Irregular border crossers cost at least $270M

The federal government has spent over $270 million on irregular border crossers over the last year and a half, according to government figures submitted to the parliamentary budget office.

The figures were requested by parliamentary budget officer Jean-Denis Frechette in early July and were recently released to members of the immigration committee.

All four agencies involved in dealing with irregular migration submitted amounts they have spent every month since early 2017 when the influx of asylum seekers began to ramp up. The total adds up to more than $270 million up to the end of June.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which manages border security, reports it spent about $54.5 million between April 2017 and June 2018. The agency said it did not have comprehensive data prior to that period because the numbers of irregular asylum seekers in previous years were small and mainly only being tracked manually.

The Immigration Department, meanwhile, has spent over $117 million since early 2017 and the RCMP says it has spent over $7.3 million since June 2017.

The Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), an arms-length agency that adjudicates refugee claims and appeals, began tracking irregular migrants in February 2017. Since then, the agency has spent just under $17 million to process 18,000 claims in 2017 and 11,760 claims so far in 2018.

Based on the volume of claims in 201718, the IRB estimates it will receive a total of 20,000 refugee claims from irregular migrants this year and another 20,000 next year. It has projected the cost to process all of those claims at $73.6 million.

The PBO had asked all four agencies to also include projected costs for irregular migration for the next five years. The CBSA, RCMP and Immigration departments all said they could not provide future cost projections because the numbers of border crossers often fluctuate and are unpredictable.

“Under Canadian laws and international conventions that Canada is signatory to, the government of Canada is obligated to provide due process to individuals on Canadian soil who are seeking protection,” Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen wrote in his responding letter to Frechette.