Backgrounder - Funding agreements with provinces and territories

The Government of Canada has signed a number of contribution agreements with provinces and territories to enhance online services aimed at attracting immigrants and helping them settle across the country.

Under these agreements, provinces and territories, outside of Ontario and Quebec, will receive a base amount of $200,000 every year, plus a variable amount each year based on the average intake of immigrants in each province and territory over the last three-year period.

For Ontario, which receives more than half of Canada’s immigrants each year, funding is based on the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement. The Canada-Quebec Accord, signed in 1991, provides the government of Quebec with an unconditional grant with an escalation factor. This gives Quebec responsibility for managing the integration services it provides to all permanent residents. As such, Quebec is not part of the current allocation process.

Going to Canada Immigration Portal

The provincial and territorial portals will link to the Government of Canada’s Going to Canada immigration portal (www.goingtocanada.gc.ca). This portal has been developed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) to offer comprehensive and integrated information to prospective and new immigrants. Its goal is to assist these individuals in preparing to live, work and study in Canada.

The creation of the Going to Canada immigration portal responds to concerns raised by various stakeholders regarding the lack of specific and relevant information available to prospective and new immigrants to assist them in integrating into Canada’s communities and labour market.

Partnerships are key to the portal’s success. Accordingly, CIC has encouraged the provinces and territories to develop complementary immigration, settlement, employment, skills and learning information for their respective websites. Both CIC and HRSDC will work with non-governmental immigration stakeholders on the portal to ensure that it continues to be relevant and that it meets the needs of diverse groups.

The total amounts over four fiscal years would be approximately as follows.

• Newfoundland and Labrador:  $820,000
• Nova Scotia:  $870,000
• New Brunswick:  $836,000
• Prince Edward Island:  $808,000
• Ontario:  $10,000,000*
• Alberta:  $1,200,000**
• Northwest Territories:  $603,000**
• Yukon:  $800,000
• Manitoba:  $1,100,000***
• British Columbia:  $2,600,000***
• Saskatchewan:  $660,000**
• Nunavut:  $600,000

*Ontario’s portal funding allocation is based on the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement. For more information on the agreement, consult the following link: www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/laws-policy/agreements/ontario/can-ont-index.asp.

**Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories allocations are for three fiscal years instead of four because agreements were not formally reached with these jurisdictions until the beginning of the 2007–2008 fiscal year.

***British Columbia and Manitoba receive portal funding under existing federal-provincial immigration agreements.