Lead Department: Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Start Date of the Horizontal Initiative: 1998
End Date of the Horizontal Initiative: Terms and conditions must be renewed by March 31, 2010.
Total Federal Funding Allocation: Ongoing

Description

The Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) provides income support and a range of other services to government-assisted refugees (GARs) who arrive in Canada following an overseas identification and selection process. Under RAP, income support is provided to GARs for up to 12 months and up to 24 months for those with special needs. Income support amounts are set in line with provincial social assistance rates. Service provider organizations (SPOs) deliver, on behalf of CIC, various settlement and orientation services to GARs within their first 4 to 6 weeks in Canada. These services range from initial reception at the airport to finding permanent accommodation.

RAP falls under two of CIC's three strategic outcomes: Reflection of Canadian Values and Interests in the Management of International Migration, including Refugee Protection, as well as Successful Integration of Newcomers and Promotion of Canadian Citizenship. Through this program, Canada welcomes and provides direct financial support to more refugees than any nation other than the United States of America and Australia. The 1994 Immigration Consultations confirmed the continued importance of federal involvement in resettling refugees selected from abroad and the importance of continued funding for immediate services to GARs. Some of the lessons learned at that time, which resulted in the transformation of the Adjustment Assistance Program (AAP) into RAP in 1998, continue to be valid today, such as the need for increased coordination among program partners and enhanced flexibility in program design.

Further information is available at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/resettle-gov.html.

Shared Outcome(s)

The strategic outcome for RAP is to ensure that Government-Assisted Refugees are sufficiently supported in their adaptation, integration and settlement in Canada. This can best be achieved by coordinating and harmonizing the delivery of refugee delivery programs amongst the service providers and other partners currently involved in refugee integration in order to ensure the seamless delivery of services. To ensure that this outcome is achieved, multi-faceted partnerships need to be continually developed and strengthened at the intra-departmental, inter-departmental, private sponsor, community, provincial, municipal, private sector and service provider/non-governmental levels.

Governance Structures

The federal partner (CIC) is governed by Treasury Board approved terms and conditions and financial directives, the Financial Administration Act, the RAP Operations Manual, and the Contribution Accountability Framework (CAF), which is currently being implemented in stages. The CAF ensures the accountability of settlement expenditures through the monitoring of service delivery and the evaluation of program effectiveness. Information collected will also be used to identify program changes that will enhance the capacity of newcomers to integrate into Canadian society. There are five key elements in the CAF: performance measurement, evaluation, contribution agreement process, management control (where applicable, under an agreement), and provincial-territorial accountability.

Service provider organizations are governed by contribution agreements entered into with CIC.

Sponsorship Agreement Holders who undertake to support government-assisted refugees through the Joint Assistance Sponsorship (JAS) program are governed by: the terms of the master Sponsorship Agreement with CIC and individual sponsorship undertakings signed by the organization (IMM 1324).

Quebec's role in providing support to government-assisted refugees is governed by the Canada-Quebec Accord.

Partners

Federal departments/agencies
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)

Provinces/territories
All provinces including the Province of Quebec
(Under terms of the Canada-Quebec Accord, a program similar to RAP is administered by province of Quebec for government-assisted refugees destined to that province).

International bodies
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The International Organization for Migration

Non-governmental organizations
Sponsorship Agreement Holders
Service Provider Organizations
CCR

Contact

Contact Information:
Robb Stewart
Senior Policy & Program Advisor
Refugee Branch
(613) 957-5835

Approved by:
Robert Orr, Director General, 
Refugee Branch
957-5874

Date Approved:
August 17, 2005