However, there are growing concerns that a large majority of the government-sponsored refugees will be drawn to cities such as Montreal and Toronto, where thousands of privately sponsored refugees are heading in coming weeks to join large, existing communities of Syrian Canadians.
Officials in the Atlantic provinces, including Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, argue that having refugees more uniformly distributed could provide a great opportunity for the region to deal with its demographic challenges.
"It ties in with the needs of Nova Scotia for immigrants to come to the province, so we think there can be not only a humanitarian and compassionate side to this, but also be very good for our economy," Mr. Savage said .