Refugees need beds

Canada is a welcoming country for refugees — as we should and must be. Amid a global migrant crisis and American retreat on immigration, with a declining birth rate and shrinking labour force, now is the time to open our borders wider.

But doing so effectively and responsibly requires investments in municipal infrastructure and services to help newcomers integrate and succeed.

Toronto, which is a particularly popular destination for immigrants, has reaped the benefits, becoming a truly global and dynamic city. At the same time, it disproportionately bears the pressures of a rising population. Yet the governments that set our immigration policies have not always helped the city manage the influx.

Consider that on Monday Toronto’s community development committee recommended city council approve spending an additional $20 million to extend hotel and motel contracts into 2018 to house refugee claimants.

As a city report makes clear the need is great. Between February 2016 and September 2017 the average number of refugees staying in city shelters on a daily basis increased from 456 to 1,271.

That means refugees now account for 25 per cent of beds in the already over-flowing shelter system, where some may find themselves sleeping on mats or chairs while staff seek a bed for them.

Still, the costs of providing more beds for homeless refugees falls squarely on the city’s shoulders, as Councillor Joe Mihevc lamented.

Until 2013, for example, the province covered 80 per cent of the cost of any additional beds in the system. Now provincial funding is fixed, no matter the increase, and Mihevc says federal funding has come up short.

Toronto is not alone in facing added shelter costs as the influx of refugees into the country increases. Montreal, for example, had to open up its Olympic Stadium to house refugees this summer after its shelter system reached capacity in July.

The current crunch in Toronto has once again exposed the inadequacy of the city’s shelter system. The staff report says the need to pay for more beds in hotels and motels for refugee claimants is just a stop-gap measure. The city needs to “deal with (this issue) in a more systemic way.”

But to do so it needs a helping hand from Queen’s Park and Ottawa. The buck for taking care of refugees shouldn’t stop at the door of city hall. The Wynne and Trudeau governments rightly determined that now is a time for openness. Now they must pay their fair share to ensure that newcomers have the best chance to contribute and succeed.