Almost half of Toronto-area immigrant settlement services expect program closures

Nearly half the immigrant service organizations in the Greater Toronto Area are braced for program closures in the near future due to federal funding cuts that began in 2024.

A survey of 48 newcomer service agencies — conducted by the United Way Greater Toronto, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and the City of Toronto — says 44 per cent of respondents expect to see program closures, while 56 per cent expect program disruptions due to declining funds.

Jessica Kwik, director of the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group, said many of the cuts are hitting higher level language training. Newcomers who lack this training can struggle to find work, she said.

"We're seeing that erosion where if people aren't able to get employment, there's going to be income insufficiency around housing. And a lot of the people who come to settlement services are families with children," Kwik told The Canadian Press.

"So you know it is a vulnerability that we may be seeing downstream in terms of those that may then have problems with keeping housing if they don't have the income or employment."

The Peel Newcomer Strategy Group connects newcomers with settlement service organizations that specialize in things like language training and help with finding work or housing.

Kwik said a "strong proportion" of people using settlement services in the GTA are refugees.

Federal government data shows since April 2023, Ontario typically recorded the highest number of asylum claims each month, though Quebec occasionally receives more.

Approximately 300,000 asylum claims are in the Immigration and Refugee Board's backlog as of Dec. 31, 2025.

The United Way report says the cuts are coming from a three-year, $317.3 million reduction in the overall Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada budget that began in the 2024 fiscal year.

The report does not take into account other cuts announced in the 2025-26 federal budget. All federal departments have been told to find 15 per cent savings over the next three years.

The number of new arrivals coming to Canada grew significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government began a push to welcome upwards of 500,000 new permanent residents annually.

The government began reducing that target in 2024 and the latest immigration levels plan calls for 380,000 new permanent residents this year.

Settlement service organizations receive federal funding based on projected permanent resident arrivals in a given year. Fewer newcomers means smaller budgets.

Stephanie Procyk, research director for United Way Greater Toronto, said demand for settlement resources grew fast after 2020 but resources haven't kept up.

"We know that demand has grown by 70 per cent while capacity has only grown by 40 per cent. And so we're continuing to kind of crunch that capacity," she said.

"So we're in a moment, also, where there's more budget reductions coming down the line and we really need to consider what's happening on the ground and how this is playing out in communities when we're making those decisions."

Those decisions could involve layoffs. The survey found 68 per cent of surveyed agencies anticipate layoffs between now and 2028, and are collectively predicting the loss of about 310 jobs.

Kwik said losing language trainers is particularly troubling because it's hard to find people who have the right combination of multiple languages and a social services background.

"It takes time for one to be trained and to develop the experience to work in social services. So it does mean that we're losing a lot of that combination of skills when we start cutting back on the workforce," she said.

Procyk said she still expects high demand for settlement services in the GTA despite the federal push to reduce the number of newcomers, and as the rate of asylum claims declines.

She said settlement agencies can expect to see growing wait times and more employee burnout as they try to provide services with fewer resources. 

"The important part of this is that newcomers and immigrants are not going to get the critical services they need, Procyk said.

"They may be facing really long wait times. They may face not being able to access these critical programs, and so when the sector has all these constraints and barriers, it impacts people on the ground in a way that's really connected to our health and well-being as a country."

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young