In July 2013 , Canada promised to resettle 1,300 refugees by 2015 and pledged $ 100 million in humanitarian aid . " 1,063 Syrian refugees are already here in Canada . The rest will travel in the coming weeks " ( Kevin Menard , spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Alexander ) . and the government agreed to resettle 11,300 refugees by the end of 2017 , and then 10,000 by September 2016 . Before the 2015 federal election , the Liberal Party of Canada promised to bring 25,000 refugees by the end of 2015 . After the election , the newly formed Liberal government failed to meet its self-imposed deadline and it was moved to February 2016 and began further screening in the aftermath of the 2015 Paris attacks . Canadians have expressed considerable interest in receiving refugees and Canadian politicians and business leaders , including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met the first two flights on 10 and 13 December 2015 . At the end of 2015 , Canada had arranged 96 flights to airlift refugees from their host countries , welcomed 35,000 refugees into 275 communities across the country , and agreed to resettle 35 – 50,000 refugees by the end of 2016 . Resettlement arrangements for additional refugees and social integration of arriving refugees is ongoing . The cost over the subsequent six years was estimated between C$ 564 to C$ 678 million . Justin Trudeau stated that the most vulnerable would be accepted first , including families , children and members of the LGBT communities . Among the Syrian refugees accepted for resettlement are thousands of ethnic Armenians . On 27 February 2016 Canada met its goal of resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees . Canada continues to process applications and had accepted 40,081 refugees from November 2015 to January 2017 . The government maintains at least two programmes for resettlement : refugees can be sponsored either under the Government-Assisted Refugee ( GAR ) programme , or under the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program ( PSR )
2015 Paris attacks
November 2015 Paris attacks
Refugees of the Syrian Civil War