Funding shift ends job of Welcome Place head

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This article was published 06/02/2020 (1821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After several challenging years, the executive director of one of Manitoba’s oldest refugee resettlement agencies is no longer working there.

The board of Welcome Place reportedly terminated Rita Chahal’s position earlier this week. Chahal declined to comment.

No one at the building on Bannatyne Avenue would discuss the matter on Thursday. Acting executive director, Marta Kalita, said the board of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council Inc., which oversees Welcome Place, planned to issue a statement.

Board chairman Bruce Waite didn’t agree to an interview but sent an email Thursday. It says it’s “no secret” that the federal government is no longer funding Welcome Place to provide resettlement services to government-assisted refugees. The Free Press reported in August that Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada had rejected Welcome Place’s Resettlement Assistance Program funding proposal. Starting in April, Accueil francophone would be funded to provide those services in Winnipeg instead.

The federal government wouldn’t specify why it was no longer contracting with Welcome Place. It told the Free Press the decision had to do with cost-effectiveness, and told Welcome Place in a letter that there were a number of “intersecting factors” behind the decision.

That program funding made up one-third of Welcome Place’s budget.

“As such, adjustments to our service delivery model and client programming are required to continue to be relevant as a refugee service provider,” board chairman Waite’s email said. Chahal’s salary — presuming the executive director earned the highest pay — was between $80,000 and $119,999, according to the Canada Revenue Agency. It reports compensation for the 10 highest-paid permanent, full-time positions at registered charities. The CRA lists nine Welcome Place employees who earn between $40,000 to $79,999 and one receives somewhere in the range of $80,000 to $119,999.

“We are in the process of moving through this as an agency,” Waite said. “However, until we are further along in the process, we aren’t in a position to comment publicly.”

Before being hired by Welcome Place in 2013, Chahal had worked as general manager of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce and served on several boards, including the Manitoba Centennial Centre Corp. She herself was a newcomer to Canada when she was six and her family immigrated from India and resettled on the East Coast. She attended Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia before moving to Winnipeg.

When she started working at Welcome Place seven years ago, she was new to the refugee resettlement sector. At that time, there was a major shift in federal immigration policy that affected everything from health care to settlement services. In Winnipeg, an affordable housing shortage with shelter allowances not keeping pace with soaring rents added to the refugee resettlement challenges.

In an interview shortly after she was hired, Chahal said housing was the primary issue. She said she wanted to get help from the business community and promote education and awareness of refugee issues. Chahal said she wanted to make sure Welcome Place was embracing technology, following best practices, getting the biggest bang for its buck and able to bring inspirational speakers like Oprah and Nobel Prize-winning banker Muhammad Yunus to Winnipeg. Then the Syrian refugee crisis happened and Donald Trump was elected U.S. president.

In 2015-16, Welcome Place helped resettle more than 1,000 government-assisted Syrian refugees.

In 2016-17, after Trump’s election and anti-refugee rhetoric ramped up in the U.S., there was a major influx of asylum seekers. More than 1,000 crossed the border on foot to make refugee claims inside Canada, and went to Welcome Place for help. They were ineligible for most government-funded programs. That surge in refugee claimants drew international media attention for Welcome Place that was followed by a surge in donations and provincial and federal aid to the agency to help those seeking asylum with their refugee claims, paper work and basic human needs.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca