Still no sign of Syrian refugee family coming to town

After nearly a year, Timmins is still being shut down when it comes to relocating a Syrian refugee family to the city.

Admittedly, the Timmins Multicultural Centre’s Tom Baby is frustrated by the situation, but ensures the public they continue to work with partners, and are open to other avenues to get a family to town.

He says he’s working with an organization that matches families with groups such as the Multicultural Centre, and much of the response so far has been “very brief and not very descriptive for a number of reasons.”

“One being confidentiality and things like that,” Baby said, “They don’t tell us (a) whole lot (of) what’s going on.”

Timmins was matched with a family of six in February, with an arrival date in March.  That was delayed until June, but the Timmins Refugee Sponsorship Committee (TRSC) was cautioned further delays could occur.

In a release issued in May, the TRSC says with the revised processing times, Timmins isn’t expected to be matched with a second family until closer to the end of 2016, meaning the second refugee family would not be settled in Timmins until 2017.

The Richelieu Club announced at a Timmins city council meeting in December 2015 they are donating $30,000 to sponsor a second family.

Much of the public outcry has to do with the hefty sum of donations from the community, whether it’s cash or in-kind donations like furniture and apartment space.

“We’re still happy that the community has rallied around this,” Baby says, “And we preach some patience and understanding in this complicated and sometimes frustrating process.”

He adds much of the process is out of their control.

“We’re kind of stuck waiting to hear from different officials about things, but we still remain confident that we’re going to get this done.”