PM, Ford clash over refugees

OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired back at Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Thursday over the province’s suggestion that it no longer wants to pay to house asylum seekers — a sign that immigration is another issue threatening to divide the federal and provincial governments.

Trudeau sat down with the Ontario Progressive Conservative premier on Thursday for the first time since Ford was sworn in last week. The two leaders are already on track for a showdown over carbon pricing, with Ford moving to end Ontario’s cap-and-trade program while Ottawa insists that all provinces must enact some form of price on carbon.

Ahead of the meeting, a spokesperson for Ford upped the ante with a statement accusing Ottawa of encouraging “illegal border crossers to come into our country,” and suggesting Ontario wants to wash its hands of asylum seekers entering the province.

“This has resulted in a housing crisis, and threats to the services that Ontario families depend on,” spokesperson Simon Jefferies said in the statement. “This mess was 100 per cent the result of the federal government, and the federal government should foot 100 per cent of the bills.” The statement seemed to refer to a much-publicized tweet from Trudeau last year, which read “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith.”

Trudeau threw a barb of his own after his meeting with Ford, implying to reporters that the new premier doesn’t understand Canada’s refugee system. “It didn’t seem to me that the premier was quite as aware of our international obligations to the UN convention on refugees as he might have been, so I spent a little bit of time explaining how the asylum system works and how our system is supposed to operate,” he said.

Verbal sparring aside, it’s unclear what the Ford government’s declaration could mean for Ontario municipalities — especially Toronto — that are already struggling to accommodate an influx of asylum seekers.

Ontario cannot stop the flow of would-be refugees into the province, most of whom are entering Canada through an irregular border crossing in Quebec.

An official in Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen’s office said that according to the United Nations refugee convention, Canada must provide services to asylum seekers, including shelter, while they wait for their refugee claims to be heard. “We don’t have an option not to accommodate these people while we wait for the processing of their claims,” he said.

After the meeting, Trudeau said Ontario residents, and not the newly elected Progressive Conservative government, would receive the proceeds of a carbon price imposed on the province by the federal government.

The federal government has said it will “backstop” any province that doesn’t have a system in place, and has told provinces they must have submitted details of a carbon pricing plan by Sept. 1. But Ottawa has for months hinted it could return hundreds of millions in revenues it will raise directly to taxpayers, and not to governments that oppose its plan.

“Obviously, it’s better if we can work collaboratively with the provinces,” said Trudeau.

“But, as we’ve seen, if provinces do not wish to be part of the national plan, the federal government will move forward on bringing in a carbon price backstop and returning directly — in this case to Ontarians — the money collected on the pricing of pollution.”

Jefferies said Ford is making good on a promise to scrap the cap-and-trade carbon tax.

“Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario government will fight any efforts by the federal government to impose a carbon tax on the people of Ontario in court,” he said.