On average, Canada approves approximately 10,000 refugee applications for permanent residence each year. Due to the Syrian refugee crisis, the Government of Canada announced last year that it would admit 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by December 31, 2015. The Government of Canada also arranged for privately chartered aircrafts to safely transport these approved individuals for landing in either Toronto or Montreal, both having the capacity to receive and process large volumes of refugees in a short time. Canadian Government officials worked tirelessly and devoted significant resources to achieve this. It soon became evident that the proposed plan was overly ambitious due to the volume of applications and the self-imposed deadline was adjusted to March 2016.
On February 27, 2016, the Government of Canada reached its target of admitting 25,000 Syrian refugees and promised to continue processing more applicants in 2016. So far, over 28,400 Syrian refugees have been approved for permanent residence in Canada and over 26,200 have arrived in Canada. Despite the 99 flights that have already been made, there are still over 2,200 Syrian refugees approved and waiting for their turn to travel to Canada and over 13,000 Syrian refugee applications in the queue waiting to be assessed.
The majority of the Syrian refugees arriving in Canada are government-assisted refugees and, following initial processing at airports in Toronto or Montreal, they are transferred to 1 of the 36 identified destination communities across Canada with an existing Resettlement Assistance Program and provided with accommodations. Alberta has 5 destination communities which are Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Since November of 2015, Alberta has admitted over 2,000 government-assisted refugees to destination communities and over 1,000 privately sponsored refugees to 25 other communities in Alberta.
Canada has a long tradition of humanitarian action and has developed respected programs to assist the world's most vulnerable through government operations, private sponsors and volunteers, while ensuring the health and safety of Canadians. Recently, Canada's 2016 Immigration Levels Plan was released outlining the Government of Canada's projected immigration targets and their intention to resettle 44,800 refugees this year from all over the world; a significant increase over last years' initial target of 14,000. More information to assist with refugee efforts can be found at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/help.asp.