Nova Scotia not sure how many refugees it can take in

Immigration Minister Lena Diab says Nova Scotia is willing to accept more refugees, but she can't put a specific number on how many the province could take in.

She said government officials are currently working with settlement organizations to determine how many more refugees the province could successfully integrate into the province.

Since Jan. 1, 2014, the province has accepted 20 Syrian refugees, while the country as a whole has accepted 2,649 as of last week.

Worldwide attention is focused on Syria after the body of a Syrian toddler, Alan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish beach last week. His family had tried to flee the civil war in Syria by paying smugglers for a dangerous boat trip.

'We want to help them'

Diab said people across the country want to do more.

"We're a compassionate country. We're a compassionate province. People in this province are ready and wanting to step up and help out any way they can," she said.

In Canada, immigration is a federal responsibility, so the provinces are essentially at the mercy of the actions of the federal government.

"We want to help them. We need to help them. I don't believe they can do it alone.I believe the provinces have a large role to play. We want them to give us some of that freedom. We can do more on the ground here in our province," said Diab.

She said she would like the federal government to have more people on the ground in the regions where the refugees are, to speed up processing.

'Urgent meeting' after election

On Thursday morning, Diab wrote a letter to Chris Alexander, the federal immigration minister, reiterating the province's willingness to bring more refugees to Nova Scotia.

She said she is encouraged that every provincial and territorial minister responsible for immigration took part in a conference call Thursday afternoon.

Each minister laid out what their province or territory has been doing and what it wants to do to help alleviate the current situation with Syrian refugees. Diab said there is consensus on what needs to be done now.

"To request an urgent meeting with the federal government right after the election. In the meantime, to continue to share information with our counterparts across the country," she said.

The province has experience handling an influx of refugees. In 1999, Nova Scotia welcomed 2,400 Kosovars here.