Syrian refugees will need education, housing, say mayors

The mayors of Coquitlam and Surrey say they are scrambling to prepare for the refugees slated to settle in B.C., many of whom will go to their municipalities. 

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The Canadian government says on Tuesday it will announce the details of its plan to accept 25,000 refugees by year end.

Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart, and Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, joined Rick Cluff on CBC Radio One's The Early Edition to talk about the biggest challenges they see in the federal government's plan, including the refugees' education and housing needs.

Mayor Stewart, your city has a long history of welcoming new Canadians, refugees. Does the timeline to settle 25,000 refugees by the end of the year make sense to you?

S: There's no question it's a somewhat arbitrary timeline. We've made it clear to the federal government that if they chose to relax it a little bit, that would be fine with us. It does put a lot of pressure on our services. I think we can do it, but there are also lots of people in our community and other communities that have expressed concerns for a variety of reasons.

We've heard the government will only allow women, children, and men who are part of families to come into this country. They've said they won't be allowing single men as a security measure. What do you think of that?

H: I think that security is first and foremost on everyone's mind and my conversation over the weekend with the immigration minister was that those that have been already defined as sponsored refugees, as well as those who have been languishing for some time in other countries, will be the first out of the gate. That probably bodes well in terms of the security risks.

Mayor Stewart, your city is expected to take about 600 refugees — where are they going to live?

S: That's our challenge right now, we're trying to identify the wide range of housing that will be needed — some of it urgent, for those immediate few days. A great deal of it is going to have to be the long term housing for families in areas of Coquitlam that have the kinds of services that they're going to need.

We have continually received refugees and of course a large range of immigrants from across the world over decades. We're actually quite good at it. Our challenge is going to be finding those housing units. We've had churches contact us. We've had residents contact us with the possibility of taking on one of these families. But there's a lot of work ahead of us.

Mayor Hepner, your city is reaching out to the public saying community involvement is urgently required — what are the biggest challenges you'll face in trying to accommodate 1,000 new people?

H: That's a big number for Surrey. Over the past decade, we've been getting the majority, or at least 30 per cent of the refugees that have come to British Columbia. Quite frankly, we are really stretched. Particularly in the arena of education.

I think that schooling and making sure not only the children have ESL, but the adults, so that they're job-ready as quickly as possible. But we're stretched already in the arena of schools, everybody knows that. So I'm hoping that that money — and I made it clear to the minister — that I would hope that the money that comes can be utilized in the arenas that need it. 

Mayor Stewart, in your city, you've got that huge Riverview complex — is that a possibility for housing refugees?

S: I've begun talking to the provincial government about it, especially because there are a couple of buildings there that have just been upgraded in order to accommodate a different use.

I think the bigger problem will be, we can't use that for permanent housing. It's not designed for that, it's not in any way appropriate for that. But the long-term housing for the single mom with two children near schools, that's going to be the issue and we look out to our residents to try to find solutions in their homes, right in our community.

Is it realistic for these people to be settled here in a matter of six weeks?

S: I use an example; we had an apartment fire that displaced hundreds of people overnight. And not once did I hear anyone say, 'You know, they haven't given us much notice here.' We found them housing. Our community rallied. This is a much bigger challenge, but I think our communities can rally. 

Immigration Minister John McCallum is going to make details of Canada's refugee plan public tomorrow. What do you want to hear from the federal government?

H: I want to hear that the resources will follow the people, that it's not just going into one pot and that it has the flexibility that the community may require and that there's a very strong understanding of who's the lead.

S: There are so many communities and so many residents that have concerns over the security issues. I want to hear from the federal government an answer that allays their concerns and makes all of our community be able to get behind this challenge. As Mayor Hepner said, we really need the resources, and we need a plan. What is it that local communities will be responsible for? And some indication of the timing.

We're running out of time and it would be absolutely wonderful if they said, we've heard from Canadians. We're going to stretch this out or at least, don't hold us to account for not making the December 31st deadline.

This interview has been condensed and edited. To hear the full interview, click the link labelled: Coquitlam mayor and Surrey mayor on how their cities will support Syrian refugees.