EXCEPTIONAL MEASURES
Task force set up for refugees
An intergovernmental task force has been formed to handle the thousands of asylum seekers crossing into Canada, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau announced Thursday at the temporary camp at the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle point of entry.
The task force, which Garneau will chair, will include Quebec Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Kathleen Weil, Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Laura Albanese, Bourassa MP Emmanuel Dubourg, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen.
“We have to be able to adjust constantly,” said Weil, explaining the purpose of the task force.
When asked, Garneau said it was too early to provide specific figures regarding how much it costs the government to receive, process and house the newly arrived asylum seekers.
The federal government, not provincial, pays for much of the costs associated with health care and social services, Weil noted.
Garneau and Weil also announced that a new reception centre in Cornwall, Ont., will be used as a temporary shelter. The Nav Centre has 300 rooms that can become available, Garneau explained. Rooms can accommodate more than one person, Weil added, thereby increasing the centre’s potential capacity. Garneau said tents could be installed on the centre’s grounds if need be.
Using the centre would buy time to find permanent solutions in Montreal, Weil said.
Another temporary shelter in Laval will be made available to asylum seekers next week, said Francine Dupuis, associate executive director of the CIUSSS Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
The temporary shelter, which used to be a seniors residence, is located in the Chomedey district, and is expected to be able to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have intercepted more than 3,700 asylum seekers crossing into Quebec since the beginning of August, Chief Supt. Claude Castonguay told a news conference near the Lacolle camp held with officials from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) before Garneau’s announcement. Castonguay called the wave of refugee claimants unprecedented: “We’ve never seen such numbers coming in.”
Information released on Thursday shows the RCMP intercepted 2,996 asylum seekers in Quebec in July. That is up from June, when 781 asylum seekers crossed illegally.
August’s numbers represent between 200 and 300 asylum seekers crossing into Canada per day, said Patrick Lefort, regional director general for Quebec at the CBSA.
The temporary shelter, about 45 minutes south of Montreal, is housing 1,000 to 1,200 asylum seekers, Lefort said.
Louis Dumas, general director of the IRCC, told the news conference that those seeking refugee status are held on-site for three to four days before being sent to Montreal or to another province. Families or those with health conditions are generally expedited, he said. CBSA officers conduct thorough interviews and risk assessments, he said.
Few asylum seekers — less than one per cent — do not pass the initial assessment and are moved to an immigration holding centre in Laval, Lefort said. To expedite the process, 30 CBSA agents from across Quebec and Canada have already made their way to Lacolle to assist with identifying the refugee claimants, Lefort said.
During the news conference, each representative of the government bodies responsible for managing asylum seekers reiterated that crossing the border anywhere but at a point of entry is illegal.
While it is strongly discouraged, Dumas restated that “anyone claiming asylum in Canada also has the right to due process.”
To keep the process moving along, Garneau also announced the addition of another floor for the Montreal independent Immigration and Review Board processing centre, which he said would allow for another 20 officers to work on reviewing cases.
Weil and Garneau said they would continue to work with Canadian consulates in the U.S. to correct misinformation that is spreading via social media about Canada’s immigration and refugee policies.