MARIE-CLAUDE Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, on Thursday announced $100 million in humanitarian assistance funding to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to help respond to pressing needs, including shelter, protection, education and health for those affected by the Syrian crisis.
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Real estate companies are contributing apartments, airlines are offering seats and individual business leaders are chipping in cash.
Wednesday’s offer follows a similar one last week by fellow Calgary-based Boardwalk Rental Communities to provide 350 apartments across the Prairies and in Montreal, and Westbank Corp.’s donation of 12 fully furnished and stocked apartments in downtown Vancouver.
The logistics, however, of welcoming them is a daunting challenge – even for organizations that have spent years helping refugees.
According to CBC News, the Canadian government will “limit those accepted into Canada to women, children, and families only”, due to “some ongoing concerns about security”.
The company says it hasn’t finalized what kind of discount will be provided, but said it could include temporarily waiving the rent or a longer discounted rate. “We’ve done it before and we will do it again”, he said.
In Ontario, meantime, a businessman in Guelph, Ont., has spearheaded the future settlement of 50 Syrian families in his community.
British Columbia already receives an estimated 1,600 to 1,700 refugees a year, and has been making a new home for those fleeing tyranny and terror ever since most of Hungary’s foresters fled from a brutal Soviet crackdown in 1956. “It’s about landing people properly and integrating them… We were aware that people were going to raise security as a reason not to welcome refugees at all”.
However, McCallum added, “It takes a bit of time to put that all in place”.
As Canada prepares to welcome 25,000 vulnerable refugees in the coming months, Trudeau pledged the initial arrivals were just the start of a greater effort.
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United Nations staff in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are now working overtime and on weekends to help select some 15,000 Syrians who will be brought to Canada by the end of February directly by the government, and the money will go to supporting those efforts.
