend programs for kids and youth, and job-readiness training.

Collingwood Neighbourhood House in Vancouver, which received IRCC settlement services funding for 30 years before its funding was completely cut for 2025, will lay off about 20 staff when existing funds run out on March 31.

Robert Moya, youth settlement lead at Collingwood, is one of those staff members losing their jobs. But he’s not concerned about that.

“It’s less about me having a job and more about continuing the work that we started in this neighbourhood,” he said.

Unless the organization finds other funding sources, Collingwood Neighbourhood House will cease all of its settlement services, including its newcomer youth programs, which include music and arts, neighbourhood sports, after-school mentorship, and leadership and pre-employment mentoring.

“In the last 10 years, these programs have been instrumental in this neighbourhood to building culture and identity, while addressing community needs and bringing people together,” Moya said, adding they have helped bridge the social gap between newcomer youth and their Canadian-born peers. He is concerned the investment in program infrastructure built over that time, which youth depend on, will be lost.

It’s difficult to say exactly how many people access the neighbourhood house’s settlement services, said Sandra Suazo, team lead of settlement and LINC services at Collingwood, because the numbers fluctuate. LINC stands for language introduction for newcomers to Canada.

But she estimates 60 to 80 school-aged youth access Collingwood’s weekend programming, while approximately 80 adults are enrolled in its LINC classes.

“Each of the settlement workers have at least 40 clients that they’re interacting with each month,” Suazo said, adding there are waiting lists for each worker, too.

“On top of that, we have walk-ins, undisclosed numbers of people who show up to ask something about the aspects of settlement.”

Newcomer service deserts

Up north, Fort Nelson has seen a lot of newcomers arrive recently because of the area’s lower housing costs, said Seanah Mollica, executive director of Fort Nelson Community Literacy Society Learning Centre Neighbourhood House.

Which is why Mollica is concerned by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s decision to cut all settlement funding for the neighbourhood house — 30 per cent of their total funding — after 10 years of consistent funding.

The closest settlement services for the roughly 120 newcomers they serve, including 33 families with about 60 kids and youth, will soon be a four-hour drive away in Fort St. John.

“We help many people navigate access to health care, among other essential supports,” Mollica said, including enrolling kids in local schools, preparing them for cold weather, assisting with job applications or even going with them to buy groceries.

Other services, such as field trips to local First Nations’ cultural centres and hosting Canada Day celebrations, are about community integration.

“With the loss of IRCC funding, our organization is facing the possibility of significant restructuring, and there is a real risk of losing key services that so many people rely on,” Mollica said. She added IRCC funding covers two full-time staff, while partially funding two other staff, putting more than just their settlement services at risk.

“It’s a crisis,” Mollica said.

Choosing to create a service desert for newcomers is confusing, Mollica added, given that Fort Nelson is one of the communities participating in the recently announced IRCC Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot. The program will provide a quicker path to permanent residency for newcomers filling key labour market shortages in the region. No settlement-related funding was mentioned in the announcement.

Down south in Victoria, over 90 per cent of the Inter-cultural Association of Greater Victoria’s funding comes from IRCC, said CEO Shelly D’Mello. As the association is currently in negotiations with IRCC, she would not disclose how much funding is at risk.

However, D’Mello did say that as there will be no government-assisted refugees resettled in the region, “we have been defunded for refugee services in the southern island.”

While the federal government has no plans to resettle refugees in the region, D’Mello said refugees continue to move to the region of their own volition, and they still need services and supports.

The Inter-cultural Association of Greater Victoria’s refugee services included supporting refugees to find housing, access health care and learn one of Canada’s official languages.

“It represents a devastating rollback of support for many newcomers who are vulnerable and need support,” D’Mello said.

The association has been serving approximately 4,000 people annually across all its programming. With funding cuts, that number will drop.

The cut will have “far-reaching consequences” when it comes to the ability of refugees and immigrants to thrive and integrate into the community, D’Mello said.

“Youth programming is definitely vital for building what I would call a resilient and of course inclusive community,” she added.

IRCC will be resettling some refugees on Vancouver Island, specifically in Nanaimo. This may mean the closest service provider for refugee settlement services as of March 31 will be a nearly two-hour drive away from Victoria, D’Mello said.

“Behind the funding numbers, we’re talking about real people. Children fleeing violence, persecution, hardship, and they need Canada’s support to find safety and to rebuild their lives,” she said, adding that newcomers contribute to the local economy.

“These cuts impact the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, and it jeopardizes their future and our collective prosperity,” D’Mello said.

Less funding, less relationship building

While Collingwood is the only Vancouver neighbourhood house that lost all of its IRCC settlement funding, other neighbourhood houses in the city are facing cuts of their own.

That means Collingwood can’t refer its clients with the confidence that they will be accommodated, said Betty Lepps, Collingwood Neighbourhood House’s executive director.

Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House received 51 per cent of the IRCC settlement dollars it had previously been granted, said Thanh Lam, director of youth and newcomer services and a leader within the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC.

“We’ve had to cut back on our programs, the number of sessions we can provide, as well as a number of staffing we can provide to work with newcomer communities,” said Lam. That includes community-based programs at two local high schools, language supports and preteen programming.

“We’re definitely working as neighbourhood houses and other agencies, as well, to co-ordinate with one another, fill in the gaps where we can, to talk, to share and to update each other,” Lam added.

Neighbourhood houses are “the living room of the neighbourhood,” Lam said, where newcomers go to connect with the broader community and form relationships with staff, neighbours and peers. Last year Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House served just under 500 newcomers.

Suazo and Lepps are concerned that without settlement services to bring newcomers through the door, they will miss out on accessing their other programs, many aimed at low-income and otherwise vulnerable community members.

Collingwood is looking for other provincial and municipal funding sources, like those aimed at supporting Black, Indigenous and other people of colour. But there is nothing to replace IRCC funding for settlement services.

“What we’re doing as we’re looking at other opportunities for funding is how can we incorporate some of those programmings into our already existing programming,” said Lepps. This includes their general youth programming, Lepps added.

Cutting funding for settlement services sends a message to newcomers that they are not welcome here, Lam said.

“Or that they’re not worth investing in,” she said. “And we know that when we invest in newcomers, the time that we invest is invaluable.”

Moya agreed, adding he views the funding cuts through his own experience witnessing a rise in anger towards newcomers, both locally and nationally, in recent years.

“I feel like the justification for those budget cuts comes from those underlying frustrations towards newcomers in Canada right now,” he said.