Volunteers taking charge as Ukrainians arrive in the thousands

From a slow trickle in March and April to a steady stream today, Ukrainians fleeing Russia's brutal invasion of their country have been arriving in Ottawa in the hundreds, perhaps thousands.

By one estimate, they could account for more than one per cent of the city's population by year's end.

Helping welcome this sudden wave of newcomers is a network of settlement agencies and volunteer groups that, due to the unique circumstances, are often learning as they go.

"We're building the road as we drive on it," said Louisa Taylor, director of Refugee 613, a group formed in 2015 to help with the arrival of Syrian refugees and which is now helping co-ordinate efforts to welcome the Ukrainians.

That includes everything from finding them a safe place to stay to arranging health cards, opening bank accounts and enrolling their children in school. 

Sometimes the families — often mothers travelling alone with children or elderly parents — arrive with little notice. 

"It's just so incredibly chaotic," Taylor said.

Unlike the Syrians, most of whom arrived as government-assisted or privately sponsored refugees with immediate access to housing and other essential services here, the Ukrainians are arriving under a purpose-built visa program called Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET).

Under CUAET, Ukrainians can live, work and study in Canada for up to three years, but are largely left to their own devices once they've landed.

Last week the federal government announced one-time financial assistance and is soon expected to announce details of temporary hotel accommodation for new CUAET arrivals.

Based on a survey of CUAET applicants by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, it's estimated as many as 3,200 Ukrainians have already arrived in Ottawa, and as many as 12,500 could be here by the end of 2022.

But Taylor says no one really knows how many are here or how many more are on their way.

"There's no tracking or accounting for who's coming. It's just like, how do we know how many tourists are in Ottawa on a given day?" she said.

"Nobody knows. What we do know is there's a heck of a lot of people already here and more are coming, and we're not prepared."