Budget cuts push Entry Program out door

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This article was published 09/03/2020 (2071 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Entry Program said goodbye to its last graduating class in downtown Winnipeg Thursday after 62,000 newcomers passed through its doors in the last 15 years.

The federal government decided not to renew funding for the one-of-its kind, four-week orientation classes that all immigrants and refugees had been referred to upon arrival. Starting in April, settlement agencies will provide orientation information to their newcomer clients, said Vicki Sinclair, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Newcomer Serving Organization.

“To the best of our knowledge, no multi-day per week orientation program will be offered in Winnipeg,” Sinclair said in an email, noting that the Entry Program is not the standard orientation format across the country.

The comprehensive classes were set up to take newcomers as they arrived in Winnipeg and explain what they needed to know for successful resettlement. The program covered Canadian culture, customs, climate, safety, and rules and regulations, with information on such things as health, education, transit and banking and where and how to access services.

Representatives from 30 outside agencies and departments, including the Winnipeg Police Service and child and family service agencies, visited the classes and met with the newcomers. Information was shared with people in 24 languages. It targeted newly arrived immigrants and refugees who would not have to rely solely on their family, employer, settlement worker or sponsors for accurate, up-to-date information.

“It is a very sad time,” said the program’s founder, Grace Eidse. She runs the non-profit organization, Altered Minds Inc., that created the curriculum that’s received national recognition as a best practice.

In 2018, the program, which costs $299 per student to deliver, earned a glowing “outcome evaluation” from an independent review commissioned by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). When asked to comment Thursday, IRCC did not respond by deadline Friday.

“The Entry Program saves newcomers a lot of time and frustration,” said Eidse.

It may also have saved Manitoba money by educating newly arrived Winnipeggers on how to stay healthy and safe in their new home, said a veteran of the resettlement sector.

“It provided the really in-depth kind of information that most, if not all, newcomers need on their arrival,” said Hani Al-Ubeady, director of Immigration Partnership Winnipeg.

He knows people the Entry Program helped, and said the knowledge they gained was empowering and helped them integrate more quickly. That kind of orientation program, with interpreters sharing information, would be especially beneficial now as Manitoba prepares for the arrival of COVID-19 and how to avoid getting it, he said.

“It lessens the burden on the health system,” said Al-Ubeady.

A spokesperson for the provincial government said Friday that it has been assured by the federal government that the end of the Entry Program “will not negatively impact settlement services for newcomers in Manitoba.”

In 2019, the province welcomed 18,905 immigrants — the highest number of newcomers in decades — the majority of whom resettled in Winnipeg.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca