Luc Bonaventure Amoussou says he barely managed to keep his agency running when Ottawa shaved 10 per cent off his newcomer program funding last year.
Staff hours were cut, service capacity reduced and contract positions not renewed. In all, six people were laid off at Immigrants Working Centre in Hamilton, which provides free settlement orientation, English classes and employment support to more than 5,000 newcomers in the region each year.
Already struggling, Amoussou is now facing another 23 per cent funding reduction by the Immigration Department starting in April. An estimated 30 jobs will be on the chopping block.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said Amoussou. “We still have more people to serve.”
From trying to close locations to bargaining for reduced rents, scaling back programs and shovelling clients to provincially-funded services, organizations that help newcomers integrate say they are scrambling to serve more with less.
For a second year, the immigrant settlement sector is faced with federal funding cuts. Following a $50-million budget reduction last year, funding for newcomer services outside of Quebec will be axed by $98.1 million in 2026-27, including a 17.3 per cent cut for organizations in Ontario.
According to Ottawa, the cuts were due to reduced immigration levels and the 2025 federal budget, which required government departments to find up to 15 per cent in savings over three years starting in 2026.
A recent Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report estimated that the federal government’s spending on newcomer integration will drop from $1.125 billion in 2025-26 to $787 million in 2028-29.
“This round of funding cuts is destabilizing a system that took decades to build,” said Debbie Douglas of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Serving Immigrants. “These cuts will hurt our communities for years to come.”
Digging into reserves to pay laid-off staff
With a 21 per cent funding reduction this year, YWCA Toronto is closing down its childminding services, laying off four permanent staff. It’s had to refer English learners in upper-level courses to provincially-run ESL programs with long waiting lists.
Parents must find alternative daycare in order to participate in programs, said Joanna Jaskielewicz, an employment and training director at the agency.
Ottawa has said the cuts correspond with reduced immigration intakes in the past year, but Jaskielewicz said fewer people doesn’t mean less needs because newcomers don’t just access help in the first year after arriving, but over a span of time.
Since Ottawa doesn’t fund severance packages, YWCA Toronto has had to dig into its reserves to compensate laid-off staff. “Smaller organizations may have nothing to draw on, except to close,” warned its CEO Heather McGregor.
Amoussou said his agency in Hamilton doesn’t have reserves and has looked into shutting down one of its four sites. But there’s a huge penalty to back out from leases; he is negotiating to get his rents down.
“What we are trying to do is look for other sources of funding from foundations, private donors and former clients,” said Amoussou, who has hired a grant and partnership manager to do just that.
Settlement services fill gaps in bad times
Medora Uppal, CEO of YWCA Hamilton, said settlement agencies have the cultural knowledge and expertise, and multilingual staff to serve newcomers. Clients can seek help from mainstream service providers, but those organizations are struggling, too.
To Uppal, her bigger concern is the Immigration Department will stop providing settlement services to skilled immigrants who have been here for five years or longer. (Currently, there is no limit.)
“You’ll crush the number of people who can get supports, but it doesn’t take away the number of people who actually need supports,” noted Uppal. Her organization offers specialized services for newcomer women and LGBTQ+ people. It lost 5.9 per cent funding last year and faces a 13.8 per cent cut in 2026.
The federal government said the latest immigration plan aims to attract more skilled immigrants, who tend to use settlement services less intensively.
The new service eligibility “encourages earlier use and keeps the services available for newcomers who need them most,” it said. “That earlier use of settlement services results in better outcomes for newcomers and long-term integration to Canada.”
The Community Family Services of Ontario in Scarborough has funding slashed by 13.4 per cent and 15.2 per cent over two years. It had to terminate a program that’s meant to engage newcomers with the community through activities and events.
Since agencies have to pick what programs to cut, they need to better co-ordinate and know where to refer newcomers, said its executive director Anna Wong. “It is a very superficial touch-and-go relationship that they want service providers to build with clients,” she lamented.
Lucia Harrison, CEO of Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre, said it’s hard not to compromise services tackling a $700,000 funding reduction.
In the first round of cuts, she left four vacant positions unfilled, including the job of a truth and reconciliation co-ordinator to help newcomers understand Indigenous issues. This time two settlement workers and one youth worker must go.
“When times are bad, social services are needed more,” said Harrison. “But we always get cut when times are bad.”
