OTTAWA—The federal government signalled Tuesday that Canada could welcome as many as 50,000 refugees by the end of 2016.

Immigration Minister John McCallum was given a better idea late Tuesday of the number of refugees the provinces and territories are prepared to take in through Dec. 31, 2016, saying the numbers could be much higher than expected.

“The number of refugees is likely to be in the order of 35,000 to 50,000,” McCallum said after a face-to-face meeting with several of his provincial counterparts.

“That’s not yet in the official plan, but based on the discussions we’ve been having, it’s likely to be in that order.”

Planes filled with Syrian refugees could be arriving in Canada late next week after Ottawa said it was looking for private airlines to fly people in Jordan and Turkey as early as Dec. 10.

Toronto’s Pearson airport is preparing a rarely used terminal that will be dedicated to processing the refugees.

The infield terminal, which sits between the airport’s two major runways, was built to handle extra capacity when Pearson was undergoing major terminal renovations.

Where sponsored refugees are going

It is only used now for specific occasions, such as when world leaders came to Toronto for the G20 summit in 2010, and most recently when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Prime Minister Stephen Harper were in town in April.

The Canada Border Services Agency will oversee the processing of the refugees at the terminal.

The federal government had already said it expected a mix of government-sponsored and privately-sponsored refugees totalling 25,000 by Feb. 29. But the Liberals promised during the election campaign to bring in 25,000 through government sponsorships.

Living up to that commitment would mean a total of 35,000 refugee resettlements in three dozen cities across the country, at a minimum, said McCallum.

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He told a Tuesday panel hosted by Gov. Gen. David Johnston that he’s concerned the current level of enthusiasm among Canadians for bringing in refugees will be lost if governments and aid organizations don’t properly communicate.

“There’s nothing that will turn the momentum off more than if people want to help, and they get no answer at the other end of the phone or they don’t know who to phone,” said McCallum.

•with files from Vanessa Lu and Alex Boutilier