OCASI Position on the 2011 CIC cuts to Ontario Settlement Funding

 In December 2010, agencies in the immigrant and refugee serving sector began receiving communication from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) informing them of their eligibility to negotiate new contracts for 2011-12 and 2012-13. Thirteen member agencies of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) all in the Greater Toronto Area, were notified that their contracts would not be renewed, effectively defunding them, while many more agencies were notified that their budgets would be reduced, by an average of 20%-30%.

These cuts in settlement funding are a result of a Strategic Review that sought to cut 5% from CIC's budget, and amount to almost $44 million in Ontario. Another $6 million in Strategic Review cuts are expected in 2012-13. In addition, CIC has announced that in 2012-13 the new Settlement Allocation Model will be applied to Ontario, resulting in an expected additional $20 million in cuts to settlement funding if allocations are determined by 2009 landing numbers.

The PDF below lays out OCASI's position on the cuts and how they were carried out.