immigrantscanada.com

Independent topical source of current affairs, opinion and issues, featuring stories making news in Canada from immigrants, newcomers, minorities & ethnic communities' point of view and interests.

Federal Government and Resettlement Plan

government: The Liberals have pledged to resettle another 10,000 government-assisted Syrian refugees by the end of 2016. McCallum said the first phase of the resettlement plan came in within budget, according to Huffington Post Canada. The federal government has been providing refugees and other newcomers with loans to help them pay for required medical exams and the costs of making their way here, but that decades-old practice could be changed by the upcoming budget. The last government flights arrived in Canada on Monday marking the end of the first phase in a plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees — a mix of government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees — by the end of February. McCallum, who has been reviewing the Immigration Loan Program, said that cancelling the loans is one of the options the Liberals are considering ahead of their first budget on March 22. "There are many things that we, as a government, want to do in the budget," McCallum said in a phone interview with CBC News on Tuesday. The Immigration Loan Program is funded through an advance of $110 million from the government Consolidated Revenue Fund. "The extreme option would be for the government to pay for all travel in the future," McCallum said. "Of course, that the most expensive option. "I think that will be in the budget one way or another," he said. In budget 'one way or another' "So whether the full amount of that money is included remains to be seen, but that is certainly one option." According to a 2015 government analysis, some $13 million immigration loans are issued on average each year, with newcomers receiving an average loan of $3,090. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.