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Several Ottawa agencies are calling for a pause in the flow of Syrian refugees coming into the city, saying that they need to get better organized to handle the numbers.

The recent arrival of hundreds of government-sponsored refugees has created a “bottleneck” in finding temporary housing, Leslie Emory, executive director of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, said Monday.

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“It’s a temporary crunch because the flow has been so quick,” she said. “The time just needs to be spread out a bit. It’s just been this huge influx over a two-week period.”

Carl Nicholson, executive director of the Catholic Centre for Immigrants in Ottawa, reiterated that view in a CBC News interview. “We need a little pause (in the resettlement program) right now,” he told CBC, “just to kind of get ourselves a little better organized.”

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister John McCallum called on Canadians to show even more support during this “critical phase” as Canada takes on more government-sponsored refugees.