When the government announced it was sponsoring a large number of Syrian refugees  I looked into the matter on behalf of my church who would surely have sponsored a family of the Syrian Christian refugees.  It would have been a good fit for them and for us.  We have had a large network of individuals who could have supported a family easily.  But sadly the government's position was if our church wanted to support the refugees it had to be a private sponsorship meaning we had to pay for the whole year.  Being in a financially difficult spot at the time my church couldn't take on that financial responsibility.  It's too bad though because had the federal government paid for a family and let my church take care of them they probably would have jobs and much improved English at this point.  It is in the government's long-term financial best interests to let churches and any other group of Canadians do this and support newly arriving refugees.  I hope they learn from this.