On June 7, 2018 The Catholic Register published an article written by Michael Swan regarding the meeting of Catholic agencies that hold sponsorship agreements with the federal government in June 2018. They presented seven recommendations demanding changes and clarification of the new agreement between the Sponsorship Agreement Holders Association (SAHs) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

In the view of many of the SAHs the new rules and associated costs will also apply to refugees whose applications were made under the former agreement. The new agreement between the government and sponsors has the potential to be a huge burden on the budget of some SAHs, according to the Catholic Refugee Sponsors’ Council (CRSC).

In addition many of the Catholic SAHs complain that terms of a new agreement imposed on sponsoring agencies last year are constantly fluctuating and that lengthy processing times have “resulted in unjust, unplanned and significant burden to sponsors.”

“There is no methodology in place to quantify the value of the substantially greater non-financial support provided to newcomers under the PSR (Private Sponsorship of Refugees) program,” said the Catholic agencies.

The IRCC’s media relations department said it was unable to answer questions from The Catholic Register about how or why the new agreement has increased costs to sponsors.

Please read the full article in the Catholic Register: CRSC – Sponsorship Agreement

Please send us your response: crsponsorscouncil@gmail.com