Ontario overestimated cost of irregular border crossers, AG finds

TORONTO — Ontario significantly overstated the costs of providing services to asylum seekers coming into Canada from the United States, the province’s auditor general said Wednesday.

In a special report, Bonnie Lysyk said the $200 million estimate given by the governing Progressive Conservatives in 2018 represented the cost of providing services to all refugee claimants, not just so-called “irregular” border crossers.

She said the minister of social services at the time, Lisa MacLeod, was given inaccurate information by civil servants.

“Senior government officials need to ensure the accuracy of the information provided to government for public announcements and decisionmaking,” Lysyk said in a statement Wednesday.

MacLeod had formally requested $200 million from Ottawa to cover costs she said were incurred by the province and its municipalities as a result of an influx of asylum seekers arriving from the U.S.

Lysyk said her office found the government spent roughly $81 million on services for irregular asylum seekers between April 1, 2017 — when the federal government first started tracking their arrival — and July 31, 2018.

When asked about the report Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said his government did not intentionally mislead the public and blamed the federal government for leaving the province to shoulder the costs of what he called “illegal immigration.”