By Alex Soloducha

Refugee settlement deadline changed, YWCA debunks myths

Nov 25, 2015 | 10:59 AM

With the recent announcement from the federal government on refugee resettlement, those in charge locally can breathe a slight sigh of relief.

On Tuesday, the Liberal government modified their plan, with a new goal of accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year, and 15,000 by February.

Donna Brooks, CEO of the YWCA in Prince Albert said they don’t yet have an exact date on when refugees will arrive in the city.

Still, she said when the government extended the deadline from the end of December to the end of February, it made the daunting 25,000 a little more manageable for individual organizations.

“(It) gives everybody in our industry some breathing room when it comes to settlement,” she said.

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Since they’ve been in planning mode recently, when it comes to the logistics, Brooks said they are pretty much covered.  

“We’re quite confident we’ll be fine on housing,” she said. “We’ve had a number of our workers contacting different landlords around the city, and right now there seems to be enough housing for everyone.

“Maybe a year ago, that would’ve been a huge challenge, but right now, the vacancy rate is high enough we’re confident we’ll be able to house everybody.”

According to Brooks, one of their biggest challenges has surprisingly been organizing volunteers.

“We have a lot of people who want to volunteer,” she said. “So we might be looking to maybe hiring a volunteer coordinator,” she said.

They are expecting to hear an actual breakdown on numbers and dates from Citizen Immigration Canada in the coming weeks. Brooks said they are looking forward to finding out when groups of refugees are coming and how many will be coming at a time.

“As soon as we know that, we can hit the ground running,” she said.

Recently, opinions on the issue have been flying all over social media. To this, Brooks responded by debunking some common misconceptions.

“A lot of people say, ‘We need to be helping our (people) in Canada first,’” said Brooks.

She explained that as the CEO of an agency which has both homelessness programs and settlement programs, she sees, first hand, that the government provides, “quite a bit of funding towards the homelessness initiative as well.”

Brooks, who operates two shelters in the city, said when you total the amount of available beds at both, there are well over 90.

“We also have a program called Homeward Bound that helps chronically homeless people settle in to apartments and establish a solid life there, with support,” Brooks explained.

“I do want to stand up for the government because they do fund a lot of programs for our Canadians right here in our own backyard,” Brooks continued. “That is one misconception that is out there, that they don’t do that.”

Brooks said she encourages everyone to educate themselves on the settlement process and how refugees are screened from an official source.

–With files from Nigel Maxwell

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha