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Windsor officials called out the federal government Wednesday in a dispute over how much cities should pay to feed and house the ballooning number of refugee claimants entering Canada.
Mayor Drew Dilkens said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently announced it wants provinces and municipalities to increasingly shoulder the costs of supporting the refugee claimants it lets into the country.
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By 2027, Dilkens said Windsor would be on the hook for 100 per cent of costs for claimants arriving in the city.
“We’re saying ‘no,’” said Dilkens. “Today was about putting our stake in the ground and saying, federal government, you have a responsibility to fund this. You cannot offload and download the financial costs of putting people up in a hotel and paying for their meals while you’re adjudicating their cases. It’s your responsibility to fund that. It’s not a responsibility we’re willing to accept.”
Dilkens and Andrew Daher, the city’s commissioner of Human and Health Services, staged a media conference at city hall on Wednesday to make the city’s position clear.
More than 2,300 asylum claimants were temporarily housed in Windsor hotels between January 2023 and Dec. 20, 2024. IRCC told the Star it is moving away from that model in a “transition from an emergency response to a more sustainable temporary housing model.”
“IRCC has scaled back accommodations in hotels in various provinces due to success transitioning them into community housing,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We are also supporting efforts from partners that will help in the movement from an emergency response to a sustainable temporary housing model for asylum claimants. These emergency models are less effective and more costly to Canadians over the long term.”
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Since 2017, the federal government said it has given the city $106,000 under the federal Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) to help cover costs for supporting asylum claimants.
The municipality and other local agencies have helped refugee claimants with various necessities such as acquiring health cards, getting legal assistance, finding jobs, and enrolling children in school.
The city said it will also apply this month to recover 2024 expenses.
But Dilkens said the federal government has given notice that changes are coming to the system.
The government has reworked IHAP, with more than $1 billion available over three years for municipalities, provinces, and non-profits to support asylum claimants.
“We recognize that when members of this vulnerable population quickly get the services they need, they are better able to support themselves, and ultimately contribute to Canadian communities,” IRCC said. “That is why the federal government committed $1.1B to creating sustainable and cost-effective solutions to minimize costs to Canadians and improve outcomes for claimants.”
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But Dilkens said it comes with increasing cost-sharing requirements. If the city meets certain criteria, he said it would have to pay five per cent of the cost this year, 25 per cent in 2026, and the full cost for 2027 and beyond.
Without meeting the criteria, the city’s share would be 25 per cent for year one and 50 per cent in year two before hitting 100 per cent in 2027. Either way, the city said the cost would be in the millions.
“We’re simply saying we’re not even applying,” said Dilkens.
“The municipality is not prepared to step up and step into the financial shoes of the federal government to fund the folks that are staying here. We’re just not.”
The federal government has been paying to put up refugee claimants in hotels while they wait for the cases to be adjudicated. At the peak, asylum claimants filled 439 rooms in three local hotels.
Daher said the government recently gave “eviction notices” to 846 asylum claimants who have been living in hotels for six months or more. The federal government currently pays for 728 asylum claimants to live at two local hotels.
IRCC said the hotel stays it funds “were always intended to be temporary.”
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“This is made clear to all claimants upon entry, as well as community partners, through our Terms and Conditions of stay,” the IRCC said. “During their stay, asylum claimants are provided with resources and assistance to find housing, employment, education and other necessities, and they are expected to transition to independent living as soon as possible.”
As it moves away from that approach, Daher said the federal government wants proposals for new programs.
“We’re struggling with the challenges we have here in Windsor around homelessness, mental health and addiction crisis,” he said. “We don’t even have enough dollars to deal with that. And now they’re downloading this to municipalities and the province to say you’ve got to kick in some dollars.”
The city said the hotel “evictions” could worsen that homelessness crisis with “dramatic impacts” on the city’s shelter system and social housing capacity.
“It’s only going to put more pressure on those systems, which are already taxed,” said Dilkens.
The federal government said it is not aware of any refugee claimant who ended up in a city shelter after receiving notice to move out of a hotel.
“IRCC is committed to working with the city of Windsor so that no claimant is left homeless as part of this process, and IRCC is available to provide support during this transition period.”
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