On November 3, 2025, Alongside Hope hosted its annual day-long Refugee Network Meeting in Toronto prior to the three-day National Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) Conference. Refugee coordinators from ten dioceses across Canada met in person – Islands & Inlets, Kootenay, Qu’Appelle, Rupert’s Land, Huron, Niagara, Toronto, Ottawa, Ontario, and NS & PEI – coordinators from the Diocese of Calgary and Action Refugees Montreal joined us online.
Our day together as Anglicans always reinforces our sense of “togetherness” and sets the tone for the following three days of the SAH Conference. It means that we always have someone to sit with at larger meetings and people to join for dinner at nearby restaurants.
This sense of belonging is also valuable in other ways. I am the lone staff member for our diocese. Being able to seek on-the-spot advice from others in the group and hearing their concerns and successes is both satisfying and encouraging. Knowing these people well enough that I can reach out to them in the coming months is also helpful. Finally, understanding the benefits and constraints of belonging to an Anglican diocese and especially sharing a deep commitment to the blessed Trinity is both gratifying and inspiring.
Some statistics…
- In 2024, 14 of 15 Anglican SAHs in Canada welcomed 707 people into their communities. By November 2025, those SAHs had welcomed another 382 newcomers. While private money funds the start-up and monthly costs of resettling refugees in Canada, IRCC (Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship Canada) staffs the offices in Ottawa and overseas which scrutinize each application. IRCC announced a 20% reduction in its funding in November 2024 and an even more severe cut of 54% in November 2025 thus impacting the level of staffing that is available to process applications. We saw an obvious slump in the processing in 2025, and we fear what might happen in 2026.
- The federal government has also reduced the “global cap,” that is, the number of applications that each of the 143 Canadian SAHs can submit – from 13,500 in 2024 to 10,800 in 2025, and now to 5000 in 2026. The 14 Anglican SAHs submitted applications for 632 refugees in 2025 but only 467 people in 2025. Obviously, there will be a significant drop in 2026.
The slow-down in processing mentioned above has the Anglican SAHs and all other SAHs holding their communal breath these days because Afghan refugees in Pakistan are facing immanent deportation back to Afghanistan. As of mid-2025, at least three million Afghans had fled to Pakistan after the Taliban re-took the Afghan government in 2021. In October 2023, the Pakistan Government started deporting Afghans when reduced global aid to the United Nations led to increased pressure on Pakistan to manage its large Afghan refugee population on its own. Nowadays, the Pakistani government demands that landlords evict Afghan renters, and police teams are picking up Afghan refugees off the streets and going door-to-door to detain and deport many others – often at night. We receive daily pleas for help from our own applications and many other refugees.
Individual SAHs and the Canadian Government can do little, if anything, to protect our applications in Pakistan and elsewhere. It is very heart-wrenching when all we can offer is moral support, but at least our applicants have a chance to come to Canada, “God willing” or “Inshallah” as the Muslims say.
