UN refugee agency has only raised 45 per cent of the $4.5 billion it sought for 2015 to assist the 4.3 million refugees who have fled Syria for Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq.
Just one quick text message from the UN asking if refugees are interested in the Liberal government's resettlement program will set them on the path to a new life in Canada.
In 2013, the agency asked for 130,000 spaces to be made available by 2016, whether through direct refugee resettlement programs or humanitarian admission.
Decision to abandon original year-end deadline to resettle the entire 25,000 was due to nothing more than a need to institute the best possible program, Immigration Minister John McCallum said.
Since the start, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called on countries to help resettle some of the most vulnerable Syrians who can never return home.
Liberal government's plan to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees by the new year is one way that Canada is contributing to the fight against the Islamic State, says Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan.
“This is only the beginning. The world’s poor have have suffered and gone without for too long. Now they will come. And they will keep coming. This is a revolution.”
Liberal platform had committed to immediately increasing the number of Syrian refugees coming to Canada via government channels to 25,000, but there was no deadline attached.