There are more questions than answers today regarding the refugee issue, after that cabinet meeting.
The Liberal government is still committed to bringing in 25-thousand Syrian refugees by the end of the year but no further information on how that will happen.
The groups that will be helping to settle those refugees were certainly hoping for some concrete answers today to allow them to proceed with concrete plans.
Still, it is full speed ahead, gathering donations and dollars from some very interesting individuals. 10-year-old Kalina Dunne-Farrell lost a tooth Friday night. In a note, she asked the tooth fairy for a little extra cash so that today, she could present her entire savings, $157, to Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO), an Ottawa settlement agency, to help Syrian refugees. Kalina’s parents have both been to Syria on a couple of occasions and showed Kalina and her younger brother some videos about what was happening to the Syrian refugees. Kalina wanted to help.
‘I hope that they live well,’ she said, ‘they might need the money.’
Leslie Emory is the executive director of OCISO and says they have been overwhelmed with the generosity of the public.
‘This is a wonderful example of giving in an area where there's a huge need,’ Emory said, ‘We're going to be receiving a large number of refugees and we are really counting on the public to help us settle them and make them feel welcome.’
But now it comes down to the hard numbers: how many Syrian refugees will be coming to Ottawa and when.
‘I don’t know for sure,’ says Emory, ‘we've heard anywhere from 12-hundred to two thousand but those are not concrete numbers. We hope to know by Monday.’
Settlement agencies were hoping for some answers after today's Cabinet meeting. They're counting on additional funding, too.
Refugee 613 is the group that is helping to coordinate Ottawa's efforts around the refugee crisis. They've had great public support but now are counting on corporate support as well.
‘We need things like warehouse space,’ says Louisa Taylor, the director of Refugee 613, ‘people to help us with meeting space, office space, people to bring staff out for volunteering, to drive trucks. This is tremendous exciting opportunity for Ottawa. We are going to build our community with some amazing people who have gone through a lot and they are going to help us build the Ottawa of the future.’
Groups undertaking private sponsorships, meantime, are forging ahead. The Knox Presbyterian Church has sponsored a family of 5 and says the furniture, the accommodations for the family, whenever they come, will fall into place.
‘All the problems on the ground tend to pale in comparison with the Syrian families waiting and waiting and wondering when they will be in situation of settlement,’ says Laurie Fyffe, the coordinator of the Knox Sponsorship Program.
Knox is holding a fundraising concert for the refugee sponsorship program November 18th at the church on 120 Lisgar Street. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.ca for $15 or at the door for $20.
