$400K FOR LIVING ON ROXHAM RD.
NOISE, TRAFFIC
OTTAWA • The federal government is planning to pay just over $400,000 to residents around a rural Quebec road where an influx of asylum seekers has been crossing the border illegally since 2017.
The lump-sum payments are meant to compensate those living near Roxham Road for the increase in traffic and noise levels related to the thousands of irregular asylum seekers who have entered Quebec at the unofficial crossing point in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle.
The federal government will make payments to 45 households, according to a document tabled in the House of Commons on Monday in response to a question from Conservative MP Ted Falk. Eight of those households will receive $25,000 each, as they are closest to the U.S. border. Another 15 households slightly further away will receive $10,000 each, and 22 located along the thoroughfare leading to the nearest highway will receive $2,500 each, for a total payout of $405,000.
According to the document, the government has budgeted up to $485,000 for the compensation, in case other eligible households are identified. A spokesperson for Border Security Minister Bill Blair confirmed on Wednesday that the payment process isn’t yet complete.
Blair announced the payments last December.
Nearly 42,000 asylum seekers have entered Canada from the U.S. between official ports of entry since 2017, and 96 per cent of those have come across at Roxham Road, placing it at the centre of one of the most controversial issues this federal government has faced. However, the numbers are substantially lower so far this year than they were at this time last year — 800 irregular asylum seekers entered Quebec last month, compared to nearly 1,500 in February 2018.
Refugee claimants are entering Canada illegally between border crossings because of a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement. The agreement states that asylum seekers must make their refugee claims in whichever country they enter first, Canada or the U.S.
Border officials can turn away would-be refugees if they try to enter Canada from the U.S. at regular ports of entry, but the agreement only applies to official border crossings. As a result, thousands of asylum claimants began entering Canada at Roxham Road in 2017, after the Trump administration announced its intention to end the temporary protected status it had granted Haitians after a massive earthquake in 2010. Last year, a new wave of Nigerian claimants began crossing the border, after travelling to the U.S. on visitor visas.