Prince George immigrants hoping to receive workplace-specific English language training as part of a $5.5 million government-funded pilot project will have to wait a few months.
The free classes initially will be offered only in Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and southern Vancouver Island, which comes as discouraging news for Baljit Sethi.
The executive director of the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society (IMSS) of Prince George says the Oct. 7 announcement of provincial and federal funding for the project continues a trend to leave out less-populated regions for new initiatives in the English Language Services for Adults (ELSA) program.
"Whenever they do things, the first preference goes to the Lower Mainland, and they never try pilot projects in the other regions," said Sethi. "So, if they are not successful in the Lower Mainland, the other regions never get a chance even to try it."
But that policy is changing, according to Pat Bell, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.
"That's been a historical activity on the part of the ministry and I've directed them not to do that anymore," said Bell, MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie. "I've requested that they now offer the programs on a broader basis and the pilots be available across the province.
"We wanted to roll it out quickly in the larger population centres because there are more service providers (and) learn from the implementation challenges, then go ahead and roll it out. While it is a couple months later, I don't think that's a huge amount of time to wait, and we're looking forward to receiving applications in November and December for Prince George and all the regions around the province. It's on the way."
The project will offer Level 6 and 7 English lessons as part of the ELSA program through Welcome BC, a provincial agency that operates on a $40 million annual budget to provide services for immigrant settlement and integration.
Sethi said workplace language skills are essential for new Canadians trying to learn English as a second language. Without those skills, she says the odds are stacked against them finding the jobs they want.
"I really feel immigrants will be the last persons to be seen when they go for jobs," said Sethi. "It is a very critical situation. These days, mostly the immigrants are coming with high education and their English is good, but still not at the level of Canadian standards, and sometimes [they have difficulty] with pronunciation.
"We need to have those high-level English classes, but I haven't seen anywhere for a preference outside the Lower Mainland communities. We've been trying to get Level 7 English for the last five years. Every region should have their share of priority for their services."
The Prince George office on Victoria Street received $188,150 in ELSA funding last year to provide English classes up to Level 5. Sethi said the conversational English classes offered during the summer attracted 18 to 20 students every day.
B.C. continues to be one of the most popular provinces for new immigrants to Canada, receiving more that 40,000 newcomers per year. An estimated 19,000 students in 35 communities in B.C. will benefit this year from ELSA classes. Since 2008, immigrant language development services offered by WelcomeBC have received more than $160 million in joint government funding.
