LISTEN: Ukrainian Canadian Congress says few government supports are in place for thousands of Ukrainian refugees coming to Canada

Weeks after the federal government announced Canada would accept an unlimited number of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) is warning that there are few if any supports in place to help settle tens of thousands of people once they arrive at Canadian airports.

UCC national secretary Cassian Soltykevych tells CityNews that since the initial announcement of an expedited visa process for Ukrainians there has been almost no communication from federal immigration minister Sean Fraser on other critical supports for refugees landing in Canada.

“On Monday there was a tweet from minister Fraser that said they were going to provide language training, orientation, employment assistance and some supports at the airport,” Soltykevych said. “But again, this was a tweet, and going on 24, 48 hours now we still don't have any details.”

According to Soltykevych, there have been over 75,000 visa applications from Ukrainians looking to come to Canada and the federal government has said there is a two week turn-around time on those applications which means large numbers of Ukrainians could start arriving as early as the end of this week.

“Every day that passes we don't hear from the federal government means that our communities across the country and Canadians as a whole across the country can't act and can't prepare and can't be organized and helping people,” he said. 

Listen to the full segment on CityNews' The Rob Snow Show from Wednesday, March 30: