The government should not pay for immigrants to take courses that help them lose their accents, according the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
But one local immigrant’s services organization says the courses help newcomers get and retain much-needed work.
Arrive B.C., a skills connect program funded by the province, is one of several organizations sending clients to L2 Accent Reduction Centre in Vancouver.
Sessions cost about $75 an hour and last from 10 to 20 sessions, which is expensive for some immigrants or people trying to find work.
“A lot of (our clients) get their programs paid for,” said Jennifer Madigan, director of the centre said.
“The agencies we work with have the government resources to help people find work. And they can justify spending money on their clients improving their communication skills.”
Alexei Bobyrev, a Russian immigrant who works for Ballard Power, said that the course helped him dramatically at work.
“People no longer give me a confused look at work when I’m trying to explain something,” he said.
Randy Wong, CEO of Canada Social Enterprises Inc, a subsidiary of immigrants’ assistance organization SUCCESS — which has similar courses — said subsidized accent-reduction classes are a good idea.
“When people detect a strong accent they automatically assume (the speaker) doesn’t know much English, which often isn’t the case,” he said.
Wong said being better understood at work opens doors for newcomers.
But Maureen Bader, B.C. director with the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation in Vancouver, said the public shouldn’t be paying for people to take accent coaching.
“(L2) is a good example of a well-intentioned program that shouldn’t be funded by taxpayers,” she said. “If a person believes they’d benefit from accent coaching they should pay for it themselves.”
