The face of Oro-Medonte is changing — slowly, but surely.
According to a presentation made at the township’s council meeting this week, Oro-Medonte lags well behind Simcoe County overall when it comes to immigrants settling in the municipality, speaking a mother tongue other than English or French and identifying as part of a racialized group.
“Historically, in Simcoe County, newcomers would come after landing and living in an urban location, like Toronto, for a few years,” Morgane Dunot, bilingual program supervisor, Local Immigration Partnership at the County of Simcoe, said during her presentation to council.
“Over the last five years there was an increase of newcomers and immigrants landing in Canada and indicating they were moving directly to Simcoe County as their first residence in Canada.”
That change is having a direct impact on not only the country’s newcomers but the specific municipalities they’re settling in.
“When newcomers are arriving with their permanent residency they might need a little bit more support understanding how Canadian society functions as a whole and how their new community functions,” Dunot said.
According to Dunot’s presentation, using information from the 2021 Census, there were 82,290 immigrant residents living in Simcoe County or 15.7 per cent of the county’s population.
Across the county, there was a 33.6 per increase in immigrant residents between 2016 and 2021.
In Oro-Medonte, the increase was only 9.9 per cent, during the same time. (Springwater Township’s increase was 28.8 per cent and Essa Township’s was 44.5 per cent.)
While Simcoe County experienced a 40.5 per cent increase in residents reporting a non-official mother tongue, Oro-Medonte was again less than a third of the county rate at only 13.2 per cent. (Springwater’s increase was 60.7 per cent, Essa’s 47.3 per cent.)
When it comes to residents who identify as part of a racialized group, the township results — 2.9 per cent — are, again, less than a third of the county rate of 12.4 per cent.
Regardless of where they’re settling in the county, newcomers say they’re facing some major challenges.
The biggest obstacle is finding work (48 per cent), followed by making friends or social connections (43 per cent), accessing health care (35 per cent), finding housing (29 per cent), experiencing discrimination/racism (25 per cent) and learning English and/or French (22 per cent.)
Understandably, developing a sense of belonging was vital to many newcomers’ experience.
“A lot of newcomers and immigrants are coming to our communities after doing a journey that is thousands of kilometres,” Dunot said. “When they don’t find that sense of belonging they move to a community that is more welcoming.”
To stem that tide, Dunot shared a number of recommendations municipalities could consider.
First, they could provide a centralized location for service delivery access, social connection and multicultural celebration.
“This particular recommendation, when we talk to community partners, immigrants or employers, was kind of a common voice,” Dunot said. “Trying to have a central location for individuals to come and access services, celebrate their culture, was one of the main asks from the community.”
Following close behind was the need for the increased use of interpretation/translation support.
“When we’re looking at newcomers and immigrants that don’t have English or French as a first language, it might be easy to find an item in the grocery store but when we’re talking about different specific topics, it might be helpful for an individual to have a person that speaks in their own native tongue,” Dunot said.
Accessing housing is also a challenge.
According to Dunot, most immigrants don’t have a Canadian credit history nor do they have Canadian references.
“When they try to look for housing, this is often a barrier for landlords,” she said. “Many landlords are asking them for six to 12 months of rent, up front.”
Acknowledging that the township is changing, Coun. John Bard looked to the township’s chief administrative officer, Shawn Binns, for information on training opportunities for staff to focus specifically on service delivery for new Canadians.
Binns said there are a number of opportunities for staff and the community to become engaged in, to share some of the resources and celebrate some of the cultural areas of significance that the township has and resources it has for new Canadians.
“Certainly, diversity equity inclusion, as well as reconciliation, is a strategic area of focus for us,” Binns said. “As we look into 2025, it will be a priority for our human resources department.”
