Sask. reduces settlement support funding as number of new Ukrainian refugees ebbs
Opposition calls cut 'callous and cold'
The Saskatchewan government has reduced funding for the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Saskatchewan Provincial Council (UCC-SPC), which offers settlement services for displaced Ukrainians.
The reduction, effective May 1, was part of the provincial budget tabled earlier this year. The province says it reflects a return to normal funding levels after a bump to help deal with the large influx of Ukrainians in the earlier years of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"This is a reduction recognizing that fewer people are using the services," Saskatchewan Minister of Immigration and Career Training Jim Reiter said. "But the services are still in place. The Ukrainian refugees are also welcome to use all the settlement services that other groups use as well."
Funding for UCC-SPC has gone down by $500,000, but Reiter emphasized that no services have been eliminated.
Effective Wednesday, UCC-SCP laid off five full-time and one part-time staff member in Regina and Saskatoon due to the cut.
"Although the number of arrivals to Saskatchewan has declined over the past year, this decision was a surprise," said Elena Krueger, president of UCC-SPC.
She said the organization has been delivering necessary settlement services to people who have sought refuge in Saskatchewan since the start of the war.
"UCC Saskatchewan is grateful to the Government of Saskatchewan for its support for displaced Ukrainians over the past three years," Krueger said.
"It is, however, disappointing that, at a time when Russia continues to bomb Ukraine on a daily basis and Ukrainian men, women and children are being killed, the funding for needed settlement supports for those who have fled the war is being cut."
NDP MLA for Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood Keith Jorgenson criticized the reduction this week, saying it was bad both morally and economically.
"Putin's war rages on and Scott Moe himself said in March his government stood with Ukraine and would welcome in more people displaced by this devastating invasion — but clearly his actions tell an entirely different story," Jorgenson said.
Jorgenson said many people still need support, even if there are fewer new arrivals.
"My comparison is that when my wife and I stopped having kids, we strangely continued to buy groceries," he said. "Merely because the people have stopped arriving it doesn't mean that the work of settling them, and supporting them has stopped."
On April 30, the NDP introduced legislation to permanently recognize September as Ukrainian Heritage Month. The Sask. Party has yet to indicate publicly if it will support the bill.
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With files from Laura Sciarpelletti