Syrian refugee strategy to be unveiled at Ottawa town hall

The City of Ottawa and partners such as the United Way will announce how they plan to help bring in Syrian refugees to Ottawa at a town hall meeting tonight.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has been working on ways to help millions of displaced Syrians for nearly a month alongside several different community groups.

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From 5 to 9 p.m. at City Hall, Watson is hosting a meeting he says will bring in experts to answer the public's questions about the sponsorship process, get contact information to follow up with the right people, introduce a new coalition of local organizations and launch a fundraising campaign.

"Not everyone, obviously, can afford to bring in a family or sponsor a family at the cost of about $27,000," he said in an interview on Ottawa Morning on Thursday.

"That's one of the reasons why we want to start some fundraising to help those groups... to come together so money is not an obstacle to help people in their time of need."

Watson told Ottawa Morning host Robyn Bresnahan he wants to help sponsor a Syrian family to come to Ottawa as part of what's known as a "group of five" people or organizations that split the cost.

He said he hasn't set a goal for how many refugees he wants Ottawa to take in.

"We want to help as many as possible and not overextend ourselves to the point where we don't have the financial means to help someone and we set them up for failure," he said.

Full details coming tonight

Many details are being held until an official announcement at the town hall, but United Way Ottawa said it's going "above and beyond" its usual fundraising campaign to help on two sides of the issue.

"A new person arriving in Ottawa for the first time... what are their needs? That's work we're already involved in," said United Way Ottawa's president and CEO Michael Allen.

"But in addition we expect that we'll be called upon to provide support for families or 'groups of five' as is known, to sponsor refugees. We recognize perhaps we'll be called upon to offer support there. We're gladly stepping up."

A group of lawyers called the Refugee Sponsorship Support Program, which was launched in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, says it will be at the town hall to give free legal help to people who are interested in the sponsorship process.

The United Nations has estimated as many as nine million people have been displaced by the conflict in Syria since March 2011 and more than four million of those people have left the country.