Ontario pledges $10.5M for aid, to give refugees 'warm welcome'
Dario Balca, CTVNews.ca, Published Saturday, September 12, 2015 7:50AM EDT, Last Updated Saturday, September 12, 2015 1:37PM EDT, Source
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has announced $10.5 million in funding to help settle refugees in the province and to support international relief efforts.
“The Syrian refugee crisis is the worst in decades, and every day, conflicts in other countries are forcing people to flee their homes,” Wynne said. “We can and must do far more to respond to those who need our help. This funding will help thousands of refugees find a warm welcome in Ontario and give them the support they need to start building new lives here.”
During an announcement made at Toronto’s Corvetti Education Centre on Saturday, Wynne said Ontario would provide $2 million in immediate relief efforts through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN World Food Programme.
The other $8.5 million will be spread out over the next two-and-half years to help refugees settle and integrate in Ontario.
“We want to bring more people, we want to support them when they are here, and we recognize that there is an ongoing need for aid overseas,” Wynne said.
The premier also announced that Ontario aims to resettle 10,000 refugees by the end of 2016.
The province had already pledged $300,000 to Lifeline Syria, an organization trying to bring 1,000 asylum-seekers from the war-torn country to Toronto.
Manitoba has also offered $40,000 to help refugee-settlement services and Quebec is aiming to resettle nearly 2,000 refugees by the end of the year.
While several groups across the country are working to resettle refugees through private sponsorship, the number of government-sponsored refugees to Canada is decided by the federal government -- which has recently faced mounting public criticism of the way it has dealt with the crisis.
Wynne has also been urging the Harper government to streamline the process of bringing refugees to Canada in order to help more asylum-seekers.
“As we watch the toll of human suffering continue to mount, it is clear that we need to do more,” Wynne said. “It is everyone’s responsibility…to find a way to do everything that we can.”
Stephen Harper has been steadfast in saying that accepting more refugees and sending humanitarian assistance to displaced people in the Middle East is not enough to solve the crisis, emphasizing instead the importance of taking the military fight to the Islamic State militants responsible for the displacement of the refugees.
On Saturday, however, Minister of International Development Christian Paradis announced that the federal government would match donations made by Canadians toward the refugee crisis, up to $100 million.
When asked by reporters why the Tories would not respond to calls to immediately accept more refugees, Paradis stressed that the federal government was increasing resources on the ground.
"We are deploying now more resources in Beirut, in Ankara, in Amman," he said. "We have more people on the ground to make sure that the processing is accelerated.
"That being said the backlog has been reduced by 50 per cent across the board."
He referred to Ottawa’s "three-pillar-plan" to address the refugee crisis. The plan includes partaking in the coalition fight against ISIS, continuing to be a top donor in humanitarian aid, and continuing to process refugee applications.
At a news conference held later in the day, Adam Vaughan, the Liberal candidate for Spadina-Fort York, responded to the announcement by saying that financial support is only part of the solution the refugee crisis, adding that any response that doesn’t involve allowing more government-sponsored refugees into Canada would be insufficient.
Vaughan -- who was joined by Liberal candidate for Hull-Aylmer Greg Fergus -- also called on the Conservatives to put party politics aside and work with other parties toward a streamlined process of bringing asylum-seekers into the country.
“Canadians are coming together. Politicians should come together. That’s what Canadians expect of us,” Vaughan said. “I don’t this is a partisan issue. This is a Canadian issue.”
If elected in October, the Liberals have promised to resettle 25,000 refugees before the end of the year.
With files from the Canadian Press
