THUNDER BAY -- The city will now play a bigger role in helping refugees resettle in Canada.
The federal government announced Wednesday that Thunder Bay, through the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association will become one of 31 communities to have a Resettlement Assistance Program centre.
While the city has been helping refugees for many years, association executive director Cathy Woodbeck said the program, and its not-yet-announced funding, will help Thunder Bay welcome government-assisted refugees with everything from greetings at the airport to temporary housing. Requests for proposals from the federal government earlier this year. Woodbeck shows the fact that the city is now a RAP centre shows that it has what's necessary to help.
"We have also have a community that is welcoming to refugees," she said.
The association, along with its partner in Sault Ste. Marie, will help refugees come to Northern Ontario and get them permanently settled whether in the region or anywhere else the families want to go in Canada. She figures up to 100 families could be expected.
"It's not thousands of people coming and it's not a program that people would be waiting for months and months in hotels either," she said.
Woodbeck said the city has nearly a dozen refugee families so far either in Thunder Bay or on the way. They've all settled in nicely in the city she said.
