Saskatchewan sponsors express frustration as wait for refugees continues

Some private sponsors of refugees say they're frustrated by delays bringing people to Canada and say the money they've raised is being used up.

Immigration Minister John McCallum announced Thursday that Ottawa will process an additional10,000 privately sponsored refugees by the end of the year.

• RELATED:McCallum promise to boost privately sponsored Syrian refugees spawns confusion

The government had previously scaled back efforts having reached its target of 25,000 Syrian refugees in February.

There was outcry from sponsorship groups because they all had already raised money, rented apartments or houses andbought supplies.

Last fall, Regina's Grace Jasper recruited 30 people to privately sponsor a Syrian refugee family.

In January, the group rented a three-bedroom bungalow in Regina.

"We really fell in love with this neighbourhood when we found this house," Jasper said. "Across the street, there's a mosque, and there's a number of schools in the neigbourhood."

The house costs $1,500 a month. According to Jasper, the government stopped sending lists of potential refugees and ignored their requests.

Jasper thinks it's strange there are Syrian refugees staying in hotels at the same time they have a house sitting empty.

"We thought that many times," she said.

"In fact, I wrote to the minister. I said, 'If you've got a government-sponsored family, give them to us and we'll save you money."

Yesterday's announcement is giving her hope that Ottawa will help them to welcome a family.

Skepticism in Saskatoon

In Saskatoon, private sponsor JoAnne Jaffe, is more skeptical.

Jaffe belongs to the Children of Abraham, a partnership of Jewish and Muslim organizations. That grouphas also paidthree months rent for refugees who haven't arrived yet.

"Honestly, we've been met with [a] pretty big silence at this point," she said. "So really, we don't really know what's going on. We have no timeline."

Meanwhile, to save money, Jasper's group has decided to rent out its house to pipeline workers.

They're still hoping for refugees but will need to give their new renters a month's notice.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada responds

In an email to CBC News, Citizenship and Immigration Canada said that theoverall response to the refugee crisis must be done in a "sustainable and ongoing way."

It says it will continue to accept new refugees in 2016, as well as finalize the ones in the original 25,000 that were processed but not completed.

"2016 is expected to be the most ambitious resettlement year in Canadian history," the email reads."We have already tripled the number of privately sponsored refugees to be settled in 2016. It is important to remember that this is for all refugee populations, not only Syrians, and that other refugee populations which may have been in process longer, need to be processed as well."

Canada's other multi-year refugee commitments include those forCongolese,Eritreanand Colombian people, in addition to others.