Prince George’s Immigrant and Multicultural Service Society hosted Premier Christy Clark and MLA Shirley Bond on Tuesday, who announced the group would receive $14,143 in “Refugee Readiness” funding.
In addition to privately sponsored families earlier this year, three government sponsored refugee families arrived at the start of this month. Those families will be moving out of hotels and into apartments next week.
Refugee Readiness Team Coordinator Dorothy Friesen said the first priority for all the Syrian refugees, both privately and government sponsored, is to learn English.
“Unlike down on the coast where we keep hearing that there is a year long waiting list to get English lessons, here in Prince George, the people that came a week and a half ago are already in classes.”
She noted that several of the refugees have already lined up jobs.
Many community stakeholders and organizations have stepped up to make the transition easier; the Prince George RCMP will give refugees are crash course on dealing with police in Canada. CNC, UNBC, the City of Prince George and many more have contributed to the IMSS “Refugee Response Teams”
“The School Board stepped up and are taking the kids by bus to school everyday for this term.” Friesen said as all the refugee children have been attending one school which has ESL services.
But when it comes to the local cuisine, the families have been slower to adapt.
“Some of the things people have been donating, the Syrian families don’t know what to do with them so we are talking about putting on a cooking class using Canadian ingredients.”
Kraft Dinner, pasta sauce and breakfast cereal are a few of the more unpopular/confusing food items.
But despite all the local success and support for the new Canadians, many are hesitant settle in BC’s Northern Capital.
“They are being able to choose where they want to go, so right now there is a number of refugees in hotels in Vancouver who have decided they want to stay in Vancouver.” Friesen said
The IMSS actually had apartments ready for ten government sponsored refugee families, but had to let others go when just three families arrived.
“We’ve got so much capacity here to take so many more, and I think we were all a little bit disappointed that we only got three families. We were all geared up for a minimum of ten.”
There is a chance Prince George will see more government sponsored families as Immigration Minister John McCallum announced earlier this month that the Government of Canada plans on settling 55,800 refugees this year.
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