{"id":65050,"date":"2015-11-18T00:01:39","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T06:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=65050"},"modified":"2015-11-18T22:55:03","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T04:55:03","slug":"notley-says-calgary-edmonton-among-5-alberta-cities-likely-to-take-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/11\/18\/notley-says-calgary-edmonton-among-5-alberta-cities-likely-to-take-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Notley says Calgary, Edmonton among 5 Alberta cities likely to take refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Edmonton<\/a>
Edmonton Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley (Photo from Notley’s Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON \u2013 Premier Rachel Notley says Calgary and Edmonton are expected to take in the bulk of Syrian refugees coming to Alberta, with the remainder spread out over three other cities \u2013 Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, and Red Deer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working to ensure that we\u2019re able to provide a seamless and effective settlement process,\u201d Notley told reporters Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are five cities where refugees would most likely land. The vast majority of them will be in Calgary and Edmonton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the mayors need to be fully on side with it, and I believe that they are and have it well in hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notley was flanked by Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson and Calgary\u2019s Naheed Nenshi at the legislature following a meeting to discuss a range of issues, including the refugee resettlement.<\/p>\n

The federal government has said it wants to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees across Canada by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Notley has said she expects Alberta will take between 2,500 and 3,000 of those fleeing the war-torn region.<\/p>\n

The federal government has already designated reception centres for the refugees in the five cities.<\/p>\n

Notley says final numbers for each municipality have not been worked out, but Iveson said they have enough to go on for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just understand the general order of magnitude, and that\u2019s been helpful to start to plan for housing and to get our agencies prepared for settlement,\u201d said Iveson.<\/p>\n

He said while social housing remains tight, the downturn in Alberta\u2019s oil-based economy has opened up opportunities in the general housing market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of room in that market to take people, provided the sufficient funding is in place to be able to purchase that housing from the market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there is capacity in both cities because of vacancy rates, and so that can be managed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue has sparked debate following last week\u2019s terrorist attacks that killed 129 in Paris.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has suggested the fast-track refugee resettlement program be suspended to ensure that terrorists don\u2019t manage to find their way into Canada.<\/p>\n

Alberta opposition Wildrose Leader Brian Jean has echoed Wall\u2019s sentiments, saying humanitarian concerns must be weighed against safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not be guided by rushed quotas and deadlines, but by ensuring the safety of Canadians as our paramount consideration,\u201d Jean told the house on Monday.<\/p>\n

Notley has said she expects Ottawa to conduct the requisite security checks, but doesn\u2019t see the need for delay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are prepared to accept the refugees that we\u2019ll be asked to accept by the federal government when that request comes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2013 Premier Rachel Notley says Calgary and Edmonton are expected to take in the bulk of Syrian refugees coming …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":22816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-65050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-dean-bennett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}