Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Comité permanent des comptes publics

For immediate release

Ottawa, March 28, 2018 -

Syrian refugees were provided with settlement services that were needed to facilitate their integration into Canada (i.e., needs assessments, language assessments, and language training), but more could have been done to better ensure their integration into Canadian society, according to a report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts presented to the House of Commons today by the Hon. Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Committee.

In the fall of 2017, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released a performance audit whose objective was to determine whether Syrian refugees received selected settlement services, as funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The audit found that more than 80% of them had their needs assessed, and 75% of those who received language assessments attended language classes. Moreover, Syrian refugees received settlement services at a higher rate than other refugees who arrived in Canada during the same period.

However, funding delays resulted in cuts to some settlement services for at least three months, and challenges in collecting provincial data on health and education made it difficult to fully monitor the refugees’ progress in integrating into Canadian society. In this report, the Committee made four recommendations that seek to ensure that IRCC implements each of its proposed corrective measures in order to properly address the deficiencies identified in the OAG’s audit.