Toronto Mayor John Tory huddled Thursday morning with religious leaders to see how the city can help with the migrant crisis.

He says they came up with several ideas, including a housing registry where residents could offer up spare bedrooms on a temporary basis, another registry where they could offer time or items such as furniture, and a backup insurance fund that could be tapped into when private donors cannot private money or support to a refugee they’d agreed to sponsor.

The mayor says the city cannot afford to take the usual steps to request a staff report and seek city council approval.

”We can’t take the time to wait for the executive committee and wait for the report.  Rather we must get on with asking people to establish some of these things because they can be done relatively expeditiously and at very little cost.”

Tory adds there’s little he can do as mayor to ensure Syrian refugees are granted asylum, but there’s plenty he can do to help those that do come here, get established.