Québec continues to wage a war of words with Ottawa for reimbursement on Canada’s asylum seeker crisis.
Since 2021, the province has spent over $1 billion to care for its growing number of refugee claimants. Over half (55%) reside in Québec, or 160,651 people out of 289,047, as reported by CBC News.
Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette told reporters Tuesday it is “completely unreasonable” to expect them to provide services in excess of their capacity. They ponied up $576.9 million last year to cover the cost of social services for asylum claimants. That is in addition to $470 million for the previous two years.
As of writing, neither government has reached an agreement on appropriate levels of compensation. Although Ottawa sent $100 million to Quebec three weeks ago to house migrants, Fréchette said the support is “clearly insufficient.”
Québec is becoming increasingly agitated by Canada’s influx of refugees as the province nears a “breaking point.” Premier François Legault penned a letter Wednesday to express his frustrations with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.https://t.co/RRn8JIdqrK
— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) January 19, 2024
Meanwhile, Québec is also urging Ottawa to implement a more ‘equitable’ system where the burden of caring for migrants is distributed more evenly throughout Canada.
Fréchette suggested Atlantic Canada could do more, as only 380 asylum seekers resided there last year, compared to 65,570 in la belle province.
The increasing financial burden on Québec forced its taxpayers to spend 127% more on last-resort financial assistance for refugees between 2022 and 2023, or $163 million to $370 million. That correlates with a rise in the number of requests for social assistance last month.
During that period, the said requests rose from 27,099 in October 2022 to 43,174 in October 2023, according to ministry data. Additional data from the Department of Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity revealed social assistance claims for asylum seekers also rose 27% year-over-year.
A spokesperson for Quebec’s Department of Immigration broke down the ethnic backgrounds of asylum seekers since Roxham Road closed in March 2023, and they include Mexico, India, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal.
This is a developing story.
