THUNDER BAY – The federal government’s plan to resettle Syrian refugees will likely mean any arrival to the city won’t happen by the end of the year.
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship John McCallum announced the Liberal government’s plan on Tuesday, declaring the government is abandoning the pledge to bring in 25,000 by the end of the year and instead committing to 10,000 refugees by Dec. 31 with an additional 15,000 to arrive within the first two months of 2016.
Of that initial 10,000, about 80 per cent of them are to be privately sponsored. The others will likely be received by the 36 Refugee Assistance Program designated sites, which does not include Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay Multicultural Association executive director Cathy Woodbeck said this plan means it’s not clear when, or if, the city will be called upon to receive the 20 families, about 100 people, of Syrian refugees city council last week voted unanimously to welcome.
“Our wave, if they do come, will be later. We’ve tried to connect with the minister and the mayor will be in contact with the minister to see what their plans are for designating people to Thunder Bay,” she said on Wednesday.
“We don’t know exactly when we’ll be part of the mix and we’ll seek clarification on when we will be.”
That gives the multicultural association time to ensure plans and supports are in place for when refugees arrive.
“We now have all the information really that we need. Now we have the time to make the plans and connect with the community to create the hubs of volunteers to get ready,” she said. “We just want to know who to expect so we don’t disappoint volunteers and those who would like to donate.”
Ottawa’s plan is putting priority on resettling refugees sponsored by private community organizations. Woodbeck said she is aware of 12 private sponsor groups within the region.
One of those is the Redwood Park Church, which has created a refugee settlement committee in efforts to sponsor a family.
Committee co-chair Reg Jones said work began in early September and started the process to locate a family. The committee would be provided on a weekly basis with a list by the government of approved families, but the list was limited and the eligible families would already be claimed by the time they officially inquired.
The committee then started asking around the city for any local connections and learned about residents who had cousins living in Lebanon after fleeing Syrian violence. The family has five members with two parents and three daughters between the ages of 13 and 23, who had spent the past three years living in a single room.
“We began to realize refugees in a place like Lebanon are in worse shape than some in camps because refugees there can’t work. They don’t have a work visa and there isn’t any work. The children can’t go to school because they can’t afford private fees and as refugees they aren’t citizens,” Jones said.
“When we realized the plight these folks were in we sat down and determined that was the family for us.”
The committee reached that decision four weeks ago and spent the subsequent two weeks preparing the application and finding a sponsorship agreement holder. They are two-thirds towards the $30,000 cost of sponsoring a family.
