Is Windsor ready to help Canada bring in refugees?

The newly sworn-in Liberal government has pledged to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the new year.

The question is whether communities like Windsor are ready to receive them.

Lina Alnatour and her son Mohamad Al-haik came to Windsor from Syria eight months ago. Their memories of war are still fresh.

"We saw things in my country, bad things. Very bad things," Alnatour said. "We need to sometimes forget what we see, what we saw in my country."

She still has another son overseas and she hopes to bring him to Windsor.

"We want to bring him here. We make the people, the government promise to bring him. We hope to bring him [immediately]," she said.

As one of six Ontario cities accepting government assisted refugees, Windsor is technically ready for the expected influx of people but experts say there's still work to do.

"I don't think things are going to fall into place that easily and quickly," said Sudip Minhas, a director at the Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women organization.

• Syrian refugees wait to see if Trudeau can deliver on promises
• Europe migrant crisis: October flow roughly matched all of 2014, UN says

Minhas, who sits on a provincial board that will help settle the refugees here, said Windsor could handle 1,000 refugees, but not until January.

"There's also the possibility the government will take a step back [and say] let's deliberate more on it, let's be prepared on the ground."

Speaking to reporters at his swearing-in ceremony Wednesday, Trudeau did not give a clear answer on his promise. He said his government would be working on it.

In order to ensure proper care for refugees, there needs to be adequate schools, housing and medical services. It's not yet certain whether they're ready, Minhas said.

"One of the first things is going to be housing, which is already strained and the school boards, are they equipped to take in that number?" she said.

Speaking on CBC Radio's Windsor Morning program earlier this month, former Canadian diplomat Michael Molloy said it takes time to bring in refugees.

"These are human beings. It's not like we're ordering up widgets," he said. "These are human beings who've been badly traumatized. The trick is to do it right, not to do it fast."