Sabina Abilova and Andrii Koziura sit at the dinner table in their basement apartment, laptops open, searching for jobs that might help them pay for next month’s rent.
The Ukrainian newcomers arrived in Toronto just a few weeks ago, looking to escape the conflict in their country, and have been burning through their savings as they’re faced with the high cost of living in the city.
“The prices here are quite high,” Abilova, 28, says in an interview. “If we don’t find a job, we won’t be able to stay here for long.”
The cost of housing is proving to be one of the top issues for Ukrainian newcomers arriving under a special federal program announced in March that permits them to work or study in Canada for three years.
Abilova and Koziura were on vacation in Argentina when Russia began invading Ukraine in February. The couple decided to apply to come to Canada since Abilova’s sister already lived in Toronto, having arrived as a student eight years ago.
Being approved under the program was relatively easy, but getting information and support on matters like housing, public transit and employment has been tough, Abilova says.
“In Ukraine, we had a very like good, normal life and now we have to go and find help everywhere, to ask for help, discounts and everything and it’s not a good situation,” she says.
“It’s difficult because I wasn’t expecting for Canada to be like that.”
Abilova and Koziura now live in a two-bedroom basement apartment in west Toronto with Abilova’s mother and 13-year-old brother, who already had visitor visas for Canada before the war began.
They pay $2,000 in rent per month and are currently relying on savings to pay for their expenses, Koziura says.
The couple has applied for a $600 monthly social support payment from the Ontario government and a one-time $3,000 payment from the federal government while looking for jobs, he says.
Koziura, 27, says he used to work as a software product manager in Ukraine and is hoping to find a job in his field.
“Our initial plan was to come here, stay here for a few months and decide where are we going to stay, how easy it is to stay in Canada, and we haven’t managed to find a job yet,” he says.
“The situation with the war is quite tricky. We don’t know when it ends. And we don’t know what our long-term plans are. Are going to receive the citizenship here … are we going to get back home?”
Ihor Michalchyshyn, the executive director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, says housing is the number one challenge facing Ukrainian newcomers, especially in Ontario.
Refugee settlement agencies funded by the federal government are not technically allowed to help Ukrainian newcomers with housing because those arriving under the special program are not recognized as refugees, he says.
“They don’t have access to the same, let’s say, full suites or full services that a refugee from anywhere would have,” he says.
“We might call them refugees, (but) they’re not technically, legally in the eyes of the government-funded agencies, refugees.”
His organization and the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants wrote last month to Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser calling on him to allow settlement agencies to use federal funds to support Ukrainian newcomers’ housing costs.
Michalchyshyn says his organization has also been pushing for income support for Ukrainian newcomers.
A spokeswoman for Fraser says the federal government has a program that provides Ukrainian newcomers with one-time financial assistance of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child.
“These funds will help Ukrainian nationals and their family members meet their basic needs—such as transportation and longer-term housing—as they arrive in communities across Canada and find a job,” Aidan Strickland wrote in a statement.
“We recognize that major urban centres across Canada are currently facing difficulties in securing temporary accommodations this summer, as well as housing challenges from both an affordability and an availability standpoint.”
Janet Dench, the executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees says the special program for Ukrainians has the advantage of being open to an unlimited number of people but doesn’t come with the support government-sponsored refugees typically receive.
“From a policy perspective, it has the advantages of being really quick and being open,” she says in an interview.
“(Ukrainian) people may be ‘okay, well, we’ll come to Canada and we’ll be able to have all of our needs met,’ but they weren’t necessarily informed or realizing that all they were getting is a work permit and a visitor visa. They’re not getting a whole system of support.”
Michalchyshyn, of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, says the housing situation for Ukrainian newcomers is more challenging in Ontario than other provinces. The average monthly rental price for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto was $2,133 in June, data from Rentals.ca showed, compared to $1,538 in Montreal and $1,669 in Halifax.
“Probably more than 60 per cent of (Ukrainian) people in Canada are arriving in Toronto, to the GTA, and then … struggling to find housing of any kind,” he says.
Ukrainian community groups, including churches and community agencies and organizations, are trying to find host families, empty apartments and emergency shelter spaces, he says.
“There’s just a very high demand and very low availability,” he says.
Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton, who’s responsible for immigration, says his department is working with other government departments and municipalities to support those Ukrainians.
“Certainly, it’s a challenge,” he says in an interview.
“We’re working with our municipal partners … to identify the housing inventory so these people have safe shelter and a safe place here in Ontario.”
According to the federal government, 55,488 Ukrainians arrived in Canada between Jan. 1 and June 26.
The government says it received 343,283 applications under the new program for Ukrainians between March 17 and June 28, and 146,461 were approved.
– with files from Holly McKenzie-Sutter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2022.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
