Toronto / November 2026
With Ontario's immigrant- and refugee-serving sector facing mounting funding pressures and a challenging policy environment, OCASI's 2026 Leaders’ Forum offered leaders and senior managers from agencies across the province an opportunity to reflect, reconnect and explore ways of responding to these challenges.
On October 29, during the Forum, we sat down with OCASI Executive Director Debbie Douglas to discuss the issues weighing on the sector, the political debate around immigration, and why she believes collective courage is more important than ever.
This conversation takes the place of our ED’s regular monthly message for November.
As the Leaders’ Forum unfolds, what are you hearing from participants about the challenges facing the sector? Are there any conversations or emerging ideas that have particularly struck you?
There's a real buzz among the participants here. I think people have been waiting to come together to have these very important conversations about the changes that are coming.
Funding, of course, remains top of mind. But I also think people are very concerned about the influence of the sector. There's a sense that we're losing influence, especially at the federal government level.
The concern is that if the federal government becomes disinterested in our sector, what's to stop the provinces from following suit? That could have a significant impact on the financial and other supports available to agencies.
For us at OCASI, losing influence also means losing policy influence. When we speak out against regressive public policy, we risk being ignored.
We began to see some of that with Bill C-12 [Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act; became law in March 2026], which would significantly change our immigration and refugee policies, particularly with negative consequences for refugees and refugee claimants.
Civil society organizations like OCASI, the Canadian Council for Refugees and our other allies have raised serious concerns, but our voices have not been taken into consideration. Even when the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration held hearings on Bill C-12, our recommendations on how to improve the bill were ignored.
I must say, this is the first time we've seen that happen so quickly.
So I think that's one of the important conversations taking place here. The sector is paying attention not only to the ongoing funding cuts, but also to the loss of influence.
Alberta's recent referendum included questions about restricting newcomers' access to public services, which critics have described as misleading and as scapegoating immigrants for broader economic and social problems. What concerns you most about the way these questions were framed, and what does the referendum tell us about the direction of the immigration debate in Canada?
The questions were framed in a way that seemed to assume most Albertans understood how immigration works, including which responsibilities fall under provincial or federal jurisdiction. The fact that more than 50% of Albertans voted for measures that I would characterize as being against immigration and provincial support for immigrants – whether we're talking about services, funding or selection – is concerning.
I must say, I was surprised by the positive spin that some sector leaders in Alberta, and even here in Ontario, have put on the results.
For me, whether it's 51%, 54% or 57%, the fact that a majority of voters supported those measures is highly problematic. It suggests a perception that immigrants are a burden, that immigration isn't necessarily good, and that people want to see cuts.
I think it adds to the ongoing anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric that we've been pushing back against over the last four or five years.
How do you explain the shift in political discourse from governments that were actively encouraging immigration just a few years ago to portraying newcomers as a burden on public services?
I think governments at both levels, and in some municipalities as well, are kowtowing to the radical right and to xenophobia. In fact, I think it's racism couched in xenophobia.
I don't believe these views are held by the majority of Canadians. It was encouraging, for example, to see the recent Environics data showing an increase in support for immigration.
I also think our federal government was looking for ways to cut back on public services to help fund its military agenda in response to Trump and NATO. They found a useful justification by saying that Canadians no longer wanted to support immigration.
That draws on the false belief that immigrants are responsible for our affordability crisis and the difficulties many people face in finding affordable housing.
We've been making the argument for the last three or four years that our housing crisis is rooted in decisions by both federal and provincial governments to withdraw from building housing throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Thirty or forty years later, what do you expect?
It's also interesting that it was a right-wing [Conservative] government under Stephen Harper that significantly increased the number of temporary residents. It introduced programs such as the “four years in, four years out” rule for temporary foreign workers.
We argued at the time that people weren't going to come to Canada, establish themselves and their families here, and then simply leave after four years. Many subsequently became out of status.
Governments also significantly increased international student numbers as a way to subsidize our post-secondary education system. Provinces reduced their support while international students were charged exorbitant tuition fees. Then private colleges got involved.
The provinces and the federal government, which was granting student visas, allowed that population to balloon. And then they turned around and blamed those very same people, many of whom had been promised a pathway to permanent residence.
They pulled the rug out from under them.
People see newcomers struggling to find work, and they hear claims that immigrants are taking jobs away from their children. That has fuelled anti-immigrant sentiment, which governments are now using to justify regressive policies they wanted to introduce anyway.
And I think that's shameful.
The federal government is preparing to announce its next Immigration Levels Plan, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has raised the possibility of eventually increasing immigration again. What are you hoping to see in the plan, and what should the government's priorities be?
I’m just waiting to see where the Prime Minister lands.
On the one hand, we’ve heard him say that he might consider increasing what he calls managed immigration, with economic immigrants tied to particular labour markets or industries.
On the other hand, I’ve heard him say more recently that immigration numbers will not be increasing at this time.
What I’m hoping to see is a return to our humanitarian traditions. I hope the very low caps placed on Canada’s refugee intake will be lifted.
We have more than 100,000 Canadians waiting to sponsor people. Our private refugee sponsorship program is the envy of countries around the world. Many have tried to imitate it and come to Canada to learn how it works.
In fact, I’m heading to Wales to have conversations about how our immigration and settlement programs work, because they’re seen as such a success internationally.
I hope the government will recognize that we have Canadians who want to welcome refugees and support them for a year, and that it will raise those caps.
I also hope we’ll see a renewed commitment to family reunification. We have Convention refugees who are waiting to sponsor their families.
But while I’m hoping for an increase in those numbers, I’m not holding my breath.
I suspect the government may not reduce the numbers further, but will hold the line at the levels announced last year – both for permanent immigration and economic immigrants, and unfortunately for humanitarian programs as well.
We can’t control the number of people who need refugee protection because of what’s happening around the world. But we’ve certainly made it more and more difficult for people to reach our borders.
One thing we often forget is that Canada is surrounded by three oceans and has the United States to the south. It’s very difficult to get here, unlike in places where people can cross land borders relatively easily.
We may see further reductions in temporary immigration, which I don’t necessarily think is a bad thing. Permanent residency for those who arrive here should be our goal. As we who support migrant workers often say, ‘good enough to work, good enough to stay.’
But I would certainly welcome a loosening of the restrictions on our humanitarian and family reunification programs.
One other thing I’m hoping the immigration minister will announce, now that she’s heard how critically important it is for refugee families, is the reinstatement of the program allowing refugees to sponsor previously undeclared family members.
We’ll see whether the government has been listening to the sector’s advocacy on these issues.
This year's Forum is about resetting, refocusing and rebuilding. Looking ahead, what do you think the sector most needs to do collectively? And at such a challenging time, what gives you hope?
Collective courage.
We need to stand together and push back against regressive immigration policies; against the dismantling of the ecosystem which supports all who are in need, who are marginalized even while contributing to the building of our nation. We need to say that we are important, that we provide necessary public services, and that supporting refugees (including those seeking our protection and a safe refuge) and immigrants is critical to helping them reach their full potential as new residents and contributors of and to Canada.
Our sector’s voice should matter – and does matter – in public policy. We need to be supported through our tax dollars.
But we have to say that with a collective voice. We have to say no to reduced funding accompanied by expectations that services will continue at the same level or even increase.
And that takes collective courage. It means being able to speak truth to power and being ready for the blowback we sometimes receive from the government.
I often say that you cannot be an advocacy body without expecting to be defunded at some point. I know that’s difficult for agencies. You have obligations as employers, you have staff, and you have services to maintain. But we cannot have a race to the bottom.
We cannot continue to do more and more with less and less. We cannot continue to have governments ignore our voices when we speak out against regressive immigration policies.
We have a responsibility to immigrants and refugees, but also to the communities where we live and work, to ensure that people are fairly compensated and that the integrity of our services is maintained.
What gives me hope?
Every once in a while, when I think things are heading to the bottom, we see an uptick. The fact that fewer Canadians are expressing anti-immigrant views gives me hope.
When I see people who came to Canada as refugees or refugee claimants thriving and contributing, that gives me hope.
When I see people across the political spectrum speaking up in support of immigrants and immigration, that gives me hope.
When I see people who come from places of privilege acknowledging that so much anti-immigrant rhetoric is really directed against Black and Brown immigrants, rather than immigration itself, that gives me hope.
And when I see people giving a standing ovation to someone like Charlie Angus (one of the speakers at our recent Leaders’ Forum), who speaks about resistance, that gives me hope.
It tells me that our messages are landing.