Canada pushes back deadline for bringing in 25,000 Syrian refugees

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OTTAWA – The Liberal government will not meet its Dec. 31 deadline to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees and now says it aims to complete the program by February.

The new target is to bring 10,000 people to Canada by year’s end and the remainder in the first two months of 2016.

The group will be a mix of government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees, all of whom will be identified by the end of next month.

Priority for government refugees will be given to complete families, women at risk, members of sexual minorities and single men only if they are identified as members of an LGBT community or are travelling with a family.

The federal government cost for the program is estimated at $678 million over the next six years, but doesn’t include additional funding that could be necessary for provinces and territories.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel says her party also wants to ensure that, despite the delay, proper security screening is done on potential refugees.

“The security of Canadians has to be put first as well and this is why we have, over the last couple of weeks, been pushing the government to ensure that adequate screening processes are at the heart of their plan.”

The government says all health and security screening will take place overseas and will involve multiple assessments and the collection of biometrics. Under regular immigation screening, a file that has some security concerns is sent for more detailed review. But Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says in this instance any red flags on the first pass will result in that person’s case being set aside entirely in order to speed the process.

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