Preparations are underway at CFB Borden and CFB Meaford to accommodate housing for the possible arrival of Syrian refugees.

Canada’s Department of National Defence says troops are winterizing both bases, as well as preparing beds and kitchen spaces. At Borden, that work is being done at Blackdown Cadet Training Centre.

However, officials stress Syrian refugees may never step foot in either base. DND was unable to give a time line or how many refugees could make their way to Borden or Meaford. That decision will be made by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

"We have roughly 220 types of small accommodations that can be used, some for families of up to six, others for families up to 10,” says Col. Carl Doyon, base commander of CFB Borden. “So that’s the area of magnitude we are looking in terms of a possibility to accommodate the Syrian refugees."

On Tuesday, the federal Liberal government announced they wouldn’t be able bring in 25,000 refugees by year’s end. Instead the government will resettle 10,000 refugees by the end of the year and the remainder in the first two months of 2016.

The group will be a mix of government-assisted and privately sponsored refugees, all of whom will be identified by the end of next month.

The Canadian government is working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as well as the Turkish government to find suitable candidates.

Priority for government refugees will be given to complete families, women at risk, members of sexual minorities and single men only if they are identified as gay, bisexual or transgender or are travelling as part of a family.

Private sponsors have no restrictions on whom they can bring over and the majority of refugees expected to arrive by the end of the year will be coming via private groups.

All health and security screening will take place overseas and once that's complete, refugees will be flown to Toronto and Montreal, largely on chartered aircraft.

From there, they will be spread across 36 different destination cities which already have resettlement programs in place.

Temporary accommodation will be provided by the military if required, but the government aims to have lodging in place in the host cities and towns.

With files from The Canadian Press.