Refugee and Immigration

aid: The federal budget proposed 62.9 million over five years, starting in 2017 2018, which works out to 12.6 million a year for immigration and refugee legal aid services, in partnership with the provinces and territories, according to CBC. The funding proposed would then drop to 11.5 million each year. There's going to be insufficient money to fund counsel to represent refugee claimants, said Maureen Silcoff, a Toronto immigration and refugee lawyer, during an appearance on CBC's Metro Morning. Refugees fearful of U.S. immigration orders seek sanctuary in Toronto sheltersA smile and arrest welcome asylum seekers to Canada From 2006 - 2016, Legal Aid Ontario LAO received approximately 7 million annually toward legal aid refugee services from the Canadian government. Funding to drop twice over next 5 years But that drops going forward, with LAO's share of the federal funding amounting to 8.9 million annually for the next two years, and then back down to 7 million for the three years after that. There was a one-time boost last year to help offset the costs associated with the significant increase in demand for legal aid services, with the federal government providing an added 6.72 million to bring LAO's 2016 2017 allocation to 13.7 million. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.