More than $100M spent to house asylum seekers
Nearly 5,000 claimants transferred to Niagara Falls hotels in 12 months
The federal Liberal government has spent more than $100 million housing asylum seekers at Niagara Falls hotels during the last year.
Newly released figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada come after Niagara Falls Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli filed an order paper about the issue in the House of Commons in February.
Between Feb. 1, 2023 and Feb. 1, 2024, 4,896 asylum claimants were transferred to hotels in the city.
St. Catharines Liberal MP Chris Bittle said housing asylum seekers in Niagara Falls has come at a “sizable cost,” but “at the end of the day, we have a group of people who will contribute back to Canada, who will get jobs, who will work hard for this country.”
On average, refugee claimants were provided with 113 days of housing, at a daily cost of $208 per person, from April 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2023. Costs include rooms, meals, services and security. The total was roughly $115 million.
But the exact cost is unknown, as IRCC said information between February and March 2023 was “not systematically tracked in a centralized database.” The ministry has also not received most of the invoices from January 2024 to present.
The top 10 countries of origin were Nigeria, Venezuela, Kenya, Turkey, Colombia, Afghanistan, Uganda, Haiti, Pakistan and Congo.
Bittle said now that the IRCC’s response to Baldinelli’s order paper has started to make the rounds on social media, the “anti-refugee reflex” has begun to “bubble up,” which he described as “disappointing.”
“These are the type of people who start businesses, who settle in
On average, refugee claimants were provided with 113 days of housing, at a daily cost of $208 per person
communities and do incredible things. If we look at Niagara, it’s built on a series of refugees who have come, and we can’t imagine a Niagara without Ukrainians or Italians or Germans. We may not have called them refugees in the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s and beyond, but they were.”
Bittle said not all who have come to Niagara Falls will settle in the region, adding many “will move on to other communities.”
“I know when people are facing economic challenges, it’s very easy to blame others. It’s not refugees that are causing inflation, it’s not refugees that are causing economic difficulty. The investment has always paid for itself,” he said.
In an emailed statement, Baldinelli said Canada’s immigration and refugee systems are “broken” after eight years of Liberal government.
“Our system was once the envy of the world but is now filled with fraud, chaos, backlogs, and delays, disadvantaging genuine immigrants,” he said in the statement. “On top of that, (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau’s housing crisis has forced refugees to live under bridges or in hotels indefinitely, all at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of the taxpayer.”
On Feb. 1, 2,018 beds were in use across all IRCC hotel sites in Niagara Falls, while 2,787 beds were leased. The number of beds in each room can vary from one to six. Room capacity is determined through various factors such as family composition and special needs.
“IRCC does not monitor the location of claimants once they leave the hotels,” said IRCC in its response to Baldinelli’s inquiry. “IRCC can provide the number of claimants who have moved out of government funded hotel rooms in Niagara Falls, however, it can’t be confirmed that they have moved to private accommodations.”
Between Feb. 1, 2023 to Feb. 1, 2024, approximately 2,500 claimants departed government funded hotels in Niagara Falls.
“The federal government continues to assess the situation and how best provinces and municipalities can be supported in providing temporary accommodations to asylum claimants,” said IRCC.
“Access to federally funded hotels for asylum claimants is currently being provided by IRCC on a temporary basis, while IRCC has remaining hotel capacity.”
IRCC said responding to the needs of asylum claimants requires collaboration and engagement from all levels of government.
“The Government of Canada remains committed to working together in partnership with the municipalities, provinces, territories and key stakeholders to address these needs.”
The federal government came up with a hotel accommodation arrangement in Niagara Falls in July 2022 to alleviate pressures on Quebec, which experienced an increase in arrivals as thousands of migrants entered that province through an unofficial crossing at Roxham Road bordering New York State.
Last March, Canada and the United States reached an agreement to shut down the route.
The Niagara Falls arrangement caused some concern with local officials, with Mayor Jim Diodati saying it was making an already difficult housing situation more challenging and stretching an already strained social support system.
In an interview, Diodati said he believes the “$100 million is just the tip of the iceberg,” adding those figures don’t include costs to integrate newcomers in the community.
“Canada is a country of refugees, and that’s how this country has grown and how it’s known around the world as probably the most multicultural country in the world and our diversity is our strength,” he said.
“But having said that, asking some cities to carry significantly more of the burden than others is unreasonable.”
Diodati said Niagara Falls expects to “do our part” as it has a significant inventory of hotel rooms. However, he raised concerns about a lack of dialogue between the federal government and the municipality.
Diodati said he would like to see more of a “team Canada” approach to the issue.
“We need to both be talking and we need to be discussing solutions, not having them decided for us. Then, we need to discuss a plan going forward. You can’t make unilateral decisions if it’s a partnership. We need to work together,” he said.