Nova Scotia prints pamphlets in Arabic, for new Canadians

Tuesday, May 3, 2016, 2:23 PM - Arabic-speaking immigrants in Nova Scotia are receiving help to prepare for emergencies during Emergency Preparedness Week thanks to a new initiative put forth by local officials.

Nova Scotia's emergency management minister, Zach Churchill, and immigration minister, Lena Diab, revealed on Tuesday new Arabic translations of brochures on how to use 911, as well as how to prepare for emergencies.

There is already a link in Arabic on how to prepare for emergencies on the website for Nova Scotia's emergency management office.

"I want all Nova Scotians to be ready for emergencies. By reaching out to new Arabic-speaking Nova Scotians in their own language we hope to increase their participation in emergency preparedness," Churchill said in a press release.

The province will be working with the Immigration Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS) in order to make printed Arabic brochures available to all immigrants.

"There's a lot of information that people are accessing in those first few months, so some of it goes by the wayside. So now, people can see something in Arabic. That actually is for me, as an Arabic speaker. You know, I can see that, that means that's for me. And it also means that somebody's taken the time and the energy to actually translate that into Arabic, so, I'm part of this community now," ISANS director, Gerry Mills, told The Weather Network.

In total, 374,000 people in Canada speak Arabic, according to Statistics Canada.

As of February 29, 2016, Canada has welcomed more than 25,000 Syrian refugees. In Nova Scotia, 1,500 more refugees are expected by the year's end, according to The Canadian Press.

There will be a growth of new Canadian immigrants over the next few years with approximately 8,500 more government-supported refugees expected to arrive this year across Canada.

SOURCE: The Canadian Press | Statistics Canada | Government of Canada | Nova Scotia EMO