HALIFAX—Staff at Canadian Forces bases across the country are counting beds and making tentative plans to house and feed thousands of Syrian refugees expected to arrive in Canada in the coming weeks.
Capt. Evelyne Lemire, a spokeswoman at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, said they have not yet been told they will receive some of the 25,000 refugees the Canadian government has promised to accept by February.
But she said they have been asked to see how many they could accommodate at the sprawling base as part of what the military has dubbed Operation Provision.
“We’ve been asked to look at our options, our accommodations, and so on, like the numbers,” she said from the base near Oromocto. “We’re ready to receive any Syrian refugees, if we’re called on to do that.”
Lemire said the base at Gagetown is looking at everything from how to provide food and medical services to allocating space for religious practice for refugees from Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.
It’s expected that bases in Quebec and Ontario will be called on initially to provide interim lodging for refugees, with bases and wings in other provinces expected to follow suit after the first wave of Syrians arrives.
