OTTAWA CHARTERS FLIGHTS TO BRING FLEEING UKRAINIANS TO CANADA
May 11, 2022
By Bob Komsic
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Three Canadian charter flights to bring Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion will depart Poland in the coming weeks.
The first will leave for Winnipeg May 23, the second will depart for Montreal May 29 and the third flight to Halifax will take off June 2, with seating available on a first come, first served basis.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says the three flights are in addition to commercial options available and subsidized by a special fund.
Ottawa says thousands of refugees have arrived in Canada since the start of the war, and it’s unclear how many more will come.
”We’ve seen so far about 92,000 approvals through the emergency program largely since the end of March and it’s being processed now quite quickly so I expect that number to continue to grow,” said Fraser.
”It’s difficult to predict where it’s going to end up because what we’re hearing on the ground is there’s a lot of people who are taking it out on a speculative basis so to speak to monitor the situation on the ground in Ukraine, to figure out whether it’s something they’re going to need to avail themselves of.”