P.E.I. is likely to play a role in resettling some of the refugees recently approved for a federal program.
Ottawa recently approved the resettling of 500 more refugees under the Government-Assisted Refugees Program. The program is targeted at people stuck in refugee camps.
Madan Kumar Giri is all too familiar with refugee camps. He and his family spent 16 years in one of the refugee camp in Nepal, before resettling on P.E.I. four years ago. Giri and his family were forced out of their country for political reasons.
"We have a very nice system here in Canada," Giri told CBC News Thursday.
"We have a place to live in, we have a country. As a whole we feel very, very happy to be here."
The Giris were allowed to come to the Island under the Government-Assisted Refugees Program. There are between 65 and 70 refugees who have come to the Island under the program. More are now expected.
"Citizenship and Immigration … would have to look at whether or not, in discussions with us, whether we could accommodate more," said Craig Mackie of the P.E.I. Association for Newcomers, "making sure we could look after them properly and settle them."
Mackie said the association helps refugees with a broad range of issues, from learning English to learning how to use a dishwasher.
Some cost to province
It's too early to say how many new refugees could come to the Island, said Paul Snow of Citizenship and Immigration Canada on P.E.I. It will partly be a matter of how many the province can afford. "There are of course costs that the province ends up being responsible for as well: medicare costs and social costs in schools and things like that," said Snow.
"On the other hand there are benefits to the province of having a higher population and more cosmopolitan international population."
Snow said the federal government is willing to provide more funding as more refugees settle here.
