Well, they have some other excuses, but that is the gist of it.
Unlike the US Canada still has some private charity for refugees.
Canada has both a government refugee resettlement program and one where churches and other civic groups can sponsor a family privately.
We previously had private sponsorship too until Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden (and other far Left Senators) pushed through the Refugee Act of 1980 which set up the present system (ostensibly a public-private partnership that is pretty much all public money) where you (the taxpayer) pay churches and some secular agencies to care for refugees for a brief period of time via resettlement contractors.
Now it looks like Canada’s private sponsorship isn’t going so well—when people have to use their own personal funds to take care of refugees their humanitarian zeal starts to wane.
I’m thinking the US should go to completely private sponsorship and then we would find out very quickly who really cares for refugees—those willing to put their money where their mouth is!
Here is the news from The Star. Read between the lines—they don’t have enough private charitable dollars! And, in a “blended” form of the program, they want to be able to pick the ethnic groups they care about and not have families chosen for them.
Bureaucratic delays and federal cuts to health coverage are hurting the ability of churches and other groups to bring in refugees under Canada’s renowned private refugee sponsorship program, says a new study.
Based on a survey of the 85 private groups that have formal refugee sponsorship agreements with Ottawa, recent policy changes appear to threaten the vitality of the sponsorship program launched in 1978 amid an outpouring of public concern over the Southeast Asian “boat people” crisis.
Groups were concerned with waits that stretch into years, and “processing hurdles that jeopardize their … future engagement in resettlement work,” said the survey conducted by the advocacy group Citizens for Public Justice.
“Cuts to the Interim Federal Health program (for refugees) have left church-based and other voluntary sponsoring groups on the line for previously-covered supplemental health costs,” said the 15-page report, titled Private Sponsorship and Public Policy.
“About one-third . . . report that their sponsoring groups have had to decrease or end their involvement in the PSR (private sponsorship of refugees) program as a result of this increased liability.”
Since 1978, more than 200,000 refugees have come to Canada through the efforts and financial support of faith groups, individuals, and community and ethnic organizations plugged into the program. In 2013 alone, 6,623 privately sponsored refugees were resettled in Canada.
Seventy-two per cent of the agreement holders are churches or church-connected groups, including Mennonite, Christian Reformed, United, Alliance and Presbyterian denominations.