The New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and the Moncton Fire Department are running an Incident Command Centre (ICS) to help 315 Syrian refugees get settled.
The centre was set up in mid-February once the flow of refugees became too much to handle for the Multicultural Association of Greater Moncton.
The ICS traditionally is used by the Natural Resources Department to help deal with forest fires.
“We can adapt ICS very easily to any emergency,” said Chief Eric Arsenault of the Moncton Fire Department. “It's being used now for disasters and managing disasters at the municipal level, but even in a humanitarian effort is what we're doing here is welcoming people from another country.”
Sixty-eight Syrian families have arrived in Moncton since Dec. 29. Forty-six of those families have been placed in apartments, and 22 families remain in hotels.
Over 110 children have registered in area schools.
City officials are asking residents to continue being generous with donations for Syrian refugees.
“Whether it's lamps, whether it's kitchen chairs, whether it's other types of furniture – we certainly welcome all of those donations,” said Isabelle LeBlanc, spokesperson for the City of Moncton.
LeBlanc says the need is so great, the call for help is being expanded.
“We're looking at some of our neighbouring communities outside of Greater Moncton to say it would be great if you could certainly organize a drive within your community, and then we can certainly go pick up the items then,” said LeBlanc.
The city is also looking for local families to be paired with Syrian families. The idea is to help them adapt to things like grocery shopping and using public transportation.
“What we'd like to have is a two-to-one ratio – two Canadian families to one Syrian family,” said Arsenault.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.
